4. Another Arrest
Another arrest was made after someone reported Ms. Liu Xiaolian and Mr. Wang Xiaohui for talking to others about the persecution of Falun Gong at a supermarket on September 13. On the same day, five officers from Cuiwei Police Station ransacked Mr. Wang’s home. That evening, the police took the two practitioners to Tongji Hospital and had them do a full physical examination.
The police transferred Mr. Wang to Huayuanlu Brainwashing Center in Wuchang district the next day on September 14.
(III) Signing Contracts with Former Practitioners
The PLACs and 610 Offices in Wuhan city and its various districts signed labor contracts with former Falun Gong practitioners in the beginning of 2021. These former practitioners, or collaborators, were hired to better deceive the practitioners into signing statements to renounce their faith.
They were paid well, with each collaborator receiving a basic monthly payment of 2,000 yuan with an additional 100 yuan per day to work in a brainwashing session. This added up to 5,000 yuan per month at least.
To do this job, a collaborator needs to obtain a certificate, which is recognised nationwide. If a brainwashing centre from outside of Wuhan wanted to hire a collaborator, it would have to pay at least 1,000 yuan each trip.
The collaborators followed the orders of the Wuhan PLAC and 610 Office, and they went from centre to center to brainwash practitioners in different districts. For instance, these collaborators worked in a brainwashing centre in Jiangan district in May and then went to Etouwan Brainwashing Centre in Qiaokou district in June.
Zhang Quanhao, a male collaborator, developed a set of theories to deceive the practitioners into giving up the practice. After the zero-out campaign started, Zhang was placed in a brainwashing centre in Jiangan district to torture the practitioners. At the same time, he assisted the local community officials in their efforts to harass practitioners at home.
Gong Lianghan, a female collaborator, went to some practitioners’ homes on March 19, 2021. She tried to coerce the practitioners to sign a statement to renounce the practice. If they refused, she would have them taken to a brainwashing centre.
Other collaborators went to the practitioners’ homes to spread misinformation and propaganda against Falun Gong. They demanded the practitioners help spread the propaganda material to other practitioners.
(IV) Former Police Recruited to Help Torture Practitioners in Brainwashing Center
Qu Shen worked as a bailiff in Jianghan District Procuratorate. He was transferred to a prevention office under the district’s PLAC after the persecution started in July 1999 and worked in a brainwashing centre to transform Falun Gong practitioners until he retired. The PLAC hired him back to help carry out the zero-out campaign.
According to local practitioners, the police have put hundreds of practitioners in the brainwashing centre in Jianghan district since the end of 1999. Some of them were locked in the centre for up to two years. Qu tortured and disabled many of these practitioners. He directly and indirectly caused the deaths of at least 17 practitioners and the mental breakdown of at least five practitioners.
During the zero-out campaign Qu travelled between different brainwashing centres in cities such as Wuhan, Yichang, Xianning, and Jingzhou. When staff members in a brainwashing centre came across a practitioner who refused to transform, they would call up Qu for help.
He weakened the practitioners’ will by depriving them of sleep and insulting and scolding them. He threatened to put them in solitary confinement if they refused to “transform.”
