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Within days, the CCPCC established a "Leadership Team for Dealing with the FG Problem" and the "Office of the CCPCC Leadership Team for Dealing with the FG Problem," thereafter known as the 610-Office for the date of its creation - June 10, 1999. FG was officially banned the following month, on July 22, 1999.
There is no record of legislation passed in 1999 or since establishing the 610-Office and defining its mandate. Indeed, according to Hao Fengjun, a former 610-Officer who defected to Australia in 2005: "It has never been mentioned in any formal legal document… The reason is that its existence is illegal even according to current Chinese legislation."[19] Instead, notification of its creation was achieved by circulating copies of Jiang's speech to every level of the CCP organs and government.[20] This method served to reinforce the 610-Office's wide-ranging powers by making all state bodies aware of Jiang's order to aid the agency: "All CCP central departments, administrative organs, all ministries, commissions, all provinces, self-governing districts, all cities directly under central government must cooperate with the [leadership] group very closely."[21]
The weight carried by such an order and its potential to override the Constitution becomes clearer when one considers the broader context of China's legal and political system. First, regarding the CCP's relationship to the Constitution, Daniel Chow states that "although the Constitution sets forth the basic outlines of state power, the real power structure in China is not to be found anywhere in the Constitution. Real power lies in the hands of the Communist Party."[22] Second, within the CCP, the top body is the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee, headed by the CCP General Secretary, "considered to be the top post in the Party since 1982."[23] At the time Jiang gave the above speech, he held this post. Moreover, two of the people he appointed to head the CCPCC Leadership Team and 610-Office were widely known as members of the Politburo.[24] In this context, any state official reading Jiang's speech would realize that the 610-Office's authority came from the pinnacle of state power in China. Moreover, with all PRC judges being CCP members, Jiang's order for cooperation essentially placed the 610-Office above the law. This action stood in direct violation of Article 5 of the Constitution.[25]
IV. Institutional Powers
The Leadership Team and 610-Office were given wide-ranging powers to fulfill their mandate of eradicating FG, including orders from Jiang Zemin to use every means necessary. In some cases this authority has been exercised directly, with 610-Officers' personally arresting, sentencing or torturing FG adherents. Much larger in scale, however, has been the bureau's indirect exercise of power, issuing orders to neighborhood committees and work units, overseeing prison visits, and instituting a system of "carrots and sticks" to coerce lower authorities to join the campaign.
A. Direct Persecution
Immediately after the ban was announced on 22 July 1999, adherents began to petition the authorities to lift it and allow them to practice freely. A key activity of the 610 Office soon became arresting petitioners. Jiang Xinxia, an art teacher from Shanghai, traveled to Beijing at the end of July and submitted a letter of appeal. According to Jiang, she was immediately arrested and driven her back to Shanghai, where:
"They locked me in a classroom [at the secondary school where she worked] and five or six policemen stayed there…They took turns interrogating me around the clock, not allowing me any sleep at all. All of the people came from the 610 Office. ... On August 18, I fainted during the interrogation and collapsed onto the floor. They then woke me up by pouring cold water over me."[26]
The treatment Jiang received appears to have been relatively "mild" compared to others. Hao Fengjun, a former 610 officer from Tianjin, tells of Sun Ti, a woman whose wounds he attended to because "after being interrogated by 610 policeman Mu Ruili, practitioner Sun Ti's back had turned black and blue in color. There were also two 20cm long cuts on her back."[27]
Indeed, what the 610-Office has become most notorious for among rights activists and FG adherents is its extreme use of torture. In an open letter reporting an investigation of the persecution against FG in Jilin Province, Beijing human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng concluded:
"Among the records of the government's inhuman torture of its own people, the immoral acts that shocked my soul the most were the lewd yet routine practice of attacking women's genitals by 610-Office staff and the police. Almost every woman's genital and breasts or every man's genital has been sexually assaulted in the persecution in a most vulgar fashion."[28]
In the same letter, Gao tells of a mother and son being tortured to death by 610 staff within days of their arrest.[29] Several United Nations Special Rapporteurs (UNSR) appealed to the Chinese authorities concerning a woman whose leg had to be amputated after 610-Office staff tortured her[30] and a woman whom a 610-Officer forced to have an abortion in her eight month of pregnancy.[31] 610-Officers have been known to administratively sentence FG adherents directly to labor camps,[32] detention centers,[33] and brainwashing classes.[34] In one case reported by the UNSR on Freedom of Expression, 610 officials reportedly sent an adherent to a mental hospital "where she was allegedly forcibly injected with nerve-damaging drugs."[35] In other instances, they have confiscated thousands of dollars from adherents.[36]
The 610-Office's responsibilities also extend beyond the criminal justice system and include direct involvement in generating anti-FG propaganda. In addition to surveillance, there is evidence of the 610 Office taking part in creating anti-FG propaganda. A key tactic for inciting public sentiment against FG and encouraging adherents to abandon their beliefs has been publicizing statements of alleged former practitioners citing regret for having practiced and thanking the government for "re-educating" them. Multiple sources indicate that such statements have been forcefully extracted and in several incidents, under direct 610-Office supervision. According to Hao Fengjun:
All those scenes [of FG on CCTV] are fake …I witnessed one fabrication of such a program. I saw a CCTV reporter interview FG practitioner Jing Zhanyi [a prominent adherent from Hebei Province], which was shot at our bureau… I witnessed how the head of our bureau 'teach' Mr. Jing what to say before the interview. He threaten[ed] Mr. Jing that if he fail[ed] to say what he was told, Jing would face the extension of [his] detention. As a result, in the interview, Mr. Jing was only reciting his lines like an actor."[37]
Jiang Xinxia speaks of a similar incident in Shanghai when she wrote an article denouncing FG because the 610 Office promised to release her and stop trying to 're-educate' her. The officers then took her to Shanghai Library where they forced her and other practitioners to read their statements on television.[38]
B. Indirect Coordination
While the above evidence illustrates how the 610-Office directly targets FG practitioners, more common is how it directs the actions of other institutions. It is through such "behind-the-scenes" coordination that the 610-Office has been able to persecute FG on a large scale despite limited resources. This section will first examine the 610-Office's relationship to government bodies and other social institutions. It will then consider the Office's use of "carrots and sticks" to encourage support of the campaign from police and low level officials.
A key indication of the 610-Office's wide-ranging authority is that government bodies receive orders from the 610-Office for actions regarding FG adherents. Many scholars have argued that a principle shortcoming of the Chinese legal system is the lack of judicial independence, with the CCP able to instruct courts on how to rule in supposedly "sensitive" cases.[39] Indeed, a central source of criticism in the CCP's handling of FG has been instructions issued by the Supreme People's Court that "courts at all levels must handle these cases under the leadership of the Party committees." [40] Besides these general directives, according to Chinese lawyer Guo Guoting, on an individual basis, "FG cases are not decided by the judge, but according to the 610-Office instructions."[41]
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