Crimes Committed by Chinese Communist Party Officials in Hubei Province “Legal Education Centre”

The Hubei Province Brainwashing Centre (officially called the Hubei Province Legal Education Centre) is controlled and manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in Hubei Province, and has participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners since 2002.

This brainwashing centre is located next to the labour camp for women, separated only by a wall. The brainwashing centre looks the same as the labour camp, with high walls on four sides, one and a half buildings and 10 acres of grassland inside the walls. Officials of this centre are specifically trained to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

Officials from the 610 Office of the CCP central government often went to this brainwashing centre. They appointed reporters to conduct special interviews and promoted it as being the model brainwashing centre across the country. Officials from the 610 Office publicly authorised this facility to mistreat arrested practitioners. All they wanted was results, which meant “transformation” [forcibly renounce Falun Gong]. Meanwhile, they enticed officials with high salaries, bonuses, and promotions. Thus, officials in that centre treated practitioners especially brutally.

The working staff in this centre consisted of four groups: government officials, assistants, security guards, and collaborators¹. The government officials were from the 610 Office and prison. The collaborators were from society or from the prison. The assistants were former Falun Gong practitioners, who had been deceived by the CCP's lies and had been “transformed” due to great pressure. The security guards were temporary workers hired from police officer schools.

Zhang Xingfu, the head of the brainwashing centre; Jiang Chengfang, the secretary of the CCP committee; Liu Yongjun, the political commissar; Zhou Shuiqing, the director of the labour camp; Zhang Xiuming, the deputy director of the labour camp; and Commander Gong Jian created a horrible atmosphere in the centre in order to force practitioners to give up their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

The following are some of the torture methods used in this brainwashing centre: standing for long times, handcuffing and hanging up, shocking with electric batons, hitting against the wall, violent beatings, and more.

The brainwashing centre in Hubei Province is a four-storied building. The second floor is where Falun Gong practitioners are being viciously tortured. Police officers or a gang of thugs violently beat practitioners there every day. The most commonly used tactics are: grabbing a practitioner's hair while slapping him or her in the face; hitting them on the head; hitting the person against the wall and choking him or her; kicking the feet, treading on the feet; slapping the person's mouth with a broom; beatings with various implements; cursing and insulting practitioners at will; not letting them speak or sleep; denying use of the restroom; forcing them to stand still for a long time; handcuffing them and hanging them up; and shocking them with electric batons. Officials did not even allow practitioners to eat, and instead claimed that they were going on a hunger strike. When practitioners felt very weak and couldn't bear it anymore, officials force fed them with liquid food. They forced practitioners to watch videos that defamed Falun Gong and extolled the CCP. Those officials held meetings and discussed how to abuse practitioners during the next round. Their means vary according to different practitioners. In order to “transform” practitioners, they used every trick that they could think of.

First, they dragged practitioners from police cars and detained them separately in isolated cells, where paramilitary police officers tortured them secretly. In an attempt to “transform” practitioners and force them to give up their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, they threatened and deceived them; tried to poison their minds; cursed, beat, surrounded, and attacked them; and deprive them of sleep.

Each practitioner is detained separately in an isolated room. About five “assistants” and two collaborators are organised to “transform” one practitioner. They force that person to listen to distorted theories of the CCP and to watch videos that slander Falun Gong and its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. Instigated by police officers, these people surround a practitioner and beat and curse her or him.

In November 2003, a 67-year-old practitioner was violently beaten, which caused internal injuries and she couldn't take care of herself. Another older practitioner couldn't get up after she was surrounded and attacked.

In August 2007, Mr. Dai Congli, a practitioner from Macheng, was forced to stand for 35 consecutive days. Guard Gong Jian knocked out his front teeth and tortured him with boiling water and cigarette burns. Mr. Dai's memory faded and his hair turned white due to being brutally tortured.

In September 2009, practitioners witnessed four police officers break another practitioner's jaw in an attempt to “transform” him. The practitioner's jaw was disconnected with a sudden cracking sound. His cheeks and mouth suddenly dropped, and when officers force fed him, he couldn't respond anymore and was like a dead person.

Moreover, CCP officials used blatant seduction to try to “transform” practitioners. A male practitioner in his 30s told us his own experience. He was arrested in 2008 and taken to this brainwashing centre. The CCP officials tried various means to “transform” him, but failed after more than 10 days. One day when several people surrounded him, they suddenly left him alone. After a while, a pretty, flirtatious woman in her 20s came in and closed the door. She smiled, handed him a cup of water, pulled a chair close to him, sat down, and started to tease him. The practitioner sat on a chair and said nothing. That woman kept on teasing him with filthy words, but he was not moved at all. He heard people outside walking back and forth quietly, talking to each other. His instinct told him that those outside were monitoring and listening to him. He immediately realised that they were using this beauty trap in order to drag him down and “transform” him. When the woman noticed that her filthy words didn't work, she rubbed his shoulders and back. The practitioner then shouted at her, “Get out of here!” At that moment, the door opened and several people came in. They looked disappointed and annoyed, and the woman left looking dejected. Later, informants said that the woman had been a prostitute for years. CCP officials had used her as one of the collaborators in the Tangxunhu Brainwashing Centre. During the past years, the CCP has been using every tactic imaginable in an attempt to “transform” practitioners.

In order to shake practitioners' belief in Falun Gong, CCP officials in the Hubei Province Brainwashing Centre held a meeting every day and discussed a variety of psychological solutions. Their most important method was to set up a brainwashing centre by gathering a group of “assistants” who had been brainwashed. Those assistants surrounded practitioners, forged lies, and distorted Falun Gong teachings. They also played videos that distorted the truth. Sometimes they invited “experts” from universities to give lectures praising the CCP. Other times they arranged for several former practitioners, who had been brainwashed, to play act crying and expressing their appreciation to the officials in the centre. When these methods didn't work, they sentenced practitioners to prison or forced labour terms.

Since February 2002, more than 1200 practitioners have been arrested and are being detained in the Hubei Province Brainwashing Centre.

Main perpetrators in the Hubei Province Brainwashing Centre:

Commander of the “Education Group”: Mobile 86-13971687603, Tel: 86-27-87924873
Xie Shengyan, police officer: Mobile 86-13971325395, Tel 86-27-87924873
Hu Jianguo, police officer: Tel 86-27-87924873
Ke Changfen, police officer: Mobile 86-13593774904, Tel 86-27-87924873
Hubei Province Brainwashing Centre: Tel 86-27-87924873

Note

1. "Collaborators" (former practitioners, brainwashed against Falun Gong, made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners)

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/6/12/242313.html