Blood Forged at Shougang: An Investigative Report on the Massacre of 361 Falun Gong Practitioners in a Steel Furnace
At the end of 1999, inside a steel complex in Beijing's Shijingshan District, a genocide was perpetrated that shattered the very foundations of human civilization.
361 Falun Gong practitioners traveled to Beijing to peacefully appeal and refused to disclose their identities. They were subsequently transported in secret by bus to the Shijingshan Steel Plant, the predecessor of Shougang Group. Under armed guard by the PAP, the practitioners were forced to jump one by one into boiling molten steel heated to temperatures exceeding 1,500 degrees Celsius, leaving no trace of their bodies behind.
This was not a war, nor was it a natural disaster. It was a planned and organized massacre carried out during peacetime by state authorities against their own citizens, using industrial facilities to eliminate the victims while destroying the physical evidence.
For 27 years, this tragedy has been buried under the CCP’s extreme information blockade. It was only through the tearful confession of a perpetrator —who, years later, could no longer bear the burden—that a crack was opened, allowing the world to glimpse the tip of the iceberg.
I. Case Disclosure: The Confession of a Direct Perpetrator
Following nearly 10 years of extensive investigations, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) found that at the end of 1999, 361 Falun Gong practitioners who had traveled to Beijing to peacefully appeal were transported by several buses to Beijing’s Shijingshan Steel Plant, later incorporated into Shougang Group. Personnel from the 4th Company (Unit 61) of the 341st Regiment (Unit 8642), under the 114th Mobile Division (Unit 8640) of the People's Armed Police (PAP), were ordered to carry out a secret genocidal operation and placed the relevant areas of the steel plant under lockdown.
Cui XX, a native of Cangzhou, Hebei Province, who disclosed this account, was serving as a soldier in a PAP unit at the time the genocidal crimes were committed. According to Cui 's testimony, he and another soldier were ordered at gunpoint to force Falun Gong practitioners, one by one, to jump into vats of molten steel, resulting in their deaths. Cui recalled that he initially refused to carry out the order, but a gun was immediately pointed at his own head. He described it as a killing order that left him with no choice.
In the week that followed, Cui XX suffered from continuous vomiting and was pushed to the brink of psychological collapse, at one point contemplating ending his own life. In 2016, during a gathering with three or four friends, Cui XX finally wept as he revealed this hidden secret of the genocidal crimes that had been buried for 17 years. To date, this remains the only known firsthand testimony publicly disclosed by an individual who personally carried out the genocidal crimes.
II. Military Unit and Responsible Officials: Political
Deals Behind the Promotions
The unit that carried out this massacre was the PAP Mobile 114th Division (Unit 8640), formerly the 114th Division of the PLA's 38th Group Army, the division was transferred in its entirety to the PAP in 1996 and stationed in Dingzhou, Hebei Province. The division consisted of the 340th, 341st, and 342nd Regiments, as well as the 703rd and 704th Regiments. The unit assigned to carry out the operation was the 4th Company (Unit 61) of Unit 8642 (the 341st Regiment).
The principal commanders of the unit at the time of the massacre all received extraordinary promotions that defied normal promotion procedures.
Niu Zhizhong (Division Commander): Niu became commander of the 114th Division in 1996. Subsequently, in 2000, he was promoted to commander of the PAP Tibet Corps, with the rank of major general. He later served as commander of the PAP Guangdong Corps, Chief of Staff of the PAP, and Deputy Commander of the PAP, eventually attaining the rank of lieutenant general. He also served as an alternate member of the 18th Central Committee of the CCP and as a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress. In October 2016, he was expelled from the CCP on charges of "serious disciplinary violations" during the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, becoming the highest-ranking PAP officer to be removed from office.
Ma Bingtai (Political Commissar): Ma served as political commissar of the 114th Division at the time of the massacre. In 2000, he was promoted to political commissar of the PAP Henan Corps, with the rank of major general. He later became Deputy Director of the PAP Political Department while concurrently serving as political commissar of the PAP Beijing Corps. In 2008, he was appointed Deputy Political Commissar of the Shenyang Military Region and promoted to lieutenant general. He also served as a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress and as a delegate to the CCP's 17th National Congress. According to publicly available records, he retired without facing disciplinary action.
The simultaneous and rapid promotion of both the division commander and political commissar in the same year was unlikely to have been coincidental under the CCP's personnel system. These promotions constituted a reward for their "firm execution" of a major political assignment, and presents the promotions as indirect—but significant—circumstantial evidence supporting the existence of the massacre.
III. Why Shougang? The Selection of a Site for a Planned Extermination
The Shijingshan Steel Plant in Beijing’s Shijingshan District was deliberately selected as the site of the extermination operation. Once one of China’s largest integrated steel producers, the sprawling industrial complex occupied nearly 90,000 square meters and, at its peak, employed more than 200,000 workers. Functioning on the scale of a medium-sized city, it maintained its own independent internal security system. Its No. 1 blast furnace remained in operation until December 2010, then incorporated into Shougang Group.
The facility possessed three characteristics that made it suitable for a state-orchestrated secret extermination operation.
First, concealed transportation routes. The nearby Fengsha Railway, originally built to transport industrial materials, could have provided the PAP with a means of secretly transporting large numbers of detainees under the cover of darkness or during restricted operations, away from public view.
Second, the complete destruction of physical evidence. Its industrial steelmaking furnaces operate at temperatures ranging from approximately 1,500 to 2,000 degrees Celsius. any human body thrown into molten steel at such temperatures would be rapidly destroyed, with bones dissolving into hundreds of tons of molten metal, leaving no recoverable physical evidence for forensic examination. such industrial-scale incineration would have served the objective of eliminating victims while erasing all physical traces of the crime.
Third, institutional secrecy. As a centrally administered state-owned enterprise, Shougang operated under a highly centralized management structure with quasi-military characteristics. Established mechanisms of coordination and confidentiality between the military and senior management of major state-owned enterprises would have enabled authorities to suppress information and prevent disclosure of the operation.
IV. Origins of the Campaign: The Social Context of the 1999 Crackdown
To understand the Shougang massacre, it is necessary to examine the background of the Chinese government's crackdown on Falun Gong that began in 1999.
Falun Gong was first introduced to the public in 1992, the spiritual practice spread rapidly across China, its emphasis on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, together with its perceived health benefits, attracted more than 100 million practitioners within several years—a figure exceeded the membership of the CCP at the time. Practitioners came from all sectors of society, including government officials, farmers, intellectuals, and members of the military. This broad-based and voluntary group generated deep concern among CCP leaders, whose governing ideology was rooted in atheism and political control.
In April 1999, police in Tianjin violently arrested 45 Falun Gong practitioners who were engaged in a peaceful appeal and claimed that the orders had come from Beijing. This attempt to shift responsibility directly led to the April 25 Appeal, which drew worldwide attention, as more than 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered voluntarily, peacefully, and with remarkable restraint near Zhongnanhai to present their grievances. Then-Premier Zhu Rongji personally met with practitioners' representatives and successfully resolved the situation. After an agreement was reached, the practitioners dispersed promptly, leaving the area so clean that not even a single cigarette butt remained.
Then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin viewed the gathering not as a peacefully resolved petition, but as the emergence of a large social group beyond the Party's control. His political concerns ultimately overrode the State Council's more conciliatory approach. On July 20, 1999, Jiang ordered the launch of a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong, beginning with coordinated arrests across China and marking the start of the persecution.
V. A Campaign Affecting Hundreds of Millions: Escalation of the Crackdown and the Emergence of Extreme Violence
The campaign against Falun Gong was destined from the outset to exceed the scope of conventional law enforcement because Falun Gong practitioners were deeply embedded throughout Chinese society. At the time, virtually every family in China had direct or indirect ties to practitioners through relatives, marriage, friendships, or other personal relationships.
Following the launch of the crackdown, tens of thousands of practitioners who refused to renounce their beliefs traveled to Beijing to appeal to the central government. Prisons across the country quickly became overcrowded, prompting local authorities to convert schools, hospitals, and other facilities into temporary detention centers, which were themselves soon filled beyond capacity, the CCP leadership came to view the movement as an unprecedented political challenge, fearing that if Falun Gong could not be eliminated swiftly, its continued growth would threaten the Party's hold on power.
It was under this perceived existential pressure that authorities resorted to methods that it characterizes as beyond the bounds of human civilization, including the use of Shijingshan's steel furnaces. Such methods would have served the dual purpose of destroying physical evidence while allowing rumors of the killings to circulate quietly among the public, thereby instilling fear and discouraging further appeals by Falun Gong practitioners. At the same time, the operation was carried out under strict secrecy to conceal its existence.
VI. The "610 Office": An Extralegal Apparatus to Have Enabled the Campaign
To facilitate extraordinary measures—including the Shougang massacre—outside the constraints of China's legal system, then-CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin established the "610 Office" on June 10, 1999.
The 610 Office operated as an extralegal body with authority to direct and coordinate the activities of the public security apparatus, procuratorates, courts, state security agencies, the PAP, and other government institutions, including those responsible for finance and education. This structure transformed China's law enforcement and judicial institutions into instruments of political persecution.
Through this apparatus, Jiang issued secret directives nationwide, including the phrases "Deaths from beatings will be counted as suicide" and "Eliminate Falun Gong within three months." It characterizes these instructions not as political rhetoric, but as operational orders implemented throughout police stations, labor camps, detention facilities, and even state-owned enterprises such as Shougang.
VII. Twenty-Seven Years of Continuing Persecution: From a Rapid Campaign to a Protracted One
Jiang's objective of "eliminating Falun Gong within three months" ultimately failed in the face of the practitioners' sustained commitment to nonviolent resistance. The Shougang massacre was not an isolated event but rather one manifestation of a campaign that, in its view, has continued for twenty-seven years.
During that period, countless Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to torture in labor camps, prisons, and so-called "brainwashing centers" throughout China. The forced harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners has occurred on an ongoing basis during the same period, describing it as a crime against humanity and alleging that it constitutes the world's largest and longest-running state-directed system of organ procurement from living prisoners.
The logic underlying the Shougang massacre—the physical elimination of victims while leaving no trace—is consistent with the broader system behind allegations of forced organ harvesting, which it characterizes as components of the same apparatus of state-sponsored repression.
Over these 27 years, countless Falun Gong practitioners were subjected to torture in labor camps, prisons, and brainwashing centers across China. Even more egregiously, the crime against humanity of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners has continued during the same period, becoming the world's largest and longest-running state-level living organ supply chain.
The logic reflected in the Shougang tragedy — “eliminating people physically and leaving no trace behind” — and the crime of forced organ harvesting are products of the same system of state terrorism.
Jiang Zemin’s policy summarized as "Destroy their reputation, bankrupt them financially, and eliminate them physically." This policy transformed China's legal, administrative, financial, and educational institutions into instruments of the anti-Falun Gong campaign, rendering judicial independence effectively meaningless. The resulting erosion of the rule of law and public morality has contributed to broader social problems in contemporary China, including corruption and declining ethical standards, while also laying the groundwork for the CCP's expanding use of transnational repression, information warfare, and other forms of influence beyond China's borders.
VIII. Falun Gong Endures: A Cultural Revival Rooted in China's Heritage
Despite twenty-seven years of relentless persecution, Falun Gong has not been eradicated from China. Instead, the spiritual discipline—rooted in 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture—has spread to more than 100 countries around the world.
The global tours of Shen Yun Performing Arts as evidence of a broader cultural revival, saying the company presents to international audiences the beauty of China's traditional civilization, which has been systematically suppressed under Communist rule.
In the face of severe persecution, Falun Gong practitioners have remained steadfast in upholding the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, leaving behind a silent yet enduring moral testament that embodies the spirit of peaceful resistance.
A Global Call to Uncover the Truth
The Shijingshan steel furnace massacre has remained largely hidden for twenty-seven years because of the CCP's extensive information controls. The testimony attributed to Cui XX remains the only known firsthand account from an participant to have emerged publicly.
The identities of the 361 victims, their families, and the circumstances of their final moments remain unknown.
Evidence capable of clarifying the massacre may exist in military deployment records, operational data from industrial facilities, or confidential government documents. only through the testimony of additional witnesses and the collection of information preserved among civilians, former officials, military veterans, and others with firsthand knowledge can the full scope of the events be established.
We issue the following appeal:
To members of the overseas Chinese community and people of conscience around the world: Whether or not you personally knew members of the PAP who participated in the operation, or possess documents, oral testimony, photographs, or any other relevant information, the report urges you to contact WOIPFG. Even the smallest piece of evidence could prove significant in reconstructing the truth.
To witnesses, military veterans, former Shougang employees, and their family members in mainland China: Some individuals may have witnessed the events firsthand or heard accounts from relatives, friends, or colleagues. Every recollection, regardless of how much time has passed, may constitute irreplaceable evidence. Acknowledging the risks associated with coming forward under China's political system, confidential reporting channels are available and pledges to protect the identities of those who provide information.
To all public officials and People's Armed Police personnel who have participated in, witnessed, or been compelled to carry out such operations: The confession of Cui XX demonstrates that conscience has never been completely extinguished. Claiming that one was merely following orders cannot absolve anyone of responsibility. However, voluntarily surrendering, making a full confession, exposing the truth, and assisting in uncovering these crimes remain the only path toward redemption. As the CCP continues to unravel, the day of comprehensive accountability is drawing ever closer.
The names of the 361 victims should not remain forever buried beneath molten steel.
WOIPFG will continue its efforts to investigate the massacre, as well as the institutions, organizations, and individuals it believes were involved, regardless of where they are located or how much time has elapsed, with the stated goal of establishing the truth and pursuing justice.
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong （WOIPFG）
Reporting Mailbox：http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/3387
Tel：347-448-5790 Fax：347-402-1444
Address：P.O. Box 84，New York, NY, 10116 USA
Website：http://www.zhuichaguoji.org http://www.upholdjustice.org
Reference：
1. 30 Episode《Ironclad Irrefutable Evidence Seminar Series》
https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/132185
2. 《Ironclad and Irrefutable Evidence (English)》
https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/111767
https://www.upholdjustice.org/node/407
3. 《WOIPFG’s Onsite Phone Investigation on the CCP’s Xijing Hospital Live Organ Harvesting（1-4）》
https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/127256
http://www.upholdjustice.org/node/457
4. WOIPFG’s Onsite Phone Investigation Video Recordings Organ Harvesting Cases from 11 Regions
https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/111517
http://www.upholdjustice.org/node/409
5. 《IRONCLAD IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE》 (E-Book) I：
https://www.upholdjustice.org/node/534
《 IRONCLAD IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE (E-Book)》 II：
https://www.upholdjustice.org/node/535
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