China’s Mass Brainwashing for the Modern Age

WHO SAID BRAINWASHING in China was passé? The Congressional-Executive Commission on China has compiled a rather frightening little list showing that it is still rather in vogue. At least against anyone who happens to practice Falun Gong, the spiritual discipline.

Documents they have collected–the same ones we reported about six months ago here and here–portray a persecution that is both terrifying and, at least on paper, banal. The key word is "quotas." Everything is metered: "transformation" rates, "recidivism" rates, and even things called "responsibility agreements" that local businesses are forced to sign, so that they will hand over their Falun Gong staff to the government doctors in white coats.

For those who don't know much about this, see the Wikipedia page for as good an introduction as any. Here is the basic table that shows what the new campaign hopes to achieve:

In case it is unclear, "transformation" refers to brainwashing through phsyical and psychological torture. We needn't get into the details here. See the second article above. It's not something you want to happen to anyone you love.

There is much more of interest:

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.

This seems to recall the Party's general strategy for "outsourcing" censorship over the last few years. It is a golden rule: don't waste your own manpower doing this stuff, just punish other parties for not doing it. The responsibility is pushed lower down the system. Ian Johnson wrote about this in his Pulitzer-winning series. The end result is that the cop with the electric baton is going to get his pay docked if he doesn't get a "confession" from the helpless, middle-aged woman who practices Falun Gong. So he smashes her face in and kills her in pursuit of that. No one wants to lose a portion of their pay packet, but only under a uniquely grotesque set of circumstances will a man be driven to commit such evils to avoid it. Such is modern China.

More: 

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. 

The other valuable thing about these documents is that they directly implicate Party Central in the campaign. It's not that any more proof was needed, it's just important from the perspective of rock-solid evidence. The apparatchiks at the top never just "banned" Falun Gong and then some local roughs got a bit too excited. It's that the whole thing is driven from the top:

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." 

There's a lot more there. Read the full release. In conclusion I reproduce their table but with the links swapped out for permanent ones, from webcitation.org. As flippant as the cadres appear to be about letting this news get out, they sometimes do take things down that have caught on in the media (though don't go holding your breath for the MSM to pick this story up). CECC uses the direct Party links. Below are permalinks for perpetual reference:

Their release on March 22 comes almost a year after the documents first surfaced. But better late than never. And the meticulous arrangement they have given the material more than makes up for the tardiness.