(Minghui.org) A truck driver returned to his workplace at noon on December 23, 2021 to have his cargo weighed. As he got out of his truck to submit the weight slip, two unmarked cars that had been following him pulled up. Several men jumped out and seized him. They left the scene with his truck still on the scale.
Mr. Chen Binggui’s manager was terrified and thought he had been kidnapped by gang members. They asked around and found no answer. They then reported him missing and were told that he had actually been arrested by SWAT officers from the Maonan District Police Department in Maoming City, Guangdong Province.
The police targeted Mr. Chen, a 33-year-old resident of Maoming City, for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. They detained him for one day before releasing him.
Mr. Chen’s employer was also intimidated by the police for “daring to hire a Falun Gong practitioner.” The police demanded that all of his employees submit proof that they didn’t have a criminal record (mainly to show they didn’t practice Falun Gong) in a few days. It is unclear whether the employer complied with the demand.
Hours after Mr. Chen was released on December 24, 2021, his supervisor had a talk with him and expressed the company’s difficult situation. They knew he was an exemplary employee who had zero accidents or rule violations, and was always one of the top producers. However, the police had been pressuring them to fire him or the company could no longer maintain its normal operations.
Mr. Chen was thus fired from his job. This is not the first time that he has been targeted for his faith. He served two years of forced labor from January 19, 2001 to January 18, 2003. After another arrest on February 15, 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Mr. Chen and his family were celebrating a traditional Chinese holiday on October 7, 2019, when a group of officers broke in and arrested him in front of his three children, then 2, 6, and 7 years old. The kids were traumatized.
The arrest took place after surveillance cameras captured Mr. Chen riding his motorcycle to neighboring Lianjiang City in the same province to distribute Falun Gong informational materials. The police released him on bail 37 days later after the Lianjiang City Procuratorate returned his case, citing insufficient evidence. See the second related report for details of this persecution episode.
After his release, Mr. Chen returned to work on November 13, 2019. His then employer, Maoming City Bus Company, told him that he had been fired the day before, under pressure from the police. He refused to go through the employment termination paperwork, but was still fired.
The Lianjiang City Police Department harassed Mr. Chen many times after releasing him on bail. His local Meihua Town Police Station also aided in the attempt to make him renounce Falun Gong and harassed him at home on August 26, 2020. He refused to sign any paperwork. The police station called his brother-in-law on December 24 that year and said someone from the provincial government needed to have a talk with Mr. Chen. It is unclear if the talk ever happened.
More than five years have passed, and the Lianjiang City Police Department still has not lifted Mr. Chen’s bail, which means he could face prosecution at any time. To avoid being arrested, he has been living away from home since late 2019. The items confiscated from his home in 2019, including his Falun Gong books, cell phone, motorcycle, bank cards, and driver’s license, have not been returned. He later got a new driver’s license and landed the truck driver job mentioned earlier in the report. He again lost his job after his latest arrest on December 23, 2021.
Maoming City, Guangdong Province: Six Harassed for Their Faith, Two Pass Away