After 14 years of being subjected to relentless brutality, including unlawful incarceration, torture, and state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting, Falun Gong practitioners in China have lately reported a softening attitude by some police toward the spiritual movement.
Since 1999, when former regime leader Jiang Zemin gave orders to exterminate the vastly popular meditation and exercise practice, Falun Gong practitioners around the globe have maintained their peaceful protests to resist the persecution and inform the public of the facts.
Millions of people in many countries have signed petitions to end the persecution of Falun Gong, and several governments have also issued proclamations to that effect. In China, thousands of people have put their names and thumbprints on dozens of petitions to free individual practitioners from detention.
According to some China analysts, the current Chinese leaders are feeling pressure to deal with the persecution, however, they don’t want to deal with it openly as it would implicate the entire Communist Party and might collapse the regime. According to these analysts, the current leaders intend to use Xi’s anti-corruption campaign to take down the top officials responsible for carrying out the persecution and charge them with corruption instead of genocide and organ pillaging from tens of thousands of captive Falun Gong prisoners.
The recent arrests of Li Dongsheng and Zhou Yongkong, both high-level officials responsible for the campaign against Falun Gong, bear out the validity of this opinion.
Under Arrest
On the evening of Dec. 20, 2013, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Commission for Discipline announced that Li Dongsheng, Deputy Minister of Public Security and Director of the Central 610 Office, was under investigation for “serious violations of the law,” an apparent reference to corruption.
The “610 Office” is the highest-level organization within the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) the communist regime under Jiang Zemin created to persecute Falun Gong. While Li’s position as head of the 610 Office has always been kept semi-secret, in the announcement of his investigation it was mentioned as his first official title, which can be seen as a hint that the persecution of Falun Gong, not graft, is central to Li’s probe.
Li Dongsheng has close ties to Zhou Yongkang, the former Secretary of the PLAC, China’s massive security apparatus. Known as China’s security csar, Zhou Yongkang was also a Politburo Standing Committee member before his retirement in 2012 and was one of the most powerful men in China as well as one of the highest-level officials responsible for the campaign against Falun Gong.
Zhou is also under investigation. Though not yet officially confirmed, his arrest has been confirmed by multiple sources, including Reuters.
Zhou and Li, among others, were personally chosen by Jiang Zemin to carry out his genocidal campaign against Falun Gong. Hundreds of officials and associates of the trio have allegedly been removed from their positions during the past 18 months and are under investigation.
These arrests are said to have caused panic among Jiang Zemin’s faction and in the legal, judicial, and police systems. Police and other security officers now fear that they too may be held accountable for crimes they committed against Falun Gong practitioners.
Police: ‘We Were Wrong’
According to reports on Minghui.org, a website maintained by Falun Gong practitioners to document the persecution, many policemen have realized that they should no longer follow orders to persecute Falun Gong.
Many Falun Gong practitioners, both inside and outside of China, make phone calls to Chinese law enforcement officials, explaining the facts to them and warning them of the consequences of participating in the persecution.
According to one report, in early January, a practitioner by the name of Benny made a call to a police station in China. Initially the officers didn’t want to listen to her. But after she told them that Li Dongsheng had been formally detained and was under investigation, they then listened. They also took down the number for the New York based World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, saying they would report other officers who had committed crimes against Falun Gong in order to atone for their own misdeeds.
Another practitioner, who called a policeman in China, was badly berated by him. But later the policeman gave the practitioner his private number. Practitioner Benny called him back, and this time the policeman was very polite. He said: “Do you know why I cursed at your friend? It is because my [other] phone is tapped and I needed to protect myself. I know that your friend called to help me and that he is a very nice person. The things he said to me are true, the CCP always finds scapegoats for the crimes it committed in its past movements.”
This policeman then promised he would protect Falun Gong practitioners he comes across.
On Jan. 17, two Falun Gong practitioners in Shandong Province distributed pamphlets on the street and encouraged people to withdraw from the CCP. Two policemen walked up to the practitioners, which generally means that they would be arrested. One of the policemen said, “Falun Gong distributing flyers.” The policemen stared at the practitioners for a moment, then looked at each other with a smile and just walked away.
In another report, a Falun Gong practitioner in Chongqing City said he visited a police station and overheard a man reporting on his neighbor for practicing Falun Gong. Instead of rewarding the man, the police chief became annoyed with him, saying: “His practice has nothing to do with you; the more people that practice, the better!”
A 610 Office staff member in Chongqing City came to Shabao Woman’s Forced Labor Camp to pick up released Falun Gong practitioners. He was heard saying: “We are so wrong persecuting Falun Gong. I can never understand the CCP’s policy-making.”
A Falun Gong practitioner mailed a letter with facts about the persecution to the head of a county 610 Office. After reading the letter, the 610 Office head quit his job.
A man who stated that he has been in the police force for over 20 years quit the CCP using an alias on the Epoch Times website. He said very bad things have happened to many policemen he knew who participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. He would not sell his life to the CCP and would stop harassing Falun Gong practitioners. He also advised his wife and child to never join the CCP or its affiliated groups.
Translated by Hsin Yi. Written in English by Gisela Sommer.
Read the original Chinese article.
