WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ten years have passed since over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners appealed to the Chinese Communist regime on April 25, 1999 for recognition and the right to practice in peace. To commemorate that appeal, a number of events were held April 30 in Washington, D.C. to raise awareness of the ongoing persecution, including a forum where speakers offered their experiences related to the 10-year persecution.
Sun Yanjun, visiting professor of Psychology of Religion at the University of Hawaii (Hilo), spoke at a forum on Capitol Hill. Sun was joined by a number of victims of persecution as well as family members of people recently incarcerated in China. Dr. Ved Pratap Vaidik, Chairman of the Council for Indian Foreign Policy, also spoke at this event.
“Research into religious psychology is being conducted by the Chinese communist regime so as to better control, manage, and persecute religious groups in China,” said Professor Sun Yanjun.
In 2008, the Chinese regime sent Professor Sun to the United States to research psychological methods for use in persecution. They sought to use these methods to force religious groups to conform to their communist system. However, Professor Sun quit both the research project and the Chinese Communist Party. For the latter, he used his real name, making a safe return to China impossible. Dr. Sun was an associate professor at the Department of Psychology of Capital Normal University (Beijing).
Professor Sun was the first Chinese academic to earn a doctoral degree in Religious Psychology and also the first in the History of Psychological Thought. After engaging in research in the United States, the original plan was for him to return to China to establish a research institute and laboratory for religious psychology that would enable the regime to achieve its political goals.
“In order to preserve the one-party dictatorship, Chinese officials have long since employed all useful related scientific fields, such as psychiatry and neurophysiology in persecuting Falun Gong and other religious groups. As violence and deceit became of no use [in persuading believers to give up their faith], they had no choice but to seek more nuanced, more deceitful methods,” said Professor Sun.
“Psychology is perfectly matched for these needs. With psychological torture, as compared with other forms, the methods are easier to conceal, the effects are more apparent, the political costs are less, but the damage to the religious group is more extensive, deeper, and longer lasting.”
“Psychology can be used in slandering Falun Gong and other religious groups, in controlling their behavior, deceiving their emotions, confusing them, and in the end shaking and finally destroying the core of their belief,” said Professor Sun.
Victims Share Their Stories
Zhang Yijie, a former official at the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, described the methods used against her to try to break her will in practicing Falun Gong: 28 months of complete alienation from human contact, sleep deprivation for 42 days, solitary confinement, and beatings that left her injured from head to toe. When the Communist regime began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, officials at the Ministry of Commerce pressured her to give up Falun Gong, but she refused. She was then fired and forced to find employment doing janitorial work. Because of her efforts to appeal for Falun Gong, she was arrested seven times and persecuted to give up her beliefs. She eventually escaped to Thailand and was granted asylum in the U.S. through the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Twenty-year-old Chen Teng began practicing Falun Gong with his mother when he was 7. Since the persecution began his mother has been arrested six times and he has been on the go for much of the last six years. Kicked out of school when he was 12, he had to flee home the following year to avoid persecution. He has mostly led a homeless life, sleeping outside and sustaining himself with whatever food he could find.
Pang Jin, a student at Missouri State University, spoke how her mother, Hao Junping, and aunt Hao Junfeng, were arrested in Shandong province when the Olympic Torch was passing through last year. Her mother has been detained for around nine months but they have lost contact. Her father, who does not practice Falun Gong, was detained for a month for trying to protect his wife. His car was also stolen by the police.
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