Zhang’s article was soon removed from his blog—most likely through an Internet censor that answers to the PLAC—and he had to re-direct readers to other sites. But the article had already been reposted on many Internet forums.
“If the PLAC is not dismantled, there can’t possibly be a society with rule of law, nor can China claim that it’s a country practicing rule of law,” Zhang said.
Gao Zhisheng’s case is a common one—although his international recognition makes it extraordinary. Gao became a target of the PLAC for defending Falun Gong practitioners as they were arrested and sentenced in sham trials by the thousands as part of the regime’s persecution campaign against the spiritual practice.
In November 2005, Gao’s law firm in Beijing was suspended. On Aug. 15, 2006, Gao was kidnapped. Later, he was arrested with the excuse of “inciting subversion of state power.” On Dec. 12, 2006, the court conducted a trial without allowing Gao’s attorney to present his case. Ten days later, Gao was sentenced to a 3-year term on the pretense of “inciting subversion of state power,” with 5 years on probation.
Zhang, in his blog post, said that as an organization that violates the Constitutional Law, it is “utterly absurd” that the PLAC has the right to wield power over the major law enforcement bodies.
Under China’s Constitution, the court and Procuratorate should report to the National People’s Congress, while the Public Security Bureau, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Justice are supposed to report to the State Council. However, all five organizations only report to the PLAC, an organ of the Communist Party.
Since the addition of the 610 Office—an extra-legal police force similar to Germany’s Gestapo—to the PLAC in July 1999, cases of injustice have been almost uncountable, said human rights lawyer Mr. Li.
Former Party leader Jiang Zemin issued a command to the PLAC and the 610 Office in 1999 to “ruin Falun Gong practitioners’ reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically,” and “if a Falun Gong practitioner is beaten to death, it is counted as a suicide.”
Since then, thousands of cases of torture and death have been reported through the United Nations, Amnesty International, and the Falun Dafa Information Center.
Zhou Yongkang became the head of the PLAC in 2007 and the persecution against Falun Gong became more covert. In this position, Zhou’s tasks have been varied. He has been involved in silencing the protests of parents of children who were trapped under poorly constructed school buildings in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, initiating taking troops to Tibet after widespread reports of protests by self-immolated monks, and sourcing overseas Chinese students for intelligence work.
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