(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners in 36 countries recently presented their respective governments with a new list of perpetrators involved in the persecution of practitioners in China. The lists were submitted on and around December 10, 2021, International Human Rights Day. Practitioners requested that their governments bar the perpetrators and their family members from entering those countries and freeze their assets.
The 36 countries include the Five Eyes Alliance (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand), 23 countries in the European Union (France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Czechia, Romania, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia, and Malta), and 8 additional countries (Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Israel, and Mexico).
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999 (this includes torturing practitioners resulting in death and harvesting their organs). Practitioners have recently submitted numerous lists of perpetrators to various countries requesting that sanctions be imposed against these human rights violators. This latest submission of a perpetrator list marks the first time that Estonia has participated in this effort.
Ke Liangdong, former deputy director of the Central 610 Office is on the list.
Perpetrator Information
Full Legal Name of Perpetrator: Ke (last name) Liangdong (first name) (柯良栋)Gender: MaleCountry: Daye, Hubei Province, PRC (People’s Republic of China)Date/year of Birth: July 1963
Title or Positions:
July 1989: Entered the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Public Security
2005: Appointed Head of the Department of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Public Security
April 2009 – May 2014: Served as deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, member of the Standing Committee of the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee, director of Public Security and deputy secretary of the Municipal Committee of Political and Legal Affairs
June 2014 – March 2018: Named deputy director of the Central 610 Office until the Central 610 Office was abolished
Apr 2018: Deputy secretary-general of the National People’s Congress
Current: Vice president of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Council for the Promotion of International Trade
On June 10, 1999, the CCP established an organization dedicated to carrying out the persecution of Falun Gong with the official title of “The Leading Group for Handling Falun Gong Issues of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.” It is more commonly referred to as the 610 Office because it was established on June 10 (6 - 10).
The 610 Office is responsible for the daily operations of suppressing Falun Gong practitioners throughout China. The 610 Office is involved in every governmental agency in China—it controls and mobilizes the Public Security Department (police), Procuratorate, courts, the army, secret agents, diplomacy, the educational system, medical facilities, and the state’s propaganda machinery to persecute Falun Gong. It established a rigorous and independent operating system that controls everything from the central to the local levels of society. It monitors and controls people and every aspect of society. The goal is to carry out the genocide of Falun Gong practitioners.
Major Crimes
Ke Liangdong has long served in the Public Security system, which has been on the front line of the persecution. He followed former CCP head Jiang Zemin’s orders in implementing the persecution, especially during his term as deputy director of the Central 610 Office from June 2014 to March 2018. He worked to implement the CCP’s genocidal policy to exterminate Falun Gong. According to available statistics, 4,706 Falun Gong practitioners have been confirmed being persecuted to death as of November 2021, with at least 282 passing away during Ke’s tenure.
As the deputy director of the 610 Office, Ke knows, and is thus responsible for, all the policies, plans, and actions formulated to persecute Falun Gong as well as the consequences of the persecution implemented during his tenure. This includes the direct and indirect impact on the subsequent persecution.
Select Persecution Cases During Ke’s Tenure as Director of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security Between 2005 and 2009
The Ministry of Public Security held a press conference in Beijing on February 28, 2006 regarding the “Law on Public Security Administration Punishment” to be formally implemented on March 1. When a reporter asked how the law would regulate Falun Gong, Ke, then director of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, mis-interpreted the law, declaring that people who engaged in Falun Gong activities could be sent to re-education-through-labor camps “in accordance with the law.” He also instructed Sina.com, a major news website, to publish his answers to reporters’ questions and publicize his intention to escalate the persecution. The title of the article was “Ministry of Public Security: Public security punishment or reeducation through labor will be imposed on anyone engaging in Falun Gong activities.”
Select Persecution Cases During Ke’s Tenure as Deputy Director of the Central 610 Office from June 2014 to March 2018
Crimes of persecution in 2014
In 2014, under the directive of the 610 Office, many planned and premeditated group arrests and ransacking of practitioners’ homes occurred almost daily in China. According to statistics from the Minghui.org website, the number of Falun Gong practitioners arrested in 2014 was as high as 6,415, which was an increase of 29.8% over the previous year (4,942).
On June 9, 2014, the 610 Office in Inner Mongolia issued, “Confidential Document No. 2014,” requesting “basic information on Falun Gong practitioners” and to collect information for the next round of persecution. According to a secret document issued by the Central 610 Office and the Ministry of Public Security, all subordinate 610 Offices nationwide were ordered to collect information on local Falun Gong practitioners.
Twenty nine Falun Gong practitioners were arrested in Changchun City, Jilin Province on July 18, 2014. On September 2, more than 30 Falun Gong practitioners and their family members were arrested in Tonghua City, Jilin Province. The Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Department and 610 Office directly supervised the police in the City of Lianyungang and is responsible for the arrests of more than 100 practitioners that day.
Ms. Zhang Shuxian, 53, was arrested by police from the Domestic Security Office of Tumen City, Jilin Province, on August 7, 2014. She was tortured to death within 24 hours. Family members observed that her body was covered in bruises and dark injuries from below her chest to her thighs. The skin around her thighs was torn and there were burn marks from electric batons around her genital area. In addition, there were bloody footprint stains on her back. The doctor who did the autopsy concluded that her death was caused by torture.
According to Minghui.org, nearly 1,000 practitioners who were arrested in 2014 were detained in 158 “black prisons” (brainwashing centers) by 610 Office personnel.
Ms. Cui Zhanyun was arrested by police from the Domestic Security Office in Yushu, Jilin Province, on September 9, 2014. She was taken to the Yushu Brainwashing Center on September 12. She was given an unknown drug that caused her to experience physical discomfort. Her arms, neck, and back felt sore and even her bones hurt. She could not eat. She died on November 3, 2014.
In 2014, 983 Falun Gong practitioners were put on trial, an increase of 23.5% from 796 in 2013, with 635 of them being sentenced. At least 65 practitioners were sentenced to seven or more years in prison, with a maximum sentence of 12 years.
In addition, 91 practitioners were persecuted to death in 2014. One of them was Mr. Wang Haijin, a bakery owner in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. He was arrested on April 22, 2014, and taken to the Funing Detention Center. During the three months he was detained, he was beaten, force-fed, forced to do unpaid labor, and sexually abused. He passed away on October 9, 2014, leaving behind his wife and two young children. He was 46 years old.
Crimes of persecution in 2015
According to statistics from Minghui.org, there were at least 19,095 incidents of Falun Gong practitioners from 30 provinces and municipalities being arrested, having their houses ransacked, or being harassed in 2015.
A total of 878 Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced in 2015. The youngest was Ms. Bian Xiaohui, 23, from Hebei Province. The oldest were Ms. Liao An’an from Gansu, 80, and Mr. Wang Jiaguo from Liaoning, 81.
Police from the Shuangcheng District Domestic Security Office of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, arrested more than 80 practitioners on July 11, 2015. Four of them were sentenced.
In 2015, 95 practitioners were tortured to death and eight of them died in prisons. Mr. Dong Hanjie was a senior engineer from Hebei Province. He was sentenced to five years in prison by the Zhuozhou City Court on February 11, 2015. When his family went to the detention center to visit him around August 16, he had been taken to Jidong Prison. In less than two months, on October 10, 2015, he died as a result of being tortured. He was 62 years old.
Crimes of persecution in 2016
The CCP continued to implement its genocidal policies in 2016 to exterminate Falun Gong practitioners: “Exterminate them physically, destroy their reputations, and ruin them financially” and “Killing Falun Gong practitioners isn’t killing—it counts as suicide.”
On January 24, 2016, the Central 610 Office held the National Cult Prevention and Handling System Commendation Conference and the National Cult Prevention and Handling Office Directors Conference in Beijing. In addition to summarizing the “achievements in countering cults” in 2015, the meeting was mainly concerned with the work plan for 2016. Ke emphasized the need to focus on the three “tough battles,” including targeting practitioners’ efforts outside China to expose the persecution, targeting practitioners’ efforts to expose the persecution on the Internet, and preventing more people from taking up Falun Gong.
Ke went to Shanghai in 2016 to watch a propaganda performance smearing Falun Gong. He also went to Jinan City, Shandong Province on May 24, 2016, to examine the local police progress in “combating Falun Gong.”
On June 28, 2016, more than 100 practitioners were arrested across Liaoning Province. The arrests were orchestrated by the 610 Office and the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of Liaoning Province. A large number of police officers were dispatched for the operation.
Minghui.org confirmed that 1,265 Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced in 2016, including 1,162 from 2016 and 103 from 2015. Another 91 practitioners were persecuted to death, with 22 of them passing away while in custody.
Ms. Xu Guixia of Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on October 27, 2016. She held a hunger strike while she was incarcerated in the Liaoyang Detention Center to protest the persecution. The guards tied her up in a spread-eagle position and force-fed her on November 7. She began having seizures during the force-feeding, but no one tried to stop the force-feeding or help her. She was dead by the time the guards took her to the clinic. Her face was so swollen that she was almost unrecognizable. She was 47 years old.
Others who died in custody in 2016 include Mr. Li Kai of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province; Ms. Yang Ruiqin of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province; Mr. Zhao Cungui of Shanxi Province; Mr. Zhu Haishan of Jilin Province; Ms. Xiong Jiyu of Shaanxi Province; and Ms. Peng Wenxiu of Guangdong Province.
Crimes of persecution in 2017
In early February 2017, the central 610 Office launched a massive nationwide harassment operation targeting Falun Gong practitioners which they called the “Knocking on Doors Campaign.” This campaign was carried out by the Ministry of Public Security with cooperation from local police stations, communities, neighborhood committees, and village committees.
With a list of names of local Falun Gong practitioners, the police went door to door to each practitioner’s home in the area and ordered them to write a guarantee statement promising to no longer practice Falun Gong. Those who refused to comply were arrested, had their homes ransacked, or were sentenced. Some were persecuted to death and some family members were also harassed and implicated.
According to statistics from Minghui.org, in 2017, at least 7,632 practitioners were arrested, 14,892 were harassed, and 1,134 were sentenced. This took place in 259 cities in 28 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across the country. At least 40 practitioners in 17 provinces and municipalities were tortured to death.
The Domestic Security Office of Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province, arrested 29 practitioners in Yilan County and Huachuan County on August 31, 2017. Fourteen of them were later sentenced.
Ms. Feng Juan of Foshan City, Guangdong Province, was arrested and taken to the Sanshui Brainwashing Center in April 2017. After ten days of torture, she developed severe vomiting and diarrhea. Only two months after returning home, she suffered from organ failure and passed away on October 1, 2017. It was suspected that she died of poisoning. She was 67 years old.
Crimes of persecution in 2018
In the first three months of 2018 while Ke was the deputy director of the Central 610 Office, at least 21 practitioners were tortured to death, 235 were sentenced, and 870 were arrested.
Ms. Sun Min, a teacher in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, was tortured to death in Liaoning Women’s Prison on March 8, 2018, while serving a seven-year term. She was 50 years old. Her father said he was finally allowed to visit her in prison on February 7, 2018, nearly two years after she was arrested on June 28, 2016. She was carried to the visitation room on someone’s back. She could no longer walk as a result of torture. One month later on March 8, the prison notified her father that his daughter had been transferred to Liaoning Province Prison Management Bureau General Hospital. He arrived at the hospital at 12:50 p.m. that day, only to see that she had already died.
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