(Minghui.org)
Background
Labor camp detention has been widely used in the past 14 years by the Chinese communist regime to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Because it requires no court trial and often involves slave labor, United Nations and human rights organizations have publicly criticized it. Between July 1999 and July 2013, Minghui reported 25,411 labor camp detention cases and 11,597 imprisonment cases.
Summary Statistics
Based on these reported cases, Northeastern China (Heilonjiang, Shenyang, and Jilin), along with Hebei and Shandong, were the worst; followed by Sichuan, and Hubei. Many labor camps were notorious for their brutality against practitioners. They include: Masanjia Labor Camp (Liaoning), Wangcun Labor Camp (Shandong), Gaoyang Labor Camp (Hebei), Wanjia Labor Camp (Heilongjiang), Heizuizi Labor Camp (Jilin) and others.
The most rampant time period occurred in 2001, after the communist regime staged the so-called Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident early that year. The momentum continued till 2004 and began to decrease in 2005. As Falun Gong continued to expose the brutality, especially after the publishing of live organ harvest report (http://organharvestinvestigation.net/ draft version in 2006, revised version in 2007), many labor camp began to reduce the number of detained Falun Gong practitioners.
Severity of Labor Camp Detention
The labor camp system started in 1950s when the communist regime began to massively suppress intellectuals who held different opinions. This system was later exploited many times during various political campaigns. When the persecution against Falun Gong started in 1999, the communist regime utilized this again. Because the peaceful nature of these practitioners, they were viewed by the regime as more vulnerable compared to previous groups. This pushed practitioners to suffer crueler mistreatment, either for their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, or for their efforts exposing the brutal suppression. Some practitioners were even sent to labor camp for the fourth or fifth times.
Slave labor is a major component of labor camp detention, which is often intense and involves poisonous materials with no safety protection. Practitioners who refuse the slave labor or unable to finish the heavy workload were tortured or physically abused. The ample profit made labor camps trade detainees with the law enforcement agencies. For example, Chaoyang Labor Camp in Beijing was reported to pay Xinan Labor Camp to acquire detained Falun Gong practitioners.
After China announced in January 2013 to stop the labor camp system, many labor camps began to release detained practitioners. For example, most practitioners detained at Xin’an labor camp were set free on July 5, 2013. Beijing Women’s Labor Camp began to release practitioners in May 2013, and almost no practitioners are kept there by July. Xidayingzi Labor Camp in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province recently released more than 10 practitioners.
Conclusion
Because the persecution of Falun Gong is still ongoing in China, cases included in this report are limited to those that were successfully obtained by overcoming the information blockage. In fact, the communist regime considers such persecution facts as state secret and made all efforts to cover them up. Minghui is a website dedicated to collecting such information and making it public to raise the awareness. Its faithful and comprehensive coverage offers a credible source for government agencies, organizations, or individuals.
China’s announcement of ceasing labor camp system does not necessarily mean the communist regime will stop its brutality against innocent citizens. Rather, it was viewed as a strategy to lessen domestic tension and international criticism over its abuse of this system. While labor camp detainees have recently decreased, evidence has shown that communist regime has sent more practitioners to prisons or various brainwashing centers.
Continued efforts and supports are needed to expose more cases related the persecution including the labor camp system. As more people are aware of the depth and breadth of the persecution, the date will come soon to end the communist regime.
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