(Minghui.org) A retired teacher fell into a coma in mid-January 2020 after suffering a stroke while detained for her faith. Only then was she released. She remains comatose at the time of writing and requires around-the-clock care.
Ms. Zhang Xiuchun, 73, was arrested on July 31, 2019, for practicing Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. More than 40 local practitioners were also arrested around the same time.
The police ransacked Ms. Zhang’s home twice, four days before her arrest and on the day of her arrest. They confiscated her Falun Gong books and other personal belongings. She was then put in criminal detention in the Jiamusi City Detention Center. It’s not clear whether she was abused in custody before having the stroke.
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Zhang, of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, has been targeted for her faith.
Shortly after the onset of the persecution, the middle school where she was teaching forced her to turn in her Falun Gong books and write guarantee statements promising to not go to Beijing to appeal. Local police officers, 610 Office agents, and residential committee members often harassed her at home and searched her place for Falun Gong items.
Unable to live a normal life because of the non-stop harassment, Ms. Zhang was forced to live away from home in May 2002.
Shortly after she returned home months later, the police threatened to search her home again, forcing her to leave home one more time in late May 2003. The day after she left, the police searched her place.
On September 5, 2003, Jiang Yuhua, a school director involved in persecuting Falun Gong, found Ms. Zhang and attempted to force her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong by threatening to fire her, to suspend her salary and pension, and to send her to Jiansanjiang Brainwashing Center. Ms. Zhang refused to comply.
Jiang later forced her husband to write the statement for her, but without telling her.
Ms. Zhang was later arrested on December 10, 2003, and taken to Jiamusi Detention Center. The authorities let it be known that her case against her was very serious and that she was facing a heavy term. Fearing that she would be sentenced, her husband paid the authorities 10,000 yuan and got her out on bail.
Ms. Zhang said she had been traumatized by the experience: “Whenever I hear loud footsteps in the apartment hallway, I panic and my heart begins to pound.”