(Minghui.org) It hasn’t been easy for Falun Gong practitioners in Nan’an District, Chongqing, in October and November 2020. The local officials and police repeatedly visited and pressured them to renounce their faith.
Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, authorities in China, including those in Chongqing, have been abusing Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which stipulates that those who use cult organizations to sabotage law enforcement must be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.
While no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it a cult, the authorities have been prosecuting Falun Gong practitioners on the grounds that they violated Article 300, even though their practicing and spreading information about Falun Gong didn't undermine any law enforcement and was merely exercising their constitutional rights of freedom of belief and religion.
Knowing that trying to force practitioners to give up their faith was unconstitutional, the Chongqing police officers and government officials who participated in the latest campaign never gave their names, ranks, and badge numbers.
Ms. Liu Changxiu lives in Rongqiao Peninsula in Nan’an District. She is 77 years old and retired from Chongqing Changjiang Electric Group. The police arrested her on October 21, 2020, while she was telling others why the persecution of Falun Gong was wrong. She was released 11 hours later.
The next day two officials from the local community went to Ms. Liu’s home in the morning and again in the evening. Ms. Liu refused to cooperate with them.
An officer and a local official came to Ms. Liu’s home on November 3 and looked around. Three days later two people came but she wasn’t home. The same two people who came on November 3 showed up again on November 10 while she was preparing lunch. She refused to go with them to the police station. Two days later two people came to see her and she wasn’t home.
In the morning of November 13, seven officers and local officials broke into Ms. Liu’s home. They claimed that they just wanted to see her. She warned them their trying to force her to give up her practice was unconstitutional and that it was her right to practice Falun Gong.
Another case of harassment took place on November 6, 2020, at Zhang Xiaolin and Zhang Fan’s home. Director from Tongyuanju Police Station and four local officials attempted to force the two to sign five statements to renounce Falun Gong. An official recorded the process with a cellphone. The two practitioners refused to sign.