610 Office Large-Scale Arrests and Harassment of Falun Gong Practitioners in Many Provinces

A Dafa Disciple

PureInsight | January 25, 2021

[PureInsight.org] Recently, the 610 Offices in Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Guangxi and other provinces of the mainland have arrested and harassed Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale.

The 610 Office was established on June 10, 1999. It is an illegal organization ordered by Jiang Zemin to persecute Falun Gong, an act that was above the law.

On March 21, 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) assigned the 610 Office to the Political and Legal Committee, as well as the Ministry of Public Security. Afterwards, the CCP media declared that "the 610 Office was abolished." However, according to a report on Minghui.com, the 610 Office has not stopped persecuting Falun Gong for the past 21 years.

Shandong Province

At 4 AM on July 22, 2020, the Municipal and Legal Committee of Shandong Province 610 Office and the Gaomi Municipal Public Security Bureau kidnapped 46 Falun Gong practitioners with the excuse of “cracking down on and eliminating evil”.

Recently, the Jinan Political and Legal Committee, 610 Office, and police station in Shandong Province have harassed Falun Gong practitioners. Superiors had sent documents to police stations requesting that police harass and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The document contained a list of practitioners who practiced Falun Gong before July 20, 1999 (the day the CCP officially ordered the persecution of Falun Gong). The document ordered each police station and street committee to follow the Falun Gong practitioners on the list, to meet with each of them for verification, and to collect their so-called "guarantee statements" not to practice Falun Gong. A practitioner’s name could only be removed after he or she wrote the required guarantee statement. If the practitioner refused to do so, he or she would be persecuted. In the document, the police and street committee personnel were required to complete the matter (persecuting Falun Gong practitioners) as a political task.

In Pingdu City in Qingdao of Shandong Province, 610 Office leaders Guo Yucheng and Dai Yugang respectively led 610 Office staff to the government departments of various towns. The government officials of these towns assisted them in harassing Falun Gong practitioners in rural areas.

With the blacklist, village officials led Guo Yucheng, Dai Yugang and others to harass Falun Gong practitioners and their families, similar to what happened on July 20, 1999. After asking if the practitioners practiced Falun Gong, they stole Falun Gong books and images of Falun Gong’s Master, etc.; tore up couplets hung on the door regarding the truth about Falun Gong, and took photos for records. Without any rest at noon, they continued to harass practitioners according to the list.

Jiangsu Province

On the morning of July 22, the Nanjing 610 Office teamed up with the Metro Public Security Bureau to kidnap Falun Gong practitioners Hu Cuilan, Shui Li, Chen Jing, and Hu Youping. They were forced to undergo physical examinations, and their homes were ransacked. It was reported that July 22 was a unified effort of persecution in the city.

At around 3 PM on July 22, Nanjing Public Security Bureau 610 Office and Qinhuai District Public Security Bureau jointly kidnapped about 10 Falun Gong practitioners, including Zhang Yuying, Zhu Shida, Tao Cheng, and Zhai Meihua. Xiao Ningjian, a former 610 Office leader who retreated to the second line of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, participated in the kidnapping.

Nanjing 610 Office and Nanjing Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu Province colluded with public prosecutors, public security sub-bureaus, police stations, and national security teams to arrest, frame, and persecute Falun Gong practitioners. There were never any official documents to kidnap Falun Gong practitioners. The arrests were all discussed over the phone or through verbal orders. Some methods included:

1. Plainclothes police hid near the homes of Falun Gong practitioners at certain times. When the practitioners went out to buy groceries or took out the garbage, the police immediately surrounded the practitioners, ransacked their homes, snatched their personal belongings, and took them away and imprisoned them.

2. The police knocked on the practitioners’ doors and said, “Collecting electricity bills or checking the gas safety.” As long as the door was opened, they swarmed in, controlled the practitioners and their family members so they could not move, and ransacked their houses.

3. When it got dark, the police pulled the practitioners’ electricity switch and waited outside. When the door was open, the police rushed into the room to "enforce the law."

4. The police broke into the practitioners’ homes in the middle of the night by picking the door lock.

5. They fined the practitioners thousands of yuan or more without any formal procedures.

6. Without the practitioners’ consent, the police recorded, took photos, drew blood, and obtained their fingerprints.

7. The police followed the practitioners for a long time, tapped their phones, and arranged for their neighbors to monitor them.

8. The police harassed the practitioners' family members, monitored the family members’ phone calls, and put pressure on the family members’ workplace.

Hebei Province

Around July 20, the National Security Brigade, 610 Office, and police stations of the Zunhua City Public Security Bureau in Tangshan District of Hebei Province, worked with village committees and neighborhood committees to harass Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale. It was said that Hebei Province issued the directives and even gave a target number of practitioners.

     Almost all Falun Gong practitioners were harassed to various degrees in Xindianzi Town, Xingwangzhai Township, Chengguan Town, and Cuijiazhuang Township. Some received repeated calls, and some were visited and asked to sign the so-called "three guarantees" to not continue doing the exercises. If practitioners refused to sign it, their family members were forced to sign it. Otherwise, the practitioners’ children or grandchildren would be rejected from university, rejected from serving in the military, or be unable to find jobs.

On June 18, 38 Falun Gong practitioners and their families in Fengrun District of Tangshan City in Hebei Province were illegally raided and harassed. Almost all the police stations in Fengrun District, including the Public Security Bureau, the Public Security sub-bureau, the National Security and National Security Bureau of Fengrun District, and the 610 Office participated in the arrest.

On June 19, Falun Gong practitioner Liu Ruifen was harassed by 610 Office member Gao Dacheng, two police officers, and the village secretary of the Ninth Farm in Caofeidian District of Tangshan City in Hebei Province. On June 22, Gao Dacheng and others harassed Falun Gong practitioner Yang Xiuchun. The harassed practitioners near Caofeidian District also included Qin Pengzhen and Liu Xiaoling from Tanghai Town, along with two other practitioners from the Five Farms.

610 Office Conducts Hate Propaganda Throughout Leye County of Baise City in Guangxi

Ran Fubing, secretary of the county Political and Legal Committee, and Wei Qibin, deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Committee (a 610 Office leader) who just took office in Leye County of Baise City in Guangxi, had conducted Cultural Revolutionary style anti-Falun Gong activities. These activities included false propaganda in units, schools, and the eight townships across the county since 2019.

Specific facts: boards and banners with various slander and propaganda of Falun Gong were produced and hung at county intersections, markets, schools, and towns. During the outbreak of COVID-19 (CCP virus), 610 Office county chief Wei Qibin personally hung up a “Disease Prevention and Anti-Evil Propaganda" banner on a vehicle and continuously broadcasted propaganda inciting hatred of Falun Gong. He monitored the streets in the county and forced people to not listen, read, and spread information about the truth. Wei Qibin also extended this to the primary and secondary schools there with so-called "Anti-Cult Education Propaganda" and “Anti-Cults From Entering Campus” activities. He distributed leaflets with general knowledge on anti-cults and forced students to sign cards promising to reject them.

On June 4, 2020, the 610 Office launched the "Anti-Cult Declaration Report" across the county to promote the demonization of Falun Gong. They initiated online signature activities on their website and WeChat public accounts "GuiFengQi" and "PingAnLeYe". The leaders of all units, towns, and townships were required to implement it. Remote villages were also not exempt from it.

The Leye County 610 Office also controlled the National Security Police, various district police stations, and various township management offices to investigate, intimidate, harass, and even persecute Falun Gong practitioners in the county by illegally detaining them to write “transformation statements”. For Falun Gong practitioners who did not cooperate, write “transformation statements”, or sign their names, 610 officers threatened to intimidate their children. This happened to Liao Qingzhou and Huang Daling, two elderly people who were nearly 80 years old. The officers said, “If your mother does not sign, anything can happen to your family’s work, school, and promotion,” which frightened and worried the children.

Jiang Zemin ordered the CCP to label Falun Gong as a “cult”. After Jiang Zemin began persecuting Falun Gong, he drew criticism internationally and encountered obstacles at home. However, Jiang Zemin continued his own way. Three months after the persecution began, on October 25, 1999, Jiang Zemin slandered Falun Gong as a “cult” in front of the media in France.

In November 1999, the Washington Post from the United States published a report titled "Cracks in China's Crackdown". The report disclosed that three months after the persecution, Jiang Zemin ordered Falun Gong to be labeled a "cult". The report also stated that the other six members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee did not agree with Jiang Zemin's decision to persecute Falun Gong at the time in 1999.

The famous non-governmental organization Freedom House in Washington, D.C. issued a report stating that the CCP persecuted Falun Gong first and then put labels on it. "The CCP did this only after the suppression of Falun Gong was criticized by the international community and China."

610 Office Intervene in the Legal System and Participate in Torture and Persecution

In the first half of 2020, at least 5,484 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted by the CCP. Among them, 39 died, 132 were sentenced, and 5,313 were arrested and harassed.

Over the past 21 years, countless Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted, injured, disabled, and killed...

As an illegal organization that specializes in persecuting Falun Gong, the 610 Office is responsible for these unjust cases.

The US Congress and Executive Committee on China (CECC) report pointed out that 610 offices across China have maintained an informal network of “transformed through reeducation” facilities dedicated to changing the ideology of Falun Gong practitioners, imposing compulsory physical and mental behaviors on practitioners, and forcing them to give up Falun Gong.

The Washington Post reported that in 2001, the central 610 Office began to order "all neighborhood committees, state agencies, and companies" to start using transformation facilities. No Falun Gong practitioner could be spared, including students and the elderly.

Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong pointed out that cases involving Falun Gong practitioners were decided by the local 610 Office, not by the legal standard.

Attorneys including Gao Zhisheng, Guo Guoting, and Wang Yajun had accused the 610 Office of interfering with lawyers’ meetings with Falun Gong clients or interfering with their abilities to defend practitioners in court.

Multiple sources reported that 610 officials had participated in or ordered for the torture of Falun Gong practitioners in custody.

Hao Fengjun, a former police officer in the Tianjin 610 Office, described how he witnessed a 610 officer assaulting an elderly female Falun Gong practitioner with iron bars.

In 2005, in a “Letter to Chinese Leaders”, human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng reported that 610 officials had beat and sexually assaulted Falun Gong practitioners.

Hu Jia, a human rights activist, pointed out that the torture performed by the 610 Office was the first in human history, especially after the 21st century, and was comparable to the Nazis.

 

Chinese version: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/261424

 

 

 

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