(Minghui.org) (Continued from Part 2)
The 610 Office had launched various campaigns to defame Falun Gong and stir up hatred. For example, “Million Signatures [to Support the Persecution],” “Everyone Takes a Stance [against Falun Gong],” and “Commitment Card [Promising Not to Support Falun Gong]” were launched to slander Falun Gong.
Collecting and Analyzing Personal Information
To reach the goal of the persecution, the 610 Office has treated collecting information related to Falun Gong as a major task.
For example, the Qingzhou City 610 Office in Shandong Province made specific worksheets targeting Falun Gong practitioners around 2010. These worksheets were deemed classified and contained multiple tables to be populated with information about local practitioners. Distributed to township (or street) level Comprehensive Management and Stability Maintenance Centers, these worksheets had three sections.
The first section was about each practitioner’s basic information, based on which the practitioner was listed in one of 7 categories: 1) long-term out-of-towner with local household registration. 2) On the “Wanted” list and stayed in other places. 3) “Out of control” personnel. 4) People who once went out to make trouble [meaning “appealing for Falun Gong”]. 5) Personnel not yet transformed. 6) Personnel who had previously been imprisoned or sent to labor camps. 7) Key personnel who are not trustworthy.
The second section contained information about key targets of persecution (a photo of the targeted practitioner was to be attached to this section).
The third section was records of visits, which should detail what each practitioner said or wrote when being visited at home by police or other local government agents.
All of this information was critical because the 610 Office made persecution decisions based on it. More specifically, the information helped the 610 Office determine who to monitor, who to arrest, who to send to brainwashing centers, etc.
Institutionalizing the Persecution with Metrics
Freedom of belief is a basic human right that is protected by the Chinese Constitution. By producing all kinds of lies to slander Falun Gong, however, the 610 Office has driven CCP officials at all levels to participate in the persecution. As a result, the suppression became systematic, institutionalized, and comprehensive. More specifically, it includes establishing organizational leadership, setting up policies and rules, building institutional teams, carrying out tasks to persecute Falun Gong, monitoring Falun Gong practitioners, conducting brainwashing classes, and others.
Among them, a very vicious method is connecting the persecution of Falun Gong with officials’ performance. The 610 Office designed metrics to evaluate the “performance” of related government agencies. Below is an assessment points table from Weicheng District 610 Office from Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province.
An assessment points table from Weicheng District 610 Office from Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province (obtained from internet on April 15, 2008)
The above screenshot (in Chinese) indicates that a transformation rate of 75% would earn a government agency 20 points and no local Falun Gong practitioner going to Beijing to appeal would fetch the agency 10 points. We can see that the CCP has linked the involvement in the suppression with officials’ performance.
Such “assessment” shows the 610 Office has institutionalized the persecution of Falun Gong. In this way, it forces officials at all levels to take part with both high pressure and financial incentives. This reveals the persecution is highly organized, institutionalized, and systematic. It also shows the suppression is broad and deep.
Manipulating and Interfering with the Judicial Process
The control by the PLAC and 610 Office on law enforcement, procuratorate, court, and judiciary is comprehensive and complete. It is an open secret that the 610 Office manipulates the outcome of Falun Gong cases, which are deemed political tasks. The indictment, the trial, and the sentencing is just a matter of going through the motions when the outcome has long been determined by the 610 Office. Many judges openly admitted that they could not make decisions since the 610 Office has the final say.
The CCP views Falun Gong as the No. 1 enemy. On many occasions, 610 Office officials openly said that for Falun Gong cases, they only consider politics, not laws. Many judges also said they do not follow the law when handling such cases.
For example, the Qian’an Court in Hebei Province sentenced several practitioners to prison on December 6, 2009. They include Ms. Liang Xiulan (8 years), Ms. Zhang Liqin (7.5 years), Ms. Shao Lianrong (7.5 years), Ms. Li Xiuhua (7 years), Mr. Sun Yongsheng (7 years), and Mr. Yang Zhanmin (7 years). When family members of these practitioners later questioned the wrongful sentencing, chief judge Feng Xiaolin said no law is considered in Falun Gong cases.
In addition to “politics above the law,” the 610 Office also trampled on and manipulated laws by intervening with hearings, trials, lawyers’ defense, and sentencing.
Many judges said in public to defense lawyers and practitioners’ families that the verdicts came from the 610 Office, not them. Very often, the 610 Office had decided secretly in advance the prison term. The judges just followed the instructions during the show trial. Sometimes the 610 Office even directly interfered with the trial in the court.
For example, Shenbeixin Court in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, sentenced four practitioners during two trials in December 2008, one on December 1 and another on December 9. Among the sentenced practitioners, Ms. Wang Sumei received 10 years, Mr. Xi Changhai 11 years, Mr. Sun Yushu 8 years, and Mr. Huo Defu 6 years. Court officials said the terms were predetermined by the 610 Office, not them.
Sun Yonggang was a newly appointed 610 Office Head for Shenbeixin District at the time. Before that he worked at Puhe River Management Committee where he was actively involved in the persecution. After Ms. Wang Sumei was arrested, she said believing in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance was not a crime and requested immediate release. As the newly appointed 610 Office director, Sun was eager to accumulate political capital and he yelled, “I will sentence you to 10 years!” With that sentence, Ms. Wang received a 10-year term.
610 Office in the Military
The 610 Office also exists in the military, but little is known about it on the outside. The military’s involvement in the persecution should precede that of local governments, since the CCP always controls the military the tightest and often uses it as a role model for civilians to follow in various campaigns. When Jiang began to persecute Falun Gong, he wanted to expand what the military did to the entire nation and push forward the agenda through the military.
The highest level of the 610 Office in the military is affiliated with the military’s General Political Department (GPD). Its first director was Yu Yongbo, then chief of the GPD. The Deputy director was a GPD’s deputy chief, who was in charge of both discipline inspection and PLAC work. Therefore, its level was as high as the GPD. Because of that, it could easily recruit members as needed.
In addition, the 610 Office was also established in the People’s Liberation Army’s land, sea and air forces in all military regions, covering all levels from army, division, brigade all the way to regiment.
A High Level Meeting
Under the instruction of dictator Jiang, Yu held a high level 610 Office meeting in the military shortly after the staged self-immolation incident on January 23, 2001. It secretly took place at the GPD’s Security Department, and no recording or photography was allowed. According to inside information, participants of the meeting were core members of the 610 Office. Yu hosted the meeting and less than 30 people were invited. Yu first briefed what the military had done to suppress Falun Gong and plan for the next step, followed by a speech by Jiang.
During the meeting, Jiang ordered the military to take the lead in the persecution and set an example. All military personnel who practiced Falun Gong must be “transformed” with no one left. The transformation must be complete and the military needed to produce its own transformation experts and professors. Those involved in the transformation must be firm, determined, and strict. Whenever needed, different kinds of methods can be used. They could not show off and just do things quietly. The only goal is forcing practitioners to renounce Falun Gong. This must continue as long as the goal is not achieved. To promote this, those involved in transformation would be rewarded.
The military’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is horrifying. But due to the tight information control, however, little is known to the outside. Minghui.org once reported how a practitioner at the Associate Division Head level was persecuted.
Mr. Yang Xingful was from the Nanjing Military Region and he was born in November 1949. With a military rank of Senior Colonel, he was the chief news editor of Eastline Film and Television, a newspaper from the Political Department of Nanjing Military Region. He was persecuted many times for practicing Falun Gong.
After becoming a practitioner in July 1996, Mr. Yang benefited from it physically and spiritually. After the persecution started in 1999, the Nanjing Military Region 610 Office arrested and detained him three times.
For distributing Falun Gong materials, he was followed and arrested by Nanjing State Security Bureau in July 2000. After secret interrogation, Nanjing Military Region Military Court gave him three years of forced labor. Upon release in 2003, he was forced to retire early. His housing and benefits were all downgraded.
In January 2005, the Nanjing Military Region 610 Office ransacked Mr. Yang’s home again and sent him to a labor camp with a three-year term. Both his daughter and son-in-law were expelled from the military.
In April 2012, the Nanjing Military 610 Office, Nanjing 610 Office, and Nanjing police joined together to ransack Mr. Yang’s place. Officials confiscated his computer, printer, DVD burner, Falun Gong books, and Shen Yun DVDs. Mr. Yang and his wife were kept at the Nanjing Detention Center. For the third time, Nanjing Military Region Military Court announced a labor camp term of three years for Mr. Yang, followed by detention in the Nanjing Military Region Labor Camp. His wife Ms. Chen Chunmei was first detained one month and then sent to the Xuanwu Brainwashing Center in Nanjing.
Summary
Both PLAC and the 610 Office are part of the CCP organizations, and they have played critical roles in the persecution of Falun Gong. Because the suppression still continues, and both agencies are confidential agencies, together with tight information control by the CCP, many details regarding the agencies' inner workings remain hidden. This report was prepared based on publicly accessible information, especially facts published by Minghui.org, and aimed to summarize the functions of these two agencies in the persecution.
(The end)
All content published on this website is copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: News Commentary
