(Clearwisdom.net)

In early May, 2001, the district of Baoding established a brainwashing class to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief. On May 11, 2001, officials from the 610 Office of Beishi District and various local committees kidnapped 24 Falun Gong practitioners for brainwashing.

The responsible people were:

Zhang, male, in his 40s, is the coordinator for the persecution.

Xu Xiujuan, female, about 50, vice-minister of the Beishi Organization Department, is in charge of records and material.

Gao, male, 38 to 39, is the director of the 610 Office.

Staff for the class include veterans Zhang Jinlong and Song Min. Some people from local resident offices, resident committees, and governments were also involved.

Director Gao of the Beishi District 610 Office declared that this brainwashing class is for the long-term. Only those who write guarantees (to stop practicing Falun Gong) may leave. In order to be released, one must make three required slanderous remarks toward Falun Dafa and pay 1000 Yuan. [the average monthly salary is 500 Yuan in cities in China.] Practitioners who do not write guarantees are sent to labor camps or sentenced to prison. Some "transformed" practitioners, those who had formerly given up Falun Dafa after attending brainwashing classes came and attempted to deceive practitioners and slander Falun Dafa. In the classes, practitioners were constantly monitored by one or more attendants, day and night. During the day, transformed individuals constantly surround practitioners, attempting to brainwash them. At night, practitioners are forced to watch TV programs that slander Falun Gong and are required to write reports afterwards. Practitioners are forbidden to practice the exercises, to read Falun Gong books, or to visit or talk to other practitioners. Practitioners are even accompanied to the bathroom. Practitioners were kept in solitary confinement and bullied and beaten by hired thugs.

Dafa practitioner Rong Fengxian was tortured to death in this brainwashing class. Ms. Rong, in her 30s, was from Yindingzhuang Village, Jinzhuang, Baoding City. According to her neighbors, she was an intelligent, kind, and honest lady who respected her parents and in-laws. She was a good wife and good mother. Villagers said that she was a good person but was arrested because she practiced Falun Gong.

Ms. Rong resisted strongly in the brainwashing class and never cooperated with her captors. She was on hunger-strike for six days without water. She insisted on practicing the exercises when she was not allowed to. Forbidden to study Zhuan Falun [main teaching of Falun Gong], she memorized Hong Ying [poems of Mr. Li Hongzhi ] and wrote the poems out on the blackboard. Her captors tortured her because she held on to her righteous belief in Falun Dafa and did not give in. The chairman of the Jinzhuang Political Consultative Association (a woman in her 40's) kicked her. Hired thugs beat and cursed her. They called her family members in, made her husband beat her and made her 70-80 year-old mother get down on her hands and knees to beg her to write a guarantee to give up Falun Dafa. Ms. Rong saw through these tricks and refused to cooperate. She did not want to endure passively and sought an opportunity to escape. They caught her. That night, led by the chairman, more than a dozen people (including her relatives!) surrounded her and verbally abused her for hours. Then they sent her to a mental hospital. The hospital did not allow her family to stay with her. The third day, the hospital informed her family that she had died. The hospital gave the family 7000 Yuan as compensation. Her family members did not dare to ask how she died. We are still investigating the details.

Song, a representative of the 610 Office, said that it was not responsible for Ms. Rong's death.

During the thirteen days of the brainwashing class sponsored by the Beishi District, of the 24 practitioners, one died from torture, three were sent to the hospital to be resuscitated and one is still in a coma. Many practitioners refused to cooperate. The evil force will never be able to change true practitioners' hearts.