(Minghui.org) Guangdong Legal Education Center, also known as Sanshui Brainwashing Center, is a black jail operated by the Guangdong 610 Office.
Black jails are a network of extralegal detention centers established across the People's Republic of China.
Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained at this facility over the years. They are subjected to numerous physical and psychological abuses, the sole purpose of which is to force practitioners to renounce their spiritual belief.
In its early years, this brainwashing center was known for beating practitioners with electric batons, burning them with hot water, and rubbing salt on their open wounds. It was also reported that practitioners were given unknown drugs in their food, which resulted in dementia.
A change in tactics began a few years ago. The guards now utilize more subtle and deceptive methods to coerce practitioners into giving up their beliefs. It is said that the entire staff is highly trained and specialized in detecting and exploiting psychological weaknesses.
Unlike a forced labor camp, where Falun Gong practitioners were treated as criminals, practitioners here are given, at least initially, comfortable living quarters and tasty food. The staff treats newcomers as friends, with the intention of learning about their personal lives, cultivation experience, and general interests. They sympathize and even agree with practitioners' understandings and experiences. They show a high degree of understanding and respect towards practitioners. Once they establish a relationship of trust with practitioners, they try to influence them with distorted interpretations of the teachings of Falun Gong.
Despite the soft treatment, practitioners have no freedom. Each practitioner is held in an isolation room and monitored by an assistant. Every room is equipped with surveillance cameras. Practitioners cannot leave their rooms except for scheduled walks. Food is brought in by the assistant.
Practitioners are denied access to the outside world and forbidden to read Falun Gong books or do Falun Gong exercises. They are made to follow a strict daily routine and subjected to random searches and physical examinations. The staff creates an individualized plan for each practitioner based on his or her background, family situation, and history. The staff holds regular meetings to discuss each practitioner's progress and modify their plans accordingly.
Some of the typical tactics used are:• Slandering the Minghui website, a website established by practitioners that publishes experience sharing articles about cultivation, the persecution, and other content.• Distorting facts and claiming that practitioners had put themselves and their families in danger.• Forcing practitioners to watch propaganda videos that defame Falun Gong and requiring them to write thought reports.• Having family members cooperate with police in “transforming” practitioners.
Practitioners are told that they will be transferred to another detention center if they refuse to renounce Falun Gong. If a practitioner still refuses to be “transformed” after two or three months, physical methods come into play. Practitioners may be deprived of sleep or physically punished.
According to incomplete information, there are currently at least four practitioners detained in the Sanshui Brainwashing Center:
1. Ms. Ye Xiaojie, in her late 50s, was arrested and taken to the brainwashing center on February 24, 2017.2. Ms. Hu Shunhua was arrested on January 22, 2017 for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. She was taken to the No.2 Detention Center of Dongguan before being transferred to the center in February 2017.3. Ms. Zhu Yuhong was arrested on November 15, 2016. Her family was told that she had been taken to the center.4. Mr. Li Yun was arrested and taken to the center on March 29, 2017.