Wuhan Authorities Escalate Persecution of Falun Gong Through Brainwashing Centers

Falun Gong practitioners participate in a parade to call for an end to the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of their faith in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., on April 23, 2023. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

Wuhan, the city of COVID-19’s origin, recorded at least 15 practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline being persecuted between July and November of 2022 when the virus was still surging and Beijing’s strict lockdown measures were in place.

During that time, nine Wuhan brainwashing centers were involved in the persecution, according to the data collected by Minghui.org, an online information platform of Falun Gong that records the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the practice in China.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, includes five slow-moving and gentle exercises and moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

In July 1999, Jiang Zemin, the CCP leader at the time, launched a nationwide persecution of Falun Gong despite the fact that the practice not only benefited tens of millions of practitioners, but also won CCP officials’ recognition for its contribution to the “spiritual civilization of the society.”

The data obtained by Minghui.org showed Wuhan authorities used more than 60 brainwashing centers in 2,519 acts of persecution against Falun Gong followers between July 1999 and June 2022.

In particular, at least 45 Falun Gong adherents were recorded as having been detained and tortured in 13 brainwashing centers between January and June 2021. Of the 13 brainwashing centers involved, nine were new facilities set up by the Wuhan authorities.

As The Epoch Times editorial indicated previously in the commentary titled, “The Reality of China’s Pandemic and the CCP’s Demise,” the ancients believed that “plagues punished humankind when its sins became too great.” Following the newly added brainwashing centers in Wuhan and their engagement in the persecution campaign in the first half of 2021, COVID-19 cases were on the rise again in the second half of 2021. Part of Wuhan went into a second lockdown on Aug. 3 that year.

A Persecution Initiative

In 2021, Wuhan authorities initiated a program specifically targeting Falun Gong followers, Minghui.org revealed.

Falun Gong practitioners march down Constitution Avenue to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of the spiritual practice in China, in Washington on July 21, 2022.(Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

While the nation suffered the draconian “zero-COVID” policy, the city’s Political and Legal Committee and the 610 Office reinvigorated the brainwashing centers to step up its persecution campaign. Subsequently, Wuhan authorities established 10 new brainwashing centers that year.

The so-called Political and Legal Committee (PLC), from Party central to the local level, has been known as the Chinese Gestapo for its involvement in a range of human rights abuses, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and the operation of extralegal detention facilities and forced labor camps.

The 610 Office, named after the date of its inception on June 10, 1999, is an extralegal task force created for the express purpose of carrying out the persecution of Falun Gong.

The PLC led the establishment of brainwashing centers at the local, city, county, and provincial levels, while 610 personnel coordinated the arrest, brainwashing, and persecution of practitioners with staff at police stations and within the community.

The brainwashing centers at all levels are under the guise of so-called “law and education classes,” “transformation and learning classes,” “legal education centers,” “legal education institutes,” “care centers,” “caring homes,” and more.

To facilitate the program to force practitioners to give up their beliefs, authorities recruited successfully brainwashed practitioners to deceive those who haven’t been broken while former police officers conduct the torture in the brainwashing centers.

Brutality

The following are just a few cases of what Minghui.org collected in Wuhan’s persecution “Initiative” against local Falun Gong adherents.

On Sept. 29, 2021, then-53-year-old Zhou Ailin was arrested by local police and detained in Etouwan Brainwashing Center, Qiaokou District. This was the ninth time local police illegally captured Zhou, an auditor of the accounting department of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau in Qiaokou District.

In the brainwashing center, she was slapped, forced to stand for hours, kept in solitary confinement, handcuffed to a window for five days and nights, force-fed, and more.

Wuhan plainclothes police officers abduct Falun Gong practitioner Zhou Ailin on September 29, 2021. (Minghui.org)

On Dec. 18, 2021, 71-year-old Li Xiumei was abducted from her home by several plainclothes police officers and taken to a brainwashing center in Huangpi District. When she was released two weeks later, she was extremely weak and could not straighten her back due to the torture.

She was abducted again on Feb. 18, 2022, and taken to the brainwashing center. Her health rapidly deteriorated from the torture in the center, where she died on Oct. 8, 2022.

On April 18, 2022, police abducted eight Falun Gong practitioners and took them to the Law and Education Class of Qiaokou District, including then-60-year-old Zong Ming.

Zong was not released until Dec. 26, at which point she was emaciated, her black hair had turned white, and she could no longer talk. Her son immediately drove her to various local hospitals to seek medical help. She passed away on Jan. 4, 2023, in the emergency room.

Widespread Persecution

There are brainwashing centers all over Wuhan, including at Party schools, hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, guest houses, and hotels.

Staff at these brainwashing centers engage in psychological torture such as TV programs on loop slandering Falun Gong, mandating the reporting of “thoughts,” and psychological and physical torture to force adherents to renounce Falun Gong.

According to Minghui’s data, of the 13 districts of Wuhan city, 10 were recorded as having Falun Gong adherents illegally detained and tortured in local brainwashing centers between July and November of 2021.

Li Jiesi and Minghui.org contributed to this report.