(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners have persisted with their peaceful resistance of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution over the past 14 years, and the persecution is thus facing a dead end. As a result of ever-increasing pressure from the people, labor camps – one of the primary evil settings for committing persecution – have started releasing detained Falun Gong practitioners.
The Xidayingzi Labor Camp in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, has recently released all detained Falun Gong practitioners. These practitioners had been rounded up and arrested from different locales throughout China.
On July 5, 2013, the majority of the Falun Gong practitioners illegally detained at the Xin'an Labor Camp in Beijing were released. The released practitioners were picked up from the labor camp by either their family members or their local police officers.
The Women's Labor Camp in Beijing started releasing Falun Gong practitioners in May. By July, no Falun Gong practitioners were detained there.
Shameless Abuse of Detainees
Living conditions at the labor camp in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, are very bad. Twenty people live in one room, about 40 square meters (about 430 square feet) in size.
Breakfast at the labor camp is usually just a cornmeal patty, and lunch consists of nothing more than a steamed bun. The only vegetable dish is bok choy soup. Most detainees are starving, yet they are still forced to perform slave labor for 11 hours each day, including Saturdays and Sundays.
The Chaoyang City labor camp utilizes the most primitive means of making a profit. No work protection is provided, and the living and slave-labor work conditions have caused serious harm to practitioners' health.
Disgraceful Slave Labor Practices
Labor camps have even been known to trade Falun Gong practitioners like slaves. In May 2009, the Xidayingzi Labor Camp purchased detainees and Falun Gong practitioners from the Xin'an Labor Camp in Beijing.
In June 2010, the Xidayingzi Labor Camp bought their fourth batch of Falun Gong practitioners and detainees. Among the purchased Falun Gong practitioners were Liu Wen (from Zhuozhou, Heibei Province), Yin Yixin (from Zhang Jia Kou, Heibei Province), Li Qian (from Dezhou, Shandong Province), Liu Xingdong (from Heilongjiang Province), Wang Fangpu (from Zhang Jia Kou, Heibei Province), Hu Qin (from Guizhou Province), Zhang Xiaodong (from Urumqi, Xinjiang Province), Yu Hongtao (from Yichun, Heilongjiang Province), Ren Hongwei (from Fushun, Liaoning Province), Wang Yanming (from Shandong Province), and Zeng Tai (from Sichuan Province). Other practitioners whose names are unknown were also purchased.
With each purchase, the Xidayingzi Labor Camp bought 40 individuals, paying 800 yuan (about 130 USD) for each person. Thus, the labor camp detained Falun Gong practitioners from many different locales.
On April 25, 2012, Li Ziming from Hebei Province was transferred from the Xin'an Labor Camp in Beijing to the labor camp in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, for further persecution.
Labor Camp System Used for Evil
The CCP's labor camp system was established in the late 1950s during its persecution of the “rightists.” Over the past 14 years, this system has been used to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong practitioners are forced to perform slave labor in the labor camps, oftentimes in poisonous environments. Within such harsh environments, guards harass practitioners, hoping to force them to abandon their belief – this is specifically called “transformation.” Those who refuse to be “transformed” are tortured and even killed.
Throughout the entire course of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, practitioners around the world have dedicated themselves to exposing the atrocious crimes in the labor camps in China. The Minghui website reports daily on specific accounts of torture and slave labor the labor camps. The perseverance of Falun Gong practitioners, coupled with the condemnation from people everywhere inside and outside of China, have caused some labor camps to release detained Falun Gong practitioners.
The CCP has claimed that they have abolished their labor camp system, but this is only a cover up due to outside pressure. The evil nature of the CCP has not changed. The party is still persecuting Falun Gong practitioners in many ways, such as sentencing them to prison without due process of law or torturing them physically and mentally in brainwashing centers.
Recent Accounts of Harassment
Li Chao, chief of the Public Security Bureau, and Zhao Jing, secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Chaoyang City, recently harassed innocent citizens under the pretense of “maintaining public security.”
The two officials forced businesses near the Chaoyang Stadium to sign paperwork stating that no one in their establishment practices Falun Gong. They also went to private homes one by one, forcing residents to sign similar documents.
Falun Gong practitioners will continue to resist and expose the persecution, hoping that all people will join the effort. All Chinese citizens are victims of the tyranny of the CCP. Resisting the persecution of Falun Gong is protecting the rights of all Chinese citizens.