(Minghui.org) Due to prolonged harassment for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a family in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, are unable to work or live a normal life. 

Mr. Zhang Dinggang, his wife Ms. Ji Qingzhu and their older daughter Ms. Zhang Yanan were still detained when the Chinese Communist regime suddenly lifted all pandemic restrictions on December 7, 2022. As the country was soon hit with another huge wave of COVID-19, the police finally released Mr. Zhang, his wife and their older daughter in late December 2022. The couple’s younger daughter, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, was listed as their guarantor on their release notice. 

Officers from the Jiushui Road Police Station and Domestic Security Office (with one person surnamed Mu) ordered the couple and their older daughter to report to them regularly, but the trio refused to comply, knowing that they might be arrested again if they were to go to the police station. Meanwhile, the police also began to harass the couple’s younger daughter.

Due to constant monitoring of their shared residence, the family were unable to continue living there. With others’ help, they managed to get their personal items out and moved to a new place. But it didn’t take the police very long to locate them and set up new surveillance by the residential committee, neighborhood security and their neighbors. Unable to bear the pressure, their landlord evicted them and didn’t allow them to take their personal items out.

As a result of the persecution, Mr. Zhang developed a heart condition and Ms. Ji has developed diabetes. She has had swelling in her legs, back pain and kidney problems. Isolated from society, their older daughter stayed in bed all day long and refused to do anything. She ate very little. 

The police also constantly monitored and harassed the couple’s younger daughter, which caused her to lose her job. They claimed that as long as she could persuade her parents and sister to sign statements renouncing Falun Gong, they would be allowed to live a normal life. The family refused, knowing that as long as the persecution continues, they wouldn’t be able to live a normal life whatsoever. 

To protect her parents and sister, the couple’s younger daughter avoids meeting with them so as not to betray their current location to the authorities. She stays at home and avoids going out. She told her mother that she has lost hope in life, and said that if her loved ones were arrested again she would drown herself.

Mr. Zhang said that because they couldn’t work, they have been relying on local Falun Gong practitioners’ financial support to get by. They really hope to be able to live a normal life, have a stable job and pay off what they owe to other practitioners. But the police, with their constant harassment, are just not letting them.