Chinese Law & Government. Volume 50, Issue 6, 2018.
In early 1999, in the border region between Liping and Congjiang Counties in Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, cult organizations such as the “Disciples Sect” have for a long time spread the “end of the world theory” that plans to divide off the lands of people who do not believe in the cult. This resulted in fear and dissatisfaction of people who do not believe in the cult, and in the end, incited and tricked by lies of “cult followers poisoning people,” and this led to a large-scale fighting, smashing, and looting incident by a crowd who did not believe in the cult against a group of cult followers, and this rapidly spread to Rongjiang, Jinping, Jianhe, and Tianzhu Counties. By mid June, there were 121 cases of fighting, smashing, and looting in 35 townships (towns) in six counties, involving 3,373 people in 855 cult follower households. Of these, three people were beaten to death, 107 were injured, 121 houses were burned or demolished, 460 heads of various livestock were slaughtered, 95,000 kg of grain was lost, and some home appliances and living goods were lost, with total losses amounting to more than RMB 500,000. A total of over 18,000 people in 205 groups in 170 villages were coerced into participating in the fighting, smashing, and looting. With society in turmoil, some villagers fled with their children to other towns, and more than 1,000 people sought refuge and protection at their township (town) government. The main features of this large mass fighting, smashing, and looting incident were:
First, it broke out suddenly and became quite fierce. In early March when the Qiandongnan Prefecture Public Security Bureau Headquarters received the report from the Liping County Public Security Bureau, there had already been fighting, smashing, and looting incidents in the four villages of Sigu, Huangfu, Cenba, and Shanghu in Long’e Township. The safety of the persons and property of 30 cult followers were harmed, 27 live pigs were stolen, and six homes were destroyed to various extents, and prior to this the local public security organs had no advance warning information.
Second, it spread rapidly and rose up here and there. From February 6-20, fighting, smashing, and looting incidents broke out in four villages of Long’e Township in Liping County; from March 14 to April 4, they broke out in 13 townships in Liping, Congjiang, and Rongjiang Counties; from May 11-12 they broke out in eight townships in Jinping, Tianzhu, and Jianhe; from June 14-17 they broke out again in three townships in Tianzhu, Jinping, and Jianhe, and the entire incident was not basically pacified until the end of June. After an incident in one region was handled, similar incidents broke out in another region, with the main cause being people spreading misleading information among themselves.
Third, the occurrence of a natural disaster increased the believability of the rumors, and the non-believing masses generated a strong mentality of wanting revenge. The six counties, including Liping and Congjiang, are a region in Qiandongnan Prefecture with rampant cult activities, and the words and actions of the cult followers have caused adverse reactions among the masses who do not believe in the cult. In addition, since August of last year, this region has had several months of drought with wells gradually drying up and some fish and shrimp dying. This natural disaster caused by the drought gave the rumor that “the wells have been poisoned” a market among the poor, backward villages, and instigated by a small number of people, the masses firmly believed that the cult followers had “poisoned them,” generating a strong mentality of wanting revenge. On March 17, as the masses of Pilin Village, Zhaoxing Township in Liping suspected the cult followers of poisoning their wells, they detained 14 of the cult followers in the village at the Village Committee and beat them. The local working group brought the 14 people who were beaten to the county seat for protection, and they were besieged by hundreds of villagers.
Fourth, some grassroots cadres participated in the organizing and planning, adding to the fervor of the mases in their fighting, smashing, and looting. On March 7, the village head of Guixing Village, Guandong Town, Congjiang County believed the rumors, held a villagers’ meeting, arrested all of the people who participated in the cult, and gave economic penalties from 100 to 200 yuan in accordance with the local rules. This method was quickly imitated by other villages and townships, which had an extremely negative impact. Feeling they had backing, the participating masses became even more fearless, exhibiting a strong fervor. All levels of government faced many difficulties in the handling work.
Fifth, people with ulterior motives used the chance to instigate, and directed their efforts toward the government. A small number of people with ulterior motives used the hatred of the masses toward the cult, and used this as a pretext to incite the masses to use this opportunity to make known their dissatisfaction with some policies such as family planning work, the collection of taxes on agricultural specialty products, and the second round of land contract extensions, and they besieged the work groups and even attacked the township (town) governments.
Faced with the characteristics of this large mass fighting, smashing, and looting incident, the public security organs of Qiandongnan Prefecture adopted measures to successfully handle this large mass incident. Their main methods were:
First, they strengthened work on requesting reporting and information feedback, and closely relied on the leadership of the party committees, governments, and superior public security organs. They used forms such as “Public Security Status,” “Public Security Information,” “Special Reports,” and telephone reporting on major emergency situations to rapidly, accurately, and comprehensively send situational developments and handling results to the party committees, governments, and superior public security organs, making it so all levels of leaders had a grasp of developments at all times and promptly gave directions for handling work.
Second, they fully investigated and researched, made countermeasure recommendations at proper times, and set out handling principles. In their handling work, they took note to accumulate and carefully analyze first-hand information and clearly state the cause and nature of the incident. They made countermeasure recommendations of controlling the situation, soundly, accurately, and fiercely attacking the criminal actors, and upholding stability in the many villages throughout the prefecture, and this was affirmed by the Prefecture Party Committee and Government. In late March, they again researched and issued “Principles for Handling the Current Incident of Infringing upon the Cult Followers in Congjiang and Liping Counties,” with contents that included: strictly differentiate between two different types of conflicts, enforce the law fairly and civilly, and do not let others use you for their own purposes; resolutely ban all cult organizations in accordance with the law, for the main organizers and backbone leaders, respectively arrest them and send them to education through labor, and for the ordinary masses who have been tricked, perform direct legal system propaganda and scientific knowledge education, and make them write repentance letters; investigate and gather evidence in accordance with the law for those who participated in serious fighting, smashing, and looting that led to death during the incident, and arrest them at a suitable time; thoroughly investigate and keep the results strictly confidential for those who fail to investigate cause of death and harmful materials in wells; and closely follow whether there are people manipulating and instigating behind the scenes and vainly attempting to harm social stability and national security.
Third, they rapidly responded, controlled the situation, and made use of the role of public security organs as the main actors in handling work. After the Prefecture Public Security Bureau received the first incident report from Liping County in early March, they dispatched a five-person work group to the scene of the incident the next day; after the Provincial Public Security Department Work Group arrived, they dispatched another four work groups to thoroughly direct and assist with controlling the situation at the scene, and this played an important role in stabilizing the situation throughout the prefecture.
Fourth, they grasped the progress of handling work, formulated staged work opinions, and consolidated the results of initial handling work. When the incident was initially under control, after the Prefecture Public Security Bureau Party Committee earnestly studied the handling status and current incident situations from all of the work groups, they seized the moment to formulate work opinions for the next stage, i.e.: prefecture and county work groups could not depart, and had to further perform propaganda work, resolve conflicts, and prevent recurrence; for general cult followers who sought protection at township (town) governments or fled to other townships, they should be mobilized to return home, and work groups and township and village cadres should properly perform work on stabilizing villager emotions, organize villagers to resolve their housing issues, provide production and living conditions, focus the attention of the masses on production, construction, and creating wealth, and also prevent the extreme minority from rushing into danger and destruction from people who want to get back at society; further properly handle the two different natures of conflicts, educate and rescue the vast majority of the masses, and do everything possible to remove misunderstandings between the masses who follow the cult and those who do not and between the masses and the government; thoroughly perform investigation and evidence collection work, and choose the right time to attack in accordance with the law the main actors who caused the turmoil, stirred up trouble, spread rumors, and acted illegally; and earnestly perform grassroots organization and rectification work in the later stages of handling.
Fifth, they gained the support of the party committees and governments in relevant regions, mobilized all departments to jointly participate, and properly performed prevention and control work in regions neighboring where the incident occurred. The Qiandongnan Prefecture Public Security Bureau successively dispatched five work groups to coordinate with the Provincial Public Security Department Work Group in going deep into Rongjiang, Jinping, and Tianzhu Counties, reporting on the Liping and Congjiang incidents, requiring the close attention of the public security bureaus of all counties and cities, and taking prevention work as their principal task in stabilizing rural stability. During this period, Liping, Congjiang, Rongjiang, Jinping, Tianzhu, Jianhe, and Leishan Counties dispatched 483 police officers to cooperate with 1,330 party and government cadres to go deeply into the townships and villages suspected of cult activities to perform work, prevent the spread of various rumors, and keep the situation from spreading further. At the same time, the Prefecture Public Security Bureau made recommendations to the Prefecture Party Committee and Government, used the period of spring planting for work teams mainly comprising party and government cadres to properly perform propaganda, education, and village group leadership team rectification work, and the public security organs were responsible for investigating cult activities and fighting, smashing, and looting incidents. In late March, the Prefecture Party Committee and Government held stability maintenance meetings with county and city party committee and government leaders. Work on fighting cults was listed as a main work requirement, a hard requirement was made for work teams of party and government cadres to go deep into the front lines, and all county and city party and government leaders were required to pay close attention and personally follow up. After this, the Prefecture Public Security Bureau respectively made several calls to the main leaders of relevant county party committees and governments, patiently worked, increased the awareness of relevant leaders toward handling work, increased their sense of responsibility, had leaders of party, government, Politics and Law Commission, and public security departments lead teams in dealing with each incident, promptly controlled the situation, and prevented greater danger.
Sixth, they carried out a large-scale special crackdown to investigate and ban cult organizations throughout the entire prefecture. Under the uniform arrangements of the Prefecture Party Committee and Government, in late April, all levels of public security organs throughout the prefecture carried out a seven-month, three-stage special crackdown to investigate and ban cult organizations. By mid-June, they found cult activities in 91 towns and townships, 310 villages, and 549 village groups, involving 2,148 households and 4,634 people, including 77 party members and 27 village cadres; they also found 165 gathering sites of various types, 26 churches, 42 church branches, and 328 backbone members. All counties adopted measures based on the relevant special crackdown implementation plan formulated by the provincial public security organs, and by mid-August, they had banned 210 cult organizations at all levels, including 149 gathering locations, 25 churches, 34 church branches, and 3 small sub-branches, and they arrested one backbone cult member, criminally detained 10 people, sent 32 people to education through labor, gave security punishments to 699 people, and educated 2,444 people who had been tricked into participating in cult activities.
Seventh, they strictly attacked the criminal actors who participated in serious fighting, smashing, and looting activities, and educated ordinary masses. All county public security organs went in-depth to mobilize the masses to report and uncover, and on the basis of hard evidence and complete procedures, they choose an appropriate time to strictly attack the leaders. Some counties also held public judgment and arrest meetings where the incidents occurred so the masses would deeply recognize that participating in cult activities is illegal, and harming the property and personal safety of cult followers through the actions of fighting, smashing, and looting is illegal. Some people who joined in fighting and smashing others’ houses, slaughtered and ate others’ livestock, and besieged work groups actively went to the township and town governments to admit their errors and ask for lenient treatment; some people from village groups consciously raised money to help buy plow oxen for the victims; some gave their labor and materials to help restore the houses; some helped with the spring planting production, transplanting seedlings, and planting the fields; some organized external trips to bring back those who had fled. Cult followers whose assets had been harmed also thoroughly recognized the error of participating in cults and harm they bring to society, and said that they will no longer believe in cults, believe in rumors, or spread rumors. As the public security organs both investigated and banned cult organizations in accordance with the law and attacked in accordance with the law the criminal actors who had fought, smashed, and looted, as of now there have been no occurrences of the masses not complying, petitioning, or making accusations.