(Minghui.org) The authorities in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province have been harassing 80-year-old Ms. Li Guiluan since August 2020 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual practice being persecuted in China.
The local police, government officials, and street committee staffers resorted to various means to harass Ms. Li. For a time, they sat right outside Ms. Li’s residence to intimidate her and her visitors. They questioned and took pictures of every person who came to see Ms. Li.
Other times, these people broke into and ransacked her home. They even went to Shanghai to threaten her two daughters and their families. At one point, the police arrested and assaulted her while trying to coerce her into giving up her belief. She later moved in with her son, who also practices Falun Gong, only to see the authorities harassing her son in an attempt to target her.
Ms. Li worked at Lanzhou Aerospace Flight Control Research Institute before she retired nearly 20 years ago. She lived with her daughters in Shanghai for the past ten years but moved back to Lanzhou earlier this year.
Since August 2020, officials from the Anning District and officers from Yintanlu Police Station in Lanzhou have constantly harassed her. They took turns sitting outside of her place to intimidate her and question and photograph her visitors.
To further press her to sign a written statement to renounce her faith in Falun Gong, the authorities traveled to Shanghai to intimidate her daughters and their families.
The authorities broke into Ms. Li's residence in the Anning District and confiscated her belongings. At one point they took her to the local street committee building and forced her to listen to recordings and watch videos slandering Falun Gong. They punched her in the head and knocked her down. A nurse was called because Ms. Li was physically unwell. Ms. Li’s blood pressure was too high and she had heart irregularities. Without offering any help, the authorities transferred her to a temple and told the monks there to continue to brainwash her.
To get away from the authorities, she went to live with her son, Mr. Zhou Wei, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner. He had just been released from prison (on September 18, 2020) after serving four years for refusing to renounce his faith.
The very next day the authorities went to Mr. Zhou’s home to see if Ms. Li was there. A female officer did not get to see Ms. Li so she took a picture of her son. About 20 minutes after the officer left, Mr. Zhou stepped outside of his apartment building. Officers who had been waiting outside surrounded him and asked where Ms. Li was. Two of them entered Mr. Zhou’s house and saw Ms. Li. They claimed they were there just to see how she was.
A few days later, two police chiefs went to Mr. Zhou’s home. He told them that his mother had left Lanzhou for Shanghai. The police told him they planned to turn his home into a brainwashing center to “re-educate” Ms. Li.
After finding Ms. Li’s flight information, the authorities went to Shanghai to harass her daughters.
The following is Ms. Li’s own account of the recent harassment she has suffered.
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I have lived with my two daughters in Shanghai for the past decade. I returned to the Anning District in Lanzhou City in August 2020, a month before my son’s release. My son, Mr. Zhou Wei, was imprisoned for four years because he refused to renounce his practice of Falun Gong. He was scheduled to be released on September 18.
As soon as I moved back to Lanzhou, the local authorities found me and started to harass me. They even traveled to Shanghai and harassed my two daughters, their husbands, and children. The agents wanted them to sign a statement on my behalf to renounce Falun Gong. My family refused.
When the agents called one of my daughters at work, she told them, “I work in a U.S. company. If you come here, I might as well expose you to the international community.” They threatened my grandchildren, telling them that, because I practiced Falun Gong, their school might expel them.
On September 4, the authorities sat in front of my house from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. They frequently banged on the door and made loud noises. That same day, they had my electricity cut off. I had to stay with my daughter-in-law. After they turned my electricity back on September 6, they tried to coerce me into signing a statement and ransacked my place, saying, “The government forbids Falun Gong. Once you sign it, you’ll be fine.”
The people had a locksmith dismantle my lock and open my door after I refused to let them in on September 21. They turned my place upside down and confiscated my belongings. They said they would return my valuables after they “examined” them, but they never did. An official took my keys before taking me to Yintanlu Police Station to interrogate me.
The next day, the police transferred me to Liujiabao Police Station and forced me to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong. I closed my eyes. The police then took me to an office and told me that I had to sign the statements to renounce Falun Gong that day. They began to curse Falun Gong, Master Li, and my ancestors. Two young men held my hands and took my fingerprints. A woman signed my name on the papers and told me the local Political and Legal Affairs Committee secretary would be called in to validate the signature the next day. I did not go.
The police waited for me outside and arrested me as soon as I left the apartment on October 12. They still wanted me to validate the documents they’d signed after putting me in a community office. They played a video slandering Falun Gong, turned up the volume, pried my eyes open, and shouted at me to make me watch. They pinched me and cursed at me repeatedly.
From 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. I had to sit still on a little, short stool. At one point, a big man punched the top of my head so hard that I fell off the stool. Someone came to check my vitals. I had hypertension and heart problems.
Two young women came to my son’s home on October 15 and said that they were conducting a census. They wanted to know if I lived there. The next day a female officer from Jianlanlu Police Station came and said that my son had to have his picture taken once a month. When my son refused, she intimidated him and took his photo.
Twenty minutes later, my son left home and was immediately surrounded by seven officers. One of them was the female officer who took his picture. They wanted to know if I was in his apartment. My son told them, “Don’t even think about taking her. She’s 80 years old.”
Four days later, three people came to my son’s home and asked to see me. When my son told them that I’d gone back to Shanghai, they accused him of not reporting the information. “What crime did she commit?” my son asked. They said, “We want to take a picture of your mother every other week and re-educate her in your house.”
These people, believing that my daughter-in-law took me back, began investigating her.