Editing Falun Gong (section)

===Conversion programs===
According to James Tong, the regime aimed at both coercive dissolution of the Falun Gong denomination and "transformation" of the practitioners.<ref>{{harvp|Tong|2009|p=105}}</ref> By 2000, the CCP escalated its campaign by sentencing "recidivist" practitioners to "[[re-education through labor]]" in an effort to have them renounce their beliefs and "transform" their thoughts.<ref name=Dangerous/> Terms were also arbitrarily extended by police, while some practitioners had ambiguous charges levied against them, such as "disrupting social order", "endangering national security", or "subverting the socialist system".<ref name="bejesky">{{cite journal |first=Robert |last=Bejesky |title=Falun Gong & reeducation through labor |journal=Columbia Journal of Asian Law |volume=17 |issue=2 |date=Spring 2004 |pages=147–189}}</ref> According to Bejesky, the majority of long-term Falun Gong detainees are processed administratively through this system instead of the criminal justice system. Upon completion of their re-education sentences, those practitioners who refused to recant were then incarcerated in "legal education centers" set up by provincial authorities to "transform minds".<ref name="bejesky"/><ref name="CECC2009">Congressional Executive Commission on China Annual Report 2006, p. 59; note 224, p. 201</ref>

Much of the conversion program relied on Mao-style techniques of indoctrination and [[Thought reform in the People's Republic of China|thought reform]], where Falun Gong practitioners were organized to view anti-Falun Gong television programs and enroll in Marxism and materialism study sessions.<ref>{{harvp|Tong|2009|p=109}}</ref> Traditional Marxism and materialism were the core content of the sessions.<ref>{{harvp|Tong|2009|p= 128}}</ref> Conversion programs also included study of Buddhist writings and the Confucian primer ''[[Di Zi Gui|The Codes of Conduct for Students and Children]]''.<ref name=":0" />{{Reference page|page=136}}

The government-sponsored image of the conversion process emphasizes psychological persuasion and a variety of "soft-sell" techniques; this is the "ideal norm" in regime reports, according to Tong. Falun Gong reports, on the other hand, depict "disturbing and sinister" forms of coercion against practitioners who fail to renounce their beliefs. Among them are cases of severe beatings; psychological torment, corporal punishment and forced intense, heavy-burden hard labor and stress positions; solitary confinement in squalid conditions; "heat treatment" including burning and freezing; electric shocks delivered to sensitive parts of the body that may result in nausea, convulsions, or fainting; "devastative" forced feeding; sticking bamboo strips into fingernails; deprivation of food, sleep, and use of toilet; rape and gang rape; asphyxiation; and threat, extortion, and termination of employment and student status.<ref name="tong122-128">{{harvp|Tong|2009|pp=122–128}}</ref>

The cases appear verifiable, and the great majority identify (1) the individual practitioner, often with age, occupation, and residence; (2) the time and location that the alleged abuse took place, down to the level of the district, township, village, and often the specific jail institution; and (3) the names and ranks of the alleged perpetrators. Many such reports include lists of the names of witnesses and descriptions of injuries, Tong says. The publication of "persistent abusive, often brutal behavior by named individuals with their official title, place, and time of torture" suggests that there is no official will to cease and desist such activities.<ref name=tong122-128/>