Guangzhou City's "Education Classes"

On December 15, 2000, the city of Guangzhou took sudden actions and forcibly locked up many Falun Dafa practitioners into "education classes." The so-called "education classes" are mandatory and cut-off from the outside world. During the "classes," practitioners had no physical freedom and their phone calls, if any, were restricted and monitored. The police and other staff could beat and curse practitioners at will; practitioners' conversations were monitored, interfered with, and recorded; their relatives and friends could not visit them unless they obtained prior permission which, was often times rejected. The practitioners paid all the living expenses of the "education classes." The expenses were usually formidably high, amounting to over 2,000 yuan (US$240, or about 4 months' income of an average worker in China) for the 15 days. These so-called "education classes" contained nothing substantial, but were simply another form of illegal custody. The police adopted different tricks to bring the practitioners to the "classes." Many practitioners were coaxed. For instance, some practitioners were asked to have a talk with the officers in the police station. It turned out that they were then put into the "classes." No practitioners in the "education classes" were informed of why they were taken into custody, what would happen in the "classes," or how long they would be detained, etc. In addition, the police presented no documents to the practitioners during the process. It seemed that even the police themselves knew that they were doing something shameful. Many practitioners reasoned with the staff on duty and pointed out that such "education classes" were actually illegal custody. In response, one staff head said shamelessly, "On the matter of Falun Gong, no reason or law needs to be applied. We can do whatever we want." By January 1, 2001, many practitioners had been detained in the "classes" for over 15 days and had not been released. Some practitioners who had gone to Beijing to validate Dafa were put into the "classes" immediately after they were released from the detention centers. During the "classes," some practitioners were brought to labor camps to meet with some so-called "transformed" people who would attempt to transform them. Another more deceptive method is the police negotiate with the practitioners to choose between attending "education classes" or retaining physical freedom but to be "on-call" by police for questioning or dinner. (Surprisingly, the police always took practitioners to luxurious places and reimbursed all expenses. During the dinner, nothing about Falun Gong was mentioned. They were trying to use this method to split up practitioners.) According to some staff from the government, this was a nation-wide campaign. Similar "classes" have been held many times since July 2000. The timing was always set on public holidays or sensitive dates, such as July 22 (the beginning of the crackdown), October 1 (National Day), December 20 (the return of Macao), January 1 (New Year's Day), etc. In face of such blunt illegal actions, Dafa practitioners took all measures to protest. Some practitioners in a "class" held in Zhuhai District of Guangzhou went on a hunger strike. Instead of taking constructive measures to resolve the problem, the police station threatened the practitioners that if they continued the hunger strike, they would be sent to labor camps. A positive aspect, as it turns out, is that more and more family members and colleagues of the practitioners came to recognize the truth and the illegal actions taken by the governmental law-enforcement bodies against Falun Gong practitioners. All of these actions were unanimously condemned. Practitioners from Guangzhou Guangdong Province January 1, 2001