Gansu Woman Succumbs to Long-term Harassment, More Surveillance Cameras Installed Nearby Months Before Her Death

(Minghui.org) After the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Kang Qianhua was repeatedly arrested, harassed, and monitored. She was sent to a forced labor camp for one term and held in a brainwashing center for upholding her faith. Fear and stress made her health decline, and she passed away at the age of 56 on March 12, 2021.

Several months before her death, the police installed more surveillance cameras in her apartment building to monitor her.

Ms. Kang once recalled, “The persecution put unimaginable pressure on my family. The mental torment was devastating. When my father had to sign one of my arrest notices, he broke down in tears. The persecution took a heavy toll on his health. His heart and lungs began to fail, and he eventually passed away.

“After my mother saw me get arrested several times, she would begin to tremble whenever she saw the police, fearing that I'd been arrested again. She lives in fear every day. As for my daughter, she burst into tears several times after I was arrested.”

Mind and Body Uplifted by Practicing Falun Gong

Ms. Kang, from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, used to be very weak. After she took up Falun Gong in April 1997, she was filled with energy.

The spiritual teachings of Falun Gong also broadened her mind. She said, “Falun Gong teaches Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and being kind to everyone. To be a good person, one must value virtue. True happiness can’t be fought for. Being selfish only makes one more narrow minded, less satisfied with one’s own life, and less tolerant when one is misunderstood. When I make it a point to live by Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I feel peaceful and calm.”

Hung Up in the Forced Labor Camp

After the communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, many Chinese were deceived by its slanderous propaganda about the practice. To clarify the facts about Falun Gong, Ms. Kang distributed informational materials about it, only to be reported and arrested. The police held her overnight in the local station and then took her to the Xiguoyuan Detention Center, where she was held for four months.

In the detention center, Ms. Kang was forced to sort watermelon seeds from morning to evening. Her myopia made it very difficult for her to do the work.

In December 2000, Ms. Kang was given a term of one year and two months at Gansu Province No.1 Forced Labor Camp, also known as Ping’antai Forced Labor Camp. All Falun Gong practitioners were held at the Seventh Ward in the labor camp. Director Dai Wenqin, instructor Jing Xuefeng, and division heads Gu Yanling, Hu Ruimei, and Li Xiaojing were all active in persecuting the practitioners.

As soon as Ms. Kang arrived, the guards searched her and arranged for an inmate to monitor her around the clock. The inmate slept on the same single bed with her and also took charge of what she wore and ate.

Ms. Kang was forced to get up early in the morning and work until noon. After a short lunch break, she had to work again in the afternoon. Except for Sundays, she was made to do labor-intensive farm work every day. The quality of the food she was given was very poor and sometimes not fully cooked.

Despite the cold weather in the winter, Ms. Kang and the other inmates had to do their laundry by hand outdoors with ice-cold water. They weren’t given hot water for showers either. After dinner, she was ordered to recite prison rules. When she insisted that she didn’t do anything wrong and refused to comply, the guards forced her to stand until midnight almost every day.

Torture reenactment: Hung up

To try to force Ms. Kang to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong, the guards locked her in a dark room, where the windows were covered with newspaper. They tied her hands together behind her back and hung her up with her toe-tips barely touching the ground. The pain was excruciating. Then they had an inmate read a book slandering Falun Gong next to her. Ms. Kang said no words could describe her suffering at that time.

Ms. Kang soon fell into a semi-conscious state. She didn’t know how long the guards kept her hung up. Soon after they let her down, they repeated the torture and hung her up again. She lost count of how many times she was hung up or how many days the torture lasted.

By the time she was taken out of the dark room, she was unable to move her arms. Despite that, the guards still ordered her to do the slave labor. Because she couldn’t do it, the guards verbally abused her. As soon as she recovered, the guards forced her to make straw mats or dig up tree roots.

The guards also forced all Falun Gong practitioners to attend brainwashing sessions slandering Falun Gong. Because Ms. Kang refused to take notes, the guards instigated the inmates to beat her.

Ms. Kang recalled that the guards often took blood samples from practitioners. Thinking that it was for health reasons, the inmates often complained to the guards, demanding to know why they were never given blood tests. But when the crime of forced organ harvesting was exposed later on, Ms. Kang was chilled to think that she almost became one of the victims to be killed for her organs.

The Brainwashing Center

Because Ms. Kang refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was taken straight to the Hualinshan Brainwashing Center right after her labor camp term expired. She was held in the brainwashing center for a few months.

Shortly after she was released, on March 2, 2003, she was arrested again and admitted to the Xiguoyuan Detention Center. The guards handcuffed and shackled her when she refused to answer roll call. They kept her shackled for an extended period of time.

Non-stop Harassment

In 2015, Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Kang, filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong.

Two officials went to Ms. Kang’s home on July 9, 2015. Only Ms. Kang’s mother was there, so they left, only to return the next day when Ms. Kang’s niece was there by herself. They said that they wanted Ms. Kang to come to their office to sign a document. The teenaged girl replied, “Why do you keep coming here? Please don’t come anymore. It’s too much for our family.”

When Ms. Kang applied for the affordable rental housing on February 15, 2017, the residential committee director asked her if she still practiced Falun Gong. When Ms. Kang refused to cooperate, he called the police and they arrested her.

The police officer said he had just begun to work in the area. He asked for Ms. Kang’s personal information and her address. He also took her picture without her consent.

The police saw her again on April 27, 2017, and told her to report to the police station. She refused to comply.

In late 2018, the police and residential committee staff members again harassed Ms. Kang and searched her home.

In April 2019, the police installed surveillance cameras inside the elevator in Ms. Kang’s apartment building and near the street lights, with the lens pointing right at the front door of her apartment.

Two weeks later, on the evening of April 28, 2019, while Ms. Kang was getting on a train to Shanghai, she was arrested by the train security. The officers searched her luggage and confiscated her cellphone, computer, portable hard drive, media player, Falun Gong books, tablet, and 7,000 yuan in cash.

The police also searched Ms. Kang and locked her in a cage for eight hours. Officers from her local police station later picked her up and held her in the police station overnight. The next day, they collected a sample of her DNA and her fingerprints against her will. After a physical exam, she was taken to the Qilihe Lockup and held for 15 days.

After she was released on May 14, she was followed every day when she went out. The police and residential committee staff members took turns harassing her every month. The property management in her subdivision also began to monitor her daily activities.

Three police officers went to Ms. Kang’s home in August 2019 and interrogated her. A mini surveillance camera was installed at the entrance of her apartment building in September 2019.

Ms. Kang found more surveillance cameras at the entrance and first and second floors in her apartment on November 6, 2020.