(Minghui.org) Prior to the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress, authorities in Fenxi County stepped up their efforts to persecute local practitioners of Falun Gong, claiming it was necessary to “maintain social stability.”

Beginning September 2017, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee ordered all police stations and workplaces to closely monitor the practitioners in their jurisdictions.

Post offices and telecommunication departments were ordered to intercept practitioners’ mail, calls and emails. The police went from door to door to harass the practitioners, who were asked if they still practiced and threatened not to leave their homes.

Such harassment is an abuse of political power and violates China’s constitutional guarantee of freedom of belief.

According to the numbers received by Minghui so far, over 300 practitioners were subjected to police harassment. The police used deception to gain entry into the practitioners’ homes or went to their workplaces to harass them.

They photographed the practitioners and ordered their families to sign guarantees to keep the practitioners from protesting in any way. When the families refused to cooperate, the police pressured the practitioners’ employers to take punitive measures. Succumbing to police intimidation, many of the employers monitored the practitioners at work or threatened them with pay cuts.