Guangzhou Judicial Bureau Leads Persecution of Local Falun Gong Practitioners
(Minghui.org) Guangzhou Judicial Bureau, located in the capital city of Guangdong Province, has closely followed the Communist Party’s persecution policy against Falun Gong since July 1999.
Instead of functioning as a government branch that implements the law, it has carried out orders from Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) and 610 Office, the former a non-judicial agency and the latter an extralegal agency, to persecute Falun Gong practitioners through the labor camp system before its discontinuation in 2013. At least 332 practitioners were detained at Guangzhou's three labor camps over the years.
In addition, the Bureau established the Guangzhou Legal Education Center (also known as Guangzhou Brainwashing Center and Huangpu Drug Rehabilitation Center) to conduct brainwashing sessions aimed to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief. At least 260 practitioners have been detained at the Center at some point.
Many of the practitioners held in the labor camps or brainwashing center have become physically disabled, mentally disoriented, or died.
Ms. Li Xiaojin, a professor at the Guangzhou University, was arrested at the end of June 2002 and taken to Guangzhou Legal Education Center. She died the next day under unclear circumstances. She was in her 30s.
Mr. Rao Zhuoyuan was arrested on October 6, 2001 and taken to Guangzhou First Labor Camp, where he was brutally tortured. He died on August 5, 2002, at the age of 34.
Forced Labor
The Guangzhou Municipal Administration of Reeducation Through Labor, which operated under the Bureau, was an important agency involved in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Its first political commissar was the Party secretary of the Bureau. Three main labor camps under the Administration were Chatou Women’s Labor Camp, Guangzhou First Labor Camp, and Guangzhou Third Labor Camp, the latter two of which were for male practitioners. At least 332 practitioners, including 163 women, were kept across the three labor camps. The real number could be much higher due to secrecy and lack of transparency of these agencies.
All practitioners detained in these facilities were forced to go through brainwashing sessions. Guards tortured practitioners by typing them up into a ball, hanging them up, force-feeding them, depriving them of sleep, and other methods.
Torture reenactment: tying like a ball
Torture reenactment: hanging up with arms straight
Torture illustration: force-feeding
Despite the information blockade instituted by these three forced labor camps, numerous reports on Minghui.org describe the brutalities in these facilities.
Intense Brainwashing
Guangzhou Legal Education Center was established on April 3, 2001. The official website of the Guangzhou Judicial Bureau says that 1,560,000 yuan in the 2011 budget went to “legal education center expansion.” Another notice that appeared in November 2012 specified that one of the Bureau's functions was to “manage legal education centers.”
Two practitioners in Guangzhou, Ms. Lv Chunxia and Ms. Yu Ping, were taken to the Guangzhou Brainwashing Center in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Based on recent Chinese regulations on information disclosure, their lawyers and families inquired about the legal basis of the center by contacting the Guangdong Province Justice Department, Guangzhou City Municipal Government, and Guangzhou Judicial Bureau. The first two agencies replied that the request was beyond their responsibilities and referred them to the Guangzhou Judicial Bureau, which did not respond to the lawyers' request.
Information obtained by Minghui.org indicates that Guangzhou Brainwashing Center has implemented almost all types of torture methods against practitioners in labor camps. Its extrajudicial and secretive nature makes it more difficult to obtain detailed information. Nonetheless, at least 260 practitioners have been reported by Minghui to be detained there for brainwashing.
One characteristic of Guangzhou Brainwashing Center is that practitioners can be held there with undefined terms for both physical and mental abuse. One example is Ms. Yu Ping, who was taken there in October 2018. In order to get her to give up her belief in Falun Gong, an officer in the center lied that her son had been detained because of her and that he would face imprisonment if she continued to uphold her faith.
Another practitioner, 33-year-old Ms. Xie Yu, was arrested in January 2017 and sentenced to two years of imprisonment. Right before her release on January 25, 2019, police took her to Guangzhou Brainwashing Center, where she is still held at the time of writing.
More information about this brainwashing facility can be found in previous Minghui reports.
Related Reports:
How Practitioner Rao Zhuoyuan Was Tortured To Death