Persecution Continues Despite Announcement Abolishing Forced Labor Reeducation System
(Minghui.org) Radio French Internationale (RFI) reported on November 17 that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced that it would abolish the forced labor reeducation system. The report also said that according to Falun Gong practitioners, many practitioners are still being transferred to prisons, brainwashing centers, and other persecution facilities, and the persecution is still going on.
RFI: Persecution Continues Despite Appearance of Reforms
According to the RFI report, Beijing Labor Reeducation Bureau disclosed to the Beijing News (Xin Jing Bao) that the detailed abolishing plan would be announced at the end of this year. The timing of the removal of door signs of labor camps and what new names to use are not clear.
The Beijing News and Chengdu Tianfu Morning News reported that the notorious Tuanhe Labor Camp changed its name to “The Second Ward of Tuanhe, Beijing Prison.” Detainees in the camp were released in succession starting this past summer.
On November 15, the Third Plenary Session of the 18 th CCP Central Committee passed “Resolution regarding further reforms on many significant issues.” In the 9 th section of the resolution, it formally put forward a policy for abolishing labor reeducation.
The CCP's notorious forced labor reeducation system has been going on for over half a century and has been criticized by domestic and international media. The abolishing of the system has come as a result of the immense public pressure.
The forced labor reeducation system is one of the main ways that the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) of the CCP persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. The RFI report stated that according to Falun Gong practitioners, “Many Falun Gong practitioners are still not released. They are transferred to political and legal centers, brainwashing centers, and detention centers or sentenced to prisons. In other words, the persecution is still going on.”
Mainland Chinese Falun Gong practitioners pointed out on the Minghui website as early as February that number of practitioners sentenced to prison increased sharply as the number sent to labor camps dropped.
CCP's “Final Battle” Revealed
The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) issued a statement on November 18 to alert the public that the CCP launched a “Final Battle” aiming to brainwash millions of Falun Gong practitioners.
The Epoch Times newspaper published a collection of 56 circulars from official agencies across China, revealing that a renewed, nation-wide campaign to eliminate Falun Gong is underway. “Carrying out the ‘2013 to 2015 Final Battle on Education and Transformation’ is the scientific decision made by the Party Central based on the current struggle,” indicates one official website. "Convert all the unconverted Falun Gong adherents by the end of 2015 and continue the propaganda criticizing Falun Gong," indicates another.
The use of brainwashing centers is expanding across the country, just as some labor camps are closing or changing functions. For example, the number of confirmed brainwashing cases in Hebei Province Capitol Brainwashing Center has grown from 50 to over 350 from 2001 to 2013.
FDIC states: “Such trends put Falun Gong practitioners and other detainees at greater risk because brainwashing facilities are even less legally codified than the Reeducation through Labor (RTL) system. Having no official existence, brainwashing centers are known to have been arbitrarily set up in facilities as varied as schools, apartments, or even old Buddhist temples.”