(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Zhang Deqian and his wife Ms. Tang Yu'e, from Wangzhai Village, Changzhou City, Hebei Province, are well known for their sincerity and kindness among locals. Their fellow villagers saw the goodness and beauty of Falun Gong from their actions. However, under pressure, the village chief, Liang Zhenzhong, came to their hardware store three times in five days to demand that they sign a statement to renounce their faith.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.

Liang first appeared at the couple's store on the morning of November 12, 2020. He called Mr. Zhang to his car and said, “The police department had a meeting. They demanded that each Falun Gong practitioner on their list sign a statement renouncing Falun Gong. I was asked to get your signature. How about you sign it just for the formality? No one will care if you still practice at home. If you refuse to sign, you might be arrested. The police department takes this seriously.”

Mr. Zhang replied, “I am simply following Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person. What is wrong with that? Why do I have to sign the statement? Do you want me to be a bad person?”

Liang said, “Since we live in the same village, I am doing this for your sake. Otherwise, you will be arrested.”

“Don't worry. No matter what, I can't lie.”

At the time, a villager came to the store and asked Mr. Zhang's daughter, “What is the village chief doing here?” She replied, “He came here to ask my parents to stop practicing Falun Gong.”

The villager was angry. He raised his voice and said to Liang, “Falun Gong is their personal belief, so why do you care? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Five days later, Liang came again for the same purpose. He asked Mr. Zhang's daughter what she thought of Falun Gong. She replied, “I support my parents’ practicing Falun Gong. My two siblings also fully support them even though we suffered a lot when we were young because of the persecution. My mother was arrested because of her belief, and we were ridiculed by classmates because my parents are Falun Gong practitioners. We knew clearly that our mom is a good person. Falun Gong is good. My parents have been persecuted. No matter what, we'll continue to support my mom. There is nothing wrong in trying to be a good person.”

Liang soon left, only to return a few hours later with a relative of Zhang's family. He had tried to ask the relative to help him persuade Mr. Zhang to sign the statement.

This time, Ms. Tang was in the store and Liang also asked her to sign the statement. She said, “People often say that they live for the truth. I, too, live for the truth of Falun Dafa. One of our principles is Truthfulness. I can't sign the statement to renounce my faith and continue to practice. My signing it is not good for you either. There are so many people who have received karmic retribution for participating in the persecution.”

The relative stayed aside and asked Ms. Tang to lower her voice, fearing their customers in the store could hear their conversation.

Ms. Tang’s daughter said, “We’d like to let everyone here know what is happening. Let everyone know that they are harassing us, and we'd love to tell everyone what Falun Gong is.”

Liang still wanted to take a shot. “Do you know Cao Xinghua? The Police Department Director of Mengcun County, a good person. He was removed from office simply because he did not give up Falun Gong.”

Ms. Tang was not intimidated. Instead, she told Liang more about how brutal the persecution is and how evil the Chinese Communist Party is. She urged Liang to quit the Party for his own safety.