Liaoning Woman Repeatedly Arrested and Harassed for Upholding Her Faith

(Minghui.org) A Dalian City, Liaoning Province resident was arrested in early June 2021 for practicing Falun Gong. Since Ms. Cui Yan failed the required physical examination required for detention, she was released on bail four days later.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Cui, a 67-year-old retired food bank worker, was arrested at home on June 3 by a group of officers led by Zhang Wei, the deputy chief of Lijiajie Police Station. The police spent four hours, from 8 a.m. until noon, to search her home. Her Falun Gong books, photo of Falun Gong’s founder, three laptops, and a printer were confiscated.

When Ms. Cui tried to stop the police, they pushed her to the ground and handcuffed her. The handcuffs were so tight that her wrists became swollen. Her arms were also bruised after being pinched by the police. Both Ms. Cui and her husband were taken to the police station. She refused to answer any questions during the interrogation.

After the police released her husband the next afternoon, they brought her to the hospital for a physical examination. As the doctor found some medical concerns, the police brought her to two more hospitals, in an attempt to overturn the result. When the results remained the same, the police still took Ms. Cui to the Dalian City Detention Center at 11:30 p.m. The detention center guards, however, refused to accept her. She was released on bail on June 7.

Taking Up Falun Gong

After she gave birth in 1982, Ms. Cui developed multiple medical conditions, including glomerulus nephritis, heart problems, diabetes and rheumatism. She lost the ability to work and also accrued a huge medical debt.

While she was receiving treatment in the hospital in 1994, a patient in the same ward gave her a ticket to the Falun Gong lectures and told her that this practice had cured many people of serious diseases.

Ms. Cui became interested and attended the lectures at the Dalian Foreign Languages Institute between March 27 and April 4, 1994. She witnessed how Falun Gong’s founder cured a person, who was carried into the auditorium and was able to stand and walk immediately afterwards.

After the classes, Ms. Cui began to practice Falun Gong. When she went back to the hospital three months later for a follow-up examination, the doctor was surprised to find that she was completely healthy.

Ms. Cui attended another Falun Gong lecture series in July 1994 and a special seminar in December 1994. By then, Falun Gong had become very popular in the city and both classes drew thousands of attendees.

Seeing the tremendous improvement in her health, many of Ms. Cui’s family members and friends also took up Falun Gong.

Arrests and Harassment for Upholding Her Faith

With the onset of the persecution, two officers from the local Jinxiu Police Station harassed Ms. Cui and ordered her to sign a prepared statement to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply and was taken to the local brainwashing center. Upon arrival, she joined a few other practitioners in holding a hunger strike to protest the persecution. A few days later, the guards began to force feed her. When she resisted, they held her down and choked her. She almost suffocated. She was released ten days later.

A group of officers from the Zhongshan District Domestic Security Office broke into Ms. Cui’s home on April 29, 2001. Her Falun Gong books and photo of Falun Gong’s founder were confiscated. The police then brought her to the Domestic Security Office for interrogation. She refused to answer any questions. At around 10 p.m., she was taken to the Dalian City Detention Center and held there for 57 days.

The police attempted to arrest Ms. Cui again in July 2001, but she wasn’t home when they came and thus escaped. For the next eight months, she was forced to live away from home to hide from the police.

Ms. Cui was arrested again in the summer of 2007 by officers of the Lijiajie Police Station. They took her to the Dalian Detention Center twice, but she was rejected admission both times due to her health. After she was released, she lived away from home again for several months.

Shortly after she returned home in 2008, the police frequently harassed her before the Beijing Olympics. As she refused to open the door for them, they dispatched officers to stay outside of her apartment and didn’t allow her to go out. Ms. Cui ran out one night and lived away from home again.

The police also harassed her in 2015 after she filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution, and in May 2021, prior to her latest arrest.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Chen Xin (陈欣), head of Dalian City Domestic Security Office: [phone] (Office), [phone] (Home), [phone] (Cellphone)Jiao Jian (焦健), deputy head of Dalian City Domestic Security Office: [phone], [phone], [phone] (office), [phone] (Cellphone)Yu Dequan (于德泉), secretary of Dalian City Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone]Zhao Yukun (赵玉琨), deputy secretary of Dalian City Political and Legal Affairs Committee and head of 610 Office: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)