The Chinese state-owned oil company looking to close a record-setting takeover of Calgary-based Nexen is one of China’s most abusive employers, directing its security forces to arrest and imprison Falun Gong adherents.
Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese self-cultivation, or self-improvement practice was banned in China in 1999 after its popularity surpassed that of the Chinese Communist Party. Since then, the Party has carried out a bloody crackdown on the group.
The Epoch Times has learned of several cases of Falun Gong adherents being arrested by the security forces of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and its subsidiary, the Bohai Oil Corporation.
In total, the company has persecuted over 100 employees for practicing Falun Dafa, says a spokesperson for the group.
CNOOC’s sprawling operations in Tianjin on the northeast coast of China encompass daily life. The company’s Bohai operations include everything from transit to housing. There, among the thousands of workers, were many Falun Gong adherents.
In several cases, security forces for Bohai directly detained adherents, sometimes ransacking their homes or detaining them for weeks at a time. In some instances, adherents who refused to renounce Falun Dafa were fired, but more often, they were taken by company security officers to detention centres and brainwashing facilities.
In January 2001, dozens of employees were sent to brainwashing centres; those who did not renounce the practice were subsequently sent to labour camps.
