Epoch Times, the overseas Chinese news media, carried an article which included examples of how China spent its “security maintenance fund.”
1) Based on a source from the public security bureau in Shen Zhen, on April 23, the security bureau allocated 10 million Hong Kong yuan (US$1.28 million) in order to stop a parade that Falun Gong followers in Hong Kong had organized. The money was spent to pay 500 to 600 yuan (US$64 to $77) to each participant and to buy uniforms, banners, and chairs, while more money was paid to those who organized the stopping of the event. One group organizer from Fujian was reported to have received 2 million Hong Kong dollars (USD$260,000) for participating in the April 23 event. The directive issued to the organizers stated that the money came from the “security maintenance fund.” The organizer was told that there is no limit set on measures to persecute Falun Gong followers and all expenses would be reimbursed.
2) Chen Guangcheng, the civil rights activist worked on human rights issues, while the county government in Shandong Province subjected his family to surveillance from August 2005 to August 2012. Three surveillance sites were set up to put Chen under house arrest and 50 to 60 people were at this site 24 hours a day. Meanwhile an additional several hundred people who are cadres of the villages, towns, and the counties, as well as police officers, were involved in Chen’s case. Reports indicated that the authorities spent 30 million yuan (US$4.34 million) a year to monitor Chen. That was the amount in 2008, but it went up to 60 million (US$8.69 million) by 2011. The total does not include the bribery money that officials paid in Shandong Province to the officials in Beijing.
3) Lawyer Zhen Enchong from Shanghai disclosed that, since he was released from prison on June 5, 2006, the authorities in Shanghai spent at least 4.2 million yuan (US$610,000) a year to keep him under house arrest and on harassing his family members.
4) The article quoted a comment from a scholar who stated that behind the large sums “invested” in the “security maintenance fund” were large sums of money spent on corruption. “They mark up the surveillance camera from 1,000 yuan (US$115) to 100,000 yuan (US$14,500) … Large groups of people rely on making money through the “maintaining security” effort.
5) On March 2, Philip Wen, a reporter from Reuters reported that for the past five years, in order to stop a villager from Inner Mongolia from going to Beijing to appeal her case, the authorities spent 330,000 yuan (US$48,000) on the surveillance effort.
6) According to an investigation report that the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong published, in the first several years of the persecution campaign, which started in 1999, China spent one fourth of its national finances on the persecution effort each year. For example on February 27, 2001, 4 billion yuan (US$580 million) in funding was allocated to install surveillance monitors on buildings. In December 2012, 4.2 billion yuan (US$610 million) was spent to build brainwashing centers. 170,000 to 250,000 yuan (US$25,000 to $36,000) was spent daily just to staff the resources in Tian An Men square to stop Falun Gong followers from petitioning. The report also said that the authorities spent unknown sums of money to award whistle blowers, send spies overseas, and to buy out overseas media and organizations.
Source: Epoch Times, May 6, 2017
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/17/5/6/n9112133.htm