On this episode of China Uncensored,
it’s not legal.
It’s extralegal!
Which in this case should be extra-illegal!
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
China’s Game of Thrones.
Like the actual Game of Thrones,
it seems like we’ve been waiting for the final chapter forever.
But at least there’s been another interesting plot twist.
And it has to do with the shadowy 610 Office:
China’s gestapo.
It was named after the date it was created,
because calling it the “Central Leading Group
to Kidnap and Torture People for Gathering in Parks”
sounds good,
but wouldn't fit on the business cards.
Former Chinese leader
and moldy toad in the hole, Jiang Zemin
created it as a way
to cement his power
and get rid of the biggest threat to China:
People... sitting with their eyes closed.
You see,
Jiang was facing a problem.
He hated Falun Gong,
but China has laws.
At least on paper.
Like that stupid constitution
that guarantees people the right to freedom of assembly
and religion.
It's true that laws in China
are often selectively enforced.
But if you arrest huge numbers of innocent people
and torture them in labor camps,
some of them might still try to take you to court.
So Jiang created the 610 Office handle this problem
outside the pesky law.
Instead of being within the Chinese government,
the 610 Office and its secret police force
all reported directly to him.
Problem solved.
Also,
controlling a multi-billion-dollar
nationwide paramilitary force
is good for hanging on to power in general.
In fact,
that's one of the top tips in Chairman Mao's
Little Red Book, Volume 2:
Leadership Tips for Dictators and Other Megalomaniacs.
It's a lesser known work.
The 610 Office was in charge of anti-Falun Gong propaganda,
as well as monitoring, punishing, "reeducating" and
"transforming" Falun Gong practitioners.
Over the years,
the 610 Office expanded from "handling" Falun Gong issues
to also dealing with people who believed in other
"unapproved" spiritual practices,
like house church Christians and Buddhists.
And sometimes people who were on the Party's blacklist
for other reasons.
Remember blind Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng,
who dramatically escaped house arrest in 2012
and made it to the US Embassy?
The 610 Office was the one that put him under house arrest
and continually harassed his family.
But now it's 2016,
and there’s a new sheriff in town!
And he don’t cotton to...
organizations that don’t answer directly to him.
That’s why recently,
Xi Jinping’s investigators have put the 610 Office
in the crosshairs.
Couldn’t have happened to nicer people.
So what are the investigators saying about
the 610 Office now?
In no uncertain terms,
they’re accusing the 610 Office of
“a disparity in comprehensively studying and implementing
the spirit of the rule of law.”
Boom!
…I have no idea what that means.
Let me check my trusty Communist Party Newspeak Translator.
Accusing them of “illegal behavior”
is actually a way bigger deal than it sounds,
given how cloak-and-dagger the Communist Party’s
high level power struggles are.
There was once a time
when the name “610 Office”
could not even be uttered in public.
Those who did met with brutal retribution.
Chinese rights activist Gao Zhisheng
wrote this about the 610 Office:
“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 genitals and breasts
or every man’s genitals
have been sexually assaulted during the persecution
in a most vulgar fashion.”
What do you get for naming
the most brutal and secretive organization in China?
Long term imprisonment and torture.
They really do like that torture thing.
But over the past several years,
Xi Jinping has been scraping away at the 610 Office.
It’s tied to his so-called anti-corruption campaign,
which really has more to do with systematically purging the Communist Party
of people with ties to Jiang.
Getting rid of the 610 Office
is a long process that takes years of delicate political maneuvering.
I mean,
this is the Grand Inquisitor in charge of the purge.
Just look at the depths of sadness
in this man’s soul.
Here’s how it’s gone so far.
In 2013,
610 Office Director Li Dongsheng
was purged in a dramatic fashion.
Of course,
officially it was for something else:
taking bribes.
Think of it as the Chinese equivalent
of convicting Al Capone on income tax evasion—
if Al Capone was also the government’s vice minister
of public security.
Which gives you an idea of just how corrupt
things are in China.
Then in July this year,
Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption investigators
formally put the entire 610 Office
“under investigation.”
And now with this month’s formal charges of...
“illegal behavior,”
it’s clear that Xi is intent on completely dismantling it.
So why is he dismantling the 610 Office?
It’s bad PR.
And I don’t mean Anthony-Weiner's-inability-to-stop-using-Twitter level
bad PR.
I mean torturing-and-mass-murdering-dissidents level
bad PR.
The 610 Office has done unspeakable things.
And by unspeakable,
I mean Western media with bureaus in China
dare not speak of them—
for fear of getting their visas revoked
and their offices in Beijing shut down.
Which is one of the reasons why you’ve heard
so little about it.
But now, as things start coming to light in overseas media run by,
you know,
“hostile foreign forces,”
Xi Jinping doesn’t want to be left holding the bag.
To be fair,
I wouldn't want to be holding Jiang Zemin's bag either.
Who knows what's in there…
So getting rid of the 610 Office
makes Xi Jinping look good.
And it’s also an opportunity to purge his political enemies
within Jiang Zemin’s faction.
It’s like killing two birds with one charge of a disparity
in comprehensively studying and implementing the spirit
of the rule of law.
The question is,
if Xi breaks up the 610 Office,
what happens to the functions that the office
used to carry out?
Like imprisoning dissidents outside the law
and torturing them to death?
Does that stop,
or does it get taken over by other Party organs?
At this point, that's not clear.
Some China analysts think that this may be a signal
that Xi is going to back off on the Falun Gong issue.
But what do you think?
Is Xi Jinping truly out to reform China?
Or is he just a dictator trying to amass power?
That’s the cliffhanger we’re stuck with
until next season.
Leave your comments below.
And if you’d like to support my team
in continuing to un-censor China,
please support us on Patreon.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell,
see you next time.