Qiu, 34, worked as the Deputy Chief of the "People’s Forum," a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the mainland.
In June he traveled to Hong Kong to attend the International Federation of Journalists’ conference. During his stay he was photographed participating in Hong Kong's July 1 march, an annual rally supporting democracy and human rights. Soon after his return to China he went back to Hong Kong on July 30, this time fleeing political persecution for his involvement in the rally. He currently lives in Indonesia and is seeking political asylum.
At a press conference in Hong Kong on Aug. 23 he publicly renounced the CCP, making his case another in a string of high-profile defections of individuals in Communist Party propaganda and intelligence organs. Previous cases include Chen Yonglin, a former diplomat; Hao Fengjun, a former member of the “610 office,” an agency set up specifically to persecute adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual practice; Han Guangsheng, a former Public Security Bureau director; and Li Fengzhi, a former intelligence officer.
Qiu said what he considered the “long-term, continuous brainwashing” that staff endured at the People's Daily made a lot of staff members unhappy.
"Do you know which song do we have to listen to everyday?" he asked rhetorically. "'There Would Be No New China Without the Communist Party.' I've been listening to that song since I was in elementary school. I'm so fed up with it," he said.
His position in the Daily also gave him more insight than the average Chinese citizen about the regime’s current political campaigns—in particular, that against the Falun Gong spiritual discipline, which was introduced to the public in 1992 and has been persecuted since 1999 after its popularity surpassed that of the CCP. "The majority of people I know are very sympathetic to what's happening to Falun Gong because we all know that Falun Gong has been defamed,” he said. "The more severely the CCP persecutes Falun Gong, the more strongly the people dislike the Party and want to break from it. The CCP always lies. A lot of people dare not say that publicly in the mainland, but we can use the Internet to send out our voice and withdraw from it," Qiu said.
The 610 office, for example, Qiu said is "a totally independent entity that receives an enormous amount of funding and special attention… It doesn't need to take steps to get funding, do you understand? It's a top priority. Just like the authorities fund the People's Daily—which is completely tax exempt."
Qiu said he has witnessed a female Falun Gong practitioner fall into a city river and drown after being chased by police. He said he has also seen police bribe witnesses, and also stalk Falun Gong practitioners.
Police would also inflate numbers of Falun Gong books they confiscated to fill arrest quotas as part of their annual review, he said. After being caught, practitioners are sent to labor camps or prison where they are subject to torture.
"You will lose your job and even put your life in danger if you publicly claim to withdraw from the CCP in mainland China. You will face an even worse situation if you work at the People's Daily because the authorities will immediately assume you played a role in degrading the public’s perception of the Communist regime," he said.
Oct. 1 of this year marks the 60th anniversary of the CCP’s coming to power. As the date nears, the regime has stepped up its suppression of dissidents, including religious adherents, petitioners, lawyers, and civil rights activists.
Qiu remarked on an internally circulated document instructing that, in his words: "China should be cleaned up before the National Day, and appellants should be put under control. Democracy movement activists should be placed under surveillance, to ensure the safety of the National Day. Funding for this operation is highly secured, and these instructions are permitted to circulate throughout the organization."
Read the original Chinese article.
