Restaurant Owner Resists Harassment for Her Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Ms. Chen Fengjun, 49, of Suining City, Sichuan Province, was sentenced to three years in Chengdu Women’s Prison in 2015 for upholding her faith.

After she was released, she faced ongoing harassment by local authorities. The latest harassment took place on July 15, 2022, when the local community committee attempted to force her to renounce her faith in Falun Gong.

The latest harassment was part of the “Zero-out” campaign, which was started in 2020 with an aim to force every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce their faith. Local authorities across the country often went door to door to “work on” local practitioners. Many practitioners and their family members were harassed and ordered to write statements to give up the practice.

Ms. Chen and her husband own a small restaurant. Around 4 p.m. on July 14, 2022, a woman called Ms. Chen’s husband, claiming that she was from the community committee and needed the couple’s home address in order to conduct a census. She claimed that she called Ms. Chen earlier but was given a wrong address. She accused Ms. Chen of wasting their time traveling a long distance to the wrong address on a hot summer day, only to realize it was the wrong address. She also warned the couple not to get involved in abusing drugs or other illegal things.

Ms. Chen’s husband denied having done anything illegal. He refused to provide their address. He said that if the woman had his phone number, they must know their address, which the police also had.

The woman became irritated and threatened to call the police. But Ms. Chen’s husband wasn’t intimated.

Upon overhearing the conversation, Ms. Chen realized that the woman was targeting her faith in Falun Gong and she felt she should take the opportunity to clarify the facts to her. Thus, she took the phone from her husband and gave the woman the address of their restaurant.

When the couple arrived at their restaurant a little while later, the woman and seven others were already there waiting for them.

A man said to Ms. Chen, “We are investigating you. Your name is on our list. You are Chen Fengjun, from Laochi Town, right? We know you went with a person surnamed Huang to Moxi Town several months ago and was arrested.”

Ms. Chen denied that she ever went to Moxi Town and she didn’t know the person surnamed Huang either.

“If you didn’t go there, why would your name be listed online?”

“How do I know what you are doing?” Ms. Chen refuted them. Her husband also blamed the officers for framing her.

The woman who called the couple earlier on then said, “If you do not believe us, we can go with you to the police station to verify the case.”

When they realized the couple wouldn’t go to police station with them, the woman blurted out, “The purpose of us coming here today is to get you to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong.”

Ms. Chen firmly refused, “All my diseases went away after I started practicing Falun Gong. I will never give it up.”

“Don’t talk such things with me. You must sign it!” the woman said to her.

“There is no way I’ll sign it.” Ms. Chen refused to budge.

Tang Yongsheng, the community secretary, stepped in, “If you don’t sign it, do you mean that you still want to promote Falun Gong in the community?”

Ms. Chen replied, “No matter where I am, I’m only telling people what’s good for them and breaking no law whatsoever by doing that.”

The woman community worker then threatened Ms. Chen that they would never allow her to talk about Falun Gong in public.

Ms. Chen replied that she knew exactly what she was doing. She told them, “Forcing me to sign a statement renouncing my faith is illegal!”

Her words angered two other people from the local community committee. They threatened her, “If you dare to repeat what you just said, we will arrest you immediately!”

Ms. Chen was not scared, “You want to arrest me simply because I say what you are doing is ‘illegal’? That's ridiculous.”

The woman came over again and repeated the demand that Ms. Chen sign the statement. Ms. Chen took the opportunity to confront her about her claim that Ms. Chen gave them a wrong address. “Why don’t you show us your phone call history and see whether you called me or not.” The woman refused to do so.

Seeing that Ms. Chen would not sign the statement, they tried to persuade her husband to sign on her behalf. Her husband refused, “No, I will never sign it.” Then he started to tell them how he witnessed his wife benefitted from practicing Falun Gong.

One of them became furious and threatened the couple, “You will have to bear the consequences if you don’t sign it!” They even threatened to come to their restaurant often and to mess up their business.

No matter what, Ms. Chen stayed calm and firm. She told them peacefully, “I will always welcome you to my restaurant. But I will never sign the statement to renounce my faith. Because if I do, it will not only harm me but also you.”

They warned Ms. Chen not to promote Falun Gong in public and then left.