After Repeated Arrests and Harassment, Shanxi Woman Faces Prosecution for Her Faith Again

(Minghui.org) A Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province resident was arrested on February 11, 2021, the eve of the Chinese New Year, for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police ransacked her home in the evening and confiscated her computer and Falun Gong books. Her arrest has been approved. 

This isn’t the first time that Ms. Zhang Xiuying, 63, has been targeted for her faith, after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. 

Ms. Zhang was first arrested on February 28, 2000 when she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was taken back to Taiyuan two days later and interrogated at the local police station. At around 5 a.m. on March 3, she was taken to the Taiyuan City Detention Center and given 27 days of criminal detention. She was forced to pay the travel expense of Taiyuan police who went to Beijing to take her back.

The police harassed Ms. Zhang on January 23, 2001, right when the national TV station was broadcasting the Tiananmen Self-immolation hoax to frame Falun Gong. Ms. Zhang told the police that Falun Gong prohibits killing and it’s obvious the incident was staged. Because of that, Ms. Zhang became a key figure on the police’s blacklist. They installed surveillance cameras outside of her apartment and she was followed by people appointed by the residential committee almost every day when she went out. 

Ms. Zhang was arrested again on July 1, 2005 and given a forced labor term, only because the police found Falun Gong books and informational materials at her home.

A group of officers hid outside of Ms. Zhang’s apartment building on the evening of July 15, 2008 and were on the lookout to arrest her. Ms. Zhang happened to see it and she didn’t return home, but stayed outside for two days.

Ms. Zhang was harassed again at around 11 a.m. on December 15, 2009 when she returned from grocery shopping. She clarified the facts about Falun Gong and urged the officers not to participate in the persecution. As officer Wu Ziming appeared to agree with her, Liu Li, the residential committee director, shouted at him, “What are you doing here? Are you influenced by a Falun Gong [practitioner]?” Wu immediately changed his attitude and asked Ms. Zhang to go with him to the police station to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. 

At that time, Ms. Zhang’s husband (who doesn’t practice Falun Gong) returned. Upon seeing the officers, he scolded them, “Who is committing a crime? You are the ones who are breaking the law! It’s every citizen’s right to practice their faith! Why don’t you come downstairs with me and we can ask the neighbors what they think about it?!”

Officer Wu softened his tone and said, “It’s not me who wanted to come. It’s my supervisor who asked me to come.” Ms. Zhang’s husband said to him, “You’d better go back and tell your supervisor that my wife didn’t do anything wrong in practicing Falun Gong.”

While the police gave up the persecution against Ms. Zhang due to her husband’s strong sense of justice, Ms. Zhang was arrested two months later, on January 31, 2010, after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police ransacked her home two days later and confiscated her computer. She was later given one year of forced labor and she was tortured at Shanxi Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp for upholding her faith.