Reporting on your neighbor suddenly became a lucrative side business in China. The secret police force in Hebei Province recently issued a notice in the press advising that hefty rewards would be provided for citizens who informed on the religious activities of their peers—including those who signed their names to petitions or affixed their thumbprints to written protests against abuses by the police.
The notice was issued under the aegis of the Hebei Province 610 Office, whose official title is the Office for Preventing and Dealing With Heterodox Religions. The office, in fact, is a secret Communist Party agency that strictly speaking does not have a legal existence. It is the main agency in charge of the campaign to eliminate the Falun Gong spiritual practice, a traditional meditative discipline that has been targeted by Chinese authorities for 16 years.
“In order to fully mobilize the masses to inform on illegal heterodox religious activities, to actively participate in safeguarding social stability, the provincial People’s Government Office for Preventing and Dealing With Heterodox Religions has decided, beginning today, to provide awards for reports about illegal heterodox religious activities,” the notice said.
