Reports Indicate 'Mental Torture' Befalling Christians at Chinese 'Transformation Facilities'
The Chinese Communist Party is allegedly rounding up Christians and subjecting them to torture if they refuse to renounce their faith.
According to Radio Free Asia, a Christian in Sichuan’s southwestern province was detained in a facility run by the CCP’s United Front Work Department and the state security police. The source, who asked only to be identified as Li Yuese, said that he was held there for ten months after a 2018 raid on his church.
The CCP reportedly enforces “tight controls” over its citizens’ religious practices. Underground “house churches,” which do not ascribe to the CCP-approved version of Christianity, are often raided by police and religious bureau officials.
In addition to raids, members of these churches are said to be frequent targets for persecution.
A Survivor Shares His Experience
“It was a mobile facility, that could just set up in some basement somewhere,” Li said in an interview with RFA.. “It was staffed by people from several different government departments.”
“It had its own (CCP) political and legal affairs committee working group, and they mainly target Christians who are members of house churches.”
According to the source, he and his fellow inmates “hadn’t done anything that could trigger any criminal prosecution,” which is why officials sent them to “transformation” facilities. Describing his treatment during the imprisonment, the Christian claimed that he was held in a “windowless room,” where the staff beat and “mentally tortured” him.
“They use really underhand methods,” Li said. “They threaten, insult and intimidate you. These were United Front officials, men, women, sometimes unidentified, usually in plain clothes. The police turn a blind eye to this.”
Li went on to say that detainees like him were not allowed time outside, and the staff provided him with only “two meals a day.” If an inmate refused to “admit their mistakes,” then they could even be subjected to prolonged periods of solitary confinement.
“They were using brainwashing methods on those of us who were on bail from the detention center,” Li said, later noting that “there is no time limit for the brainwashing process.”
Religious Persecution and the CCP
Facilities like the one Li described are located throughout China, according to RFA. A lawyer surnamed Zhang said that, in 2013, he represented Catholics who “disappeared” after religious affairs officials arrested them for operating underground churches.
“Some were sent back home after five or six years, and that was how people learned about the brainwashing centers — from their accounts,” Zhang said.
Reports regarding China’s alleged persecution of people of faith are not limited to Christians, however. The CCP has also been accused of imprisoning its Uyghur Muslim population in labor camps and subjecting them to forced sterilization procedures.
To journalist Kenny Cody, it is “shocking” that political leaders “in our country and abroad” continue to ignore the “human rights violations” exposed in these reports.
“We keep seeing all of these American corporations and politicians advocating for boycotts of states like Georgia for an election law. But nothing is done when those same companies make millions upon millions off of Chinese investments,” Cody said in a Monday statement to The Western Journal.
“China is an ever-growing threat to Western Civilization and the rest of the world as a superpower; those in power here in the United States needs to step up and do something about their atrocities.”
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