Communist Party Calls for Increased Efforts To "Transform" Falun Gong Practitioners as Part of Three-Year Campaign

Documents Detail 2010-2012 Campaign Against Falun Gong Practitioners

Several documents dated throughout 2010 from local governments, Party organizations, and other sources in locations throughout China describe implementation of a "2010-2012 Transformation-Through-Reeducation Assault and Consolidation Overall Battle Work Plan," a three-year, national campaign that calls on local governments, Party organizations, businesses, and individuals to increase efforts to implement "transformation through reeducation" (sometimes shortened to "transformation") against Falun Gong practitioners (Falun Gong is a spiritual movement based on Chinese meditative exercises called qigong and the teachings of its founder, Li Hongzhi). Sources include two documents from the China Anti-Cult Association (CACA)―an organization that characterizes itself as a "non-profit social organization" charged with "providing reports and suggestions to relevant government departments" on "the situation of cult activities and countermeasures" (Art. 2, Art. 6(4), Charter of the CACA, available in Chinese via the official Web site of the CACA)―describe some aspects of the campaign and elaborate on its theoretical basis. A table below provides summary information about the documents (all documents are in Chinese).

2010-2012 Campaign Seeks To Mobilize Various Sectors of Society To "Transform" Falun Gong Practitioners

Bolstering "transformation through reeducation"―a term the government and Party use to refer to the process of pressuring Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief in and practice of Falun Gong, sometimes through coercive, and in some cases, violent means―is the central theme of the 2010-2012 campaign (for more information on transformation through reeducation, see Section II―Freedom of Religion―Falun Gong in the CECC's 2010 Annual Report). For example, the April 13 Binhu Township Party and Government General Office document calls on authorities to "turn transformation through reeducation from a 'soft' duty into a 'hard' duty." In addition, four of the documents call for the establishment of special funds or an increase in funding for "transformation" efforts (Hepu County Water Bureau, Jiyuan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Chengxi Town Party Committee, Binhu Township Party and Government General Office). In many cases, authorities carry out "transformation" efforts in prisons, reeducation through labor centers, or "transformation through reeducation centers," and the August 5 CACA document highlights all three as the "main front" in the effort to "transform" Falun Gong practitioners. "Transformation through reeducation" can also apply to non-Falun Gong groups that authorities have designated as "cult" organizations (see a related CECC analysis), and the May 5 Tianwen Town People's Government document calls on authorities to "transform" followers of the Disciples Sect (Mentuhui), an indigenous Chinese sect that appears on a list of Chinese government and Party-designated "cults" issued by the Ministry of Public Security in 2000 (available via the Zhengqi Net Web site, 5 February 07).\

The documents describe a general framework for "transformation through reeducation" that includes as objectives: (1) to increase the number of people who renounce their belief in and practice of Falun Gong through "transformation," (2) to prevent people who have renounced their belief in and practice of Falun Gong from returning to the practice, and ultimately (3) to "return" those people to "normal lives in society." In accordance with this general framework, the campaign is divided into three, year-long stages, lasting from 2010-2012. The three stages of the campaign focus on themes that include the following:

The documents also call for the establishment of mechanisms to place greater responsibility for "transformation" work on actors at the local level, such as governments, Party organizations, businesses, and individuals. For example, the April 6 Jiyuan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology document calls on the 6-10 Office of the Jiyuan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology to sign "responsibility agreements" with various businesses and to assess the "transformation" work of those businesses on a regular basis. In some cases, local governments have established specific, numerical targets. For example, the April 26 General Office of the Ruichang Municipal People's Government document establishes the following targets: to reduce by 50 percent the number of people who had not been "transformed" by the end of 2009, and to keep the proportion of "recidivists" and "unstable people" within 10 percent of "transformed" Falun Gong practitioners.

The mechanisms to place greater responsibility at the local level include personalized, and in some cases, invasive measures that reach into the workplaces and homes of Falun Gong practitioners. For example, the May 5 Tianwen Town People's Government document calls on authorities to "mobilize and organize basic-level Party organizations and mass organizations, form responsibility help and education small groups, and enter the villages and homes [of Falun Gong practitioners] to conduct an educational assault." The April 6 Jiyuan Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology document calls on local authorities to require local businesses to establish "transformation through reeducation assault work small groups" and develop an individual plan to "transform" each employee who has not been "transformed." The June 13 Jiangxi Provincial Reeducation Through Labor Administration Bureau document calls for people's police to improve their knowledge and studies of sociology, medicine, psychology, and religion as part of their "transformation through reeducation" work.

Communist Party Takes Lead Role in 2010-2012 Campaign

The documents indicate that the Party has taken a lead role in initiating and overseeing the 2010-2012 campaign. Three of the documents cite the 17th Party Congress as a basis for the campaign (Hepu County Water Bureau; CACA, 5 August 10; Longnan County Bureau of Industry and Information Technology), and the August 5 CACA document states specifically that the 17th Party Congress "put forward a new, higher requirement" in "the work of dealing with cults, including transformation through reeducation." Three of the documents note that authorities from the 6-10 Office at the central, provincial, municipal, and county levels have required local government authorities to participate in the campaign (Chengxi Town Party Committee, Longbu Town Party Committee, General Office of the Ningdu County People's Government). The August 5 CACA report describes "the work of transformation through reeducation" as "led by the Party committees, with the cooperation of relevant [government] departments ...." The same document draws a link between the role of the Party and the political nature of the 2010-2012 campaign when it states: "'Falun Gong' has thoroughly revealed its features as a reactionary political organization: being nurtured by Western―primarily American―anti-China forces and 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces, having the goal of overturning the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and conducting activities as a cult organization." The document also refers to "transformation through reeducation work" as a "test of [the] Party's ability to govern."

For more information about conditions for Falun Gong practitioners in China, see Section II―Freedom of Religion―Falun Gong in the CECC's 2010 Annual Report.