When I first watched the movie “The Lies of Communism—Account of the Chinese Communist Party’s Brainwashing,” frankly speaking, I thought there was nothing more appealing to my heart except what happens during the debate that was fascinating. It was not until later, when I heard my friends around were all discussing about this movie and then I watched it several more times, that I realized my previous understandings of this movie was too shallow.

China publicly claims “freedom in religious belief,” however, it has been no secret long ago how the CCP has cruelly persecuted religious belief ever since it came into power. Either in its arrest, cruel torture, imprisonment and murder of Christians, or in its pulling down churches and crosses, China counts as most savage one in the world. However, in reality, the ways of persecuting the religious belief by the CCP are far from such ones. What tells in this movie is another little-known way of CCP’s persecution of belief—brainwashing, that is, persecuting Christians mentally. It has been learned that, in order to wipe theistic thought from the Christians’ mind, the CCP has opened the brainwashing classes everywhere in mainland China. Those classes are usually located in such secret places as hotels, and so on. The CCP often uses some industries or departments as a cover for their brainwashing class, and meanwhile raises a banner saying “class of ideological education and transformation for Christians”. For this reason, all this is unknown to people. This movie is adapted from the personal experiences of the Christians of the Church of Almighty God. And it is just when the Christians themselves have experienced the brainwashing and transformation of the CCP and then borne witness, that this little-known way has come out.

Brainwashing is also called controlling people’s mind, which means inculcating into them some certain thoughts on purpose to achieve the objective of controlling them. So what thoughts does the CCP’s atheistic government use to brainwash the Christians? Can these Christians’ perseverance in faith as well as their belief help them see through those thoughts spread by the CCP?

In the movie, the CCP’s officers, professors of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, lecturers of police academy, psychologists and the religious pastors take turns to arbitrarily brainwash Zhang Mingdao and other Christians and try to transform them with atheism, materialism, scientific knowledge, traditional culture and various rumors and fallacies. Let’s first look at those teachers invited by the CCP. Whoever of them is an outstanding person in the Chinese society, and with the words “wily and conniving” and “treacherous and deceitful” to describe them, it is not at all excessive. For their statements are very difficult to discern and seen through by ordinary people. Let’s look again at the thoughts that they aim to inculcate into the Christians. These thoughts and opinions, either atheism and materialism or scientific knowledge and traditional culture, all take root in Chinese people’s soul. As a Christian, I am deeply aware that how strongly and seriously these wrong thoughts have influenced and corroded me. So if the CCP attempts to utilize these thoughts to transform the Christians, it is unimaginable how they will suffer the mental control and ravages.

We can see from the movie that when first taken to the brainwashing class, Zhang Mingdao and other Christians are not sure what they will face. Just having experienced cruel tortures, they simply have no idea in what way the CCP will deal with them next, so when they get out of the car, they all look up and down the building before them—it is exactly the center of law education of Panlong City. It’s not hard to see that this name implies that the CCP is just like an evil dragon lying coiled on the path of entering the kingdom of heaven for Christians, to the extent that the path of entering the kingdom of heaven is full of hardships and dangers for them.

In the brainwashing classes after that, the Chinese party appears to give Christians equality and freedom and allow them to express their own views time and time again, but when their absurd fallacies are refuted, their shame turns into anger. Especially Hua Weiguo, the Chief of the Security Division, reacts most strongly to this. At the first beginning when Zhang Mingdao enters the brainwashing base, the tutor Bai Ming tells him, “Here is the ‘thoughts transformations class for Christians,’ we’ll never torture you.” However, in the course of brainwashing, Hua Weiguo intimidates and threatens the Christians many times, and even whenever he intimidates the Christians, the security guards will stand up and are ready to execute his orders at any moment. Moreover, at the time when Zhang Mingdao refuses to sign the so-called “letter of repentance”, “breakup letter” and “letter of guarantee”, Hua Weiguo slaps him viciously across the face, and then jumps up and gives him a savage kick. Whereas, the Christians act with calmness, composure and fearlessness in face of them; they also show their bravery and decisiveness during the periods of risk; in addition, they possess perseverance in the faith and are harmonious with one another. All of these make us admire them much.

The most excellent parts in the movie are of course the fierce battles without fumes between the communists and the Christians. Whether it is via the contents of the debate or the wonderful performances of the actors, this movie has made a true, objective and live interpretation on how the atheistic political regime of the CCP persecutes the religious belief and how the Christians are loyal to their belief. There is no need to explain much more about the contents since Zhang Mingdao and other Christians has confuted in details the heresies and fallacies spread by the CCP. However, these contents of how they confute are also very easy to be ignored. If we just consider it as a debate between the positive and negative parties, we will definitely not yield much in the end; while if we listen to their points with our hearts, we will get an unexpected harvest. The essence of the debate is also the soul of the entire movie, and the well-founded refutation of the Christians is precisely the most powerful counter to the fallacies and heresies spread all along by the CCP.

At the end of the movie, the soliloquy of He Hongchang serves as a crucial point, which says, “Believers in God and unbelievers in God are two sorts of people going their separate ways. No one can change the other. The theories regarding Marxism-Leninism and communism of the CCP, even the communists themselves don’t believe, how can they transform believers in God? It’s too impractical.” With the soliloquy, he, and Hua Weiguo and Panlong, hanging their heads in despair, make their way down toward the end of the hallway, and their figures recedes into the distance, growing indistinct. This scene plays up and enhances the decline of the CCP and the sense of its hopelessness and depression after suffering defeat; in particular, the heavy sigh of He Hongchang, compared with the momentum of Zhang Mingdao and other Christians who hold their head high and take death calmly, has further expressed thoroughly the Christians’ unshakable resolution and perseverance on the way of their belief in spite of all kinds of frustrations.

Ultimately, Zhang Mingdao and other Christians are still sentenced, but they are victorious ones. Their victory is that they stand witness for God and fight back against the CCP’s schemes by relying on God’s word and their loyalty in faith, and that they make an accusation of the CCP’s violence with their real experience!

Nevertheless, I had a mixed feeling after watching this movie: On the one hand, I am happy for Zhang Mingdao and those Christians with him; on the other hand, I am worried about other Christians who are going to be brainwashed after them. It is still going on every day that the CCP conducts brainwashing and transformation of Christians, so when will the movie really come to an end …