A police force with powers extending over all levels of China's security apparatus continues to lead the crackdown on Falun Gong in China.
The 6-10 Office was formed 10 years ago on June 10 by the head of the Chinese Communist Party at the time, Jiang Zemin. He gave the directive to use “every means necessary” to wipe out the spiritual practice of Falun Gong.
“The 6-10 Office is just like Hitler’s Gestapo,” Guo Guoting, a Chinese human rights lawyer in exile told the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI). “They are powerful and they got enough financial support from the government so…they secretly control all the Falun Gong practitioners in their local areas.”
Former police official of Tianjin State Security Bureau and the 6-10 Office, Hao Fengjun, defected to Australia in 2005 and says that China does indeed have a Gestapo-like agency called the 6-10 Office.
"Once I had to go to a place detaining Falun Gong practitioners. When we got there, I saw a lady practitioner with two large bruises and two 8-inch wounds on her back. A policeman was beating her using a half-meter-long iron bar. When I saw this, I knew that I could not carry on with this job. At that moment, I felt my heart break.”
Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng wrote after a 2005 investigation into the persecution against Falun Gong, “The immoral act that has shaken my soul most is the 6-10 Office and policemen’s regular practice of assaulting women’s genitals.”
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Gao's whereabouts is currently unknown in China after he was detained by police in February this year.
“Of those persecuted,” Gao wrote, “almost every woman’s genitals and breasts and every man’s private parts have been sexually assaulted in a most vulgar fashion.”
Though the Chinese authorities deny its existence, the 6-10 Office’s activities are an open secret in China, said the FDI.
Official Chinese Communist Party Web sites from 2008 and 2009 discuss the strengthening of 6-10 operations with the purpose of “handling” and “disposing of” Falun Gong, according to a FDI press release.
Falun Gong spokesperson Erping Zhang said the 6-10 Office undermines any effort to build the rule of law in China. “It's terrifying to think how many lives have been ruined by this agency, and how many more will be everyday it continues to operate."
