(Minghui.org) Five Falun Gong practitioners in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province were held at a local brainwashing center for 18 days prior to the Chinese communist regime's 70th anniversary on October 1, 2019, a date deemed “politically sensitive.”
Several group arrests and harassment of practitioners across the country were also reported in September 2019.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
A policewoman knocked on Ms. Jiang Chunya's door on the morning of September 16, 2019. Posing as Ms. Jiang's downstairs neighbor, she claimed to have a ceiling leak in her kitchen and asked to check whether Ms. Jiang's kitchen pipes were leaking.
After Ms. Jiang opened the door, three male officers showed up and arrested her. The officers took her to the brainwashing center in the Xiongfeng Resort Center in Ninghai County, about a one-hour drive from Ningbo. This was the fourth time that Ms. Jiang was held at the brainwashing center.
Four other practitioners, including Ms. Zhang Chunyao, Ms. Wen Renying, Ms. Qian Defen, and Ms. Zhu Peiting, were also sent to the brainwashing center around the same time.
Each practitioner was confined to a hotel room, with two staff members monitoring them. Meals were delivered to the room and the practitioners weren't allowed to leave. Police and security personnel stayed in the rooms near the exit, which also had officers on guard around the clock. The practitioner would get a warning if they just stood at the door of their room.
The practitioners were forced to watch propaganda videos attacking Falun Gong on closed-circuit television. The volume was set very high so as to increase the mental torment.
Wu Jieqiong, director of the Comprehensive Management Office in Haishu District, videotaped and photographed Ms. Jiang without her consent and then reported her “brainwashing status” to the local 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhang urged the staff members not to participate in the persecution, but they laughed at her and threatened to hold her there for three more months.
All five practitioners were released on October 3, 2019.
Category: Brainwashing
