After Losing Professional License for Practicing Falun Gong, Gansu Woman Faces Ongoing Harassment

(Minghui.org) A 47-year-old former attorney in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, lost her license in 2011 after the authorities refused to renew it because she refused to give up her faith in Falun Gong. Ms. Jin Yijun is now unable to practice law and is often harassed by the residential committee.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Harassed in 2019 and 2020

In late 2019, the residential committee staff members in Ms. Jin’s neighborhood harassed her several times. When she wasn’t home the first time, they forced her husband to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong on her behalf and ordered him not to reveal any details to her.

Yang Bin, the residential committee director, and four staff members went to Ms. Jin’s home again on July 28, 2020. Only her husband and child were there. By the time Ms. Jin returned, they had already left.

Yang went to her home again on September 4, 2020. When they took photos of her, she asked them to stop. Yang mentioned that the city’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee, an extra-judiciary agency tasked with overseeing the persecution, wanted to verify that she had truly stopped practicing Falun Gong, given the statement she had submitted.

Since Ms. Jin never wrote the statement herself, she asked Yang who’s written it for her. Yang claimed that he was new to the job and he knew nothing about “her” statement.

Between October 15 and 28, Zhang Shiquan, another staff member from the residential committee, harassed Ms. Jin several times, claiming to be conducting a census.

Harassed in 2021

On February 26, 2021, Lin Jing, a residential committee staff member, knocked on Ms. Jin’s door. As no one was at home, she left.

Chen Dahong, the police officer in charge of Ms. Jin’s neighborhood, knocked on her door again on March 1. He also left when no one answered. Both he and Lin Jing later told Ms. Jin about their unsuccessful attempts.

Ba Juanjuan, the residential committee director, went on the afternoon of March 2. Because still no one was at home, she told the property manager to turn off Ms. Jin’s electricity and water.

By the time Ms. Jin returned home at 7 p.m. to find the electricity and water had been turned off, the property manager had already gone home for the day.

The next morning while Ms. Jin was talking to the property manager to find out about the situation, several people from the residential committee, including directors Wang Jianzhong, Yang and Ba, and Lin Jing, and police officer Chen, came in.

The officials asked to go to her home to talk to her. She refused and said they could talk to her in the property manager’s office.

While Ms. Jin tried to get them to explain the legal basis for their harassing her, officer Chen walked back and forth taking pictures of her from different angles, some less than 12 inches from her face. When he got up close again, she grabbed his phone to stop him.

Chen quickly left the room and the others followed. When Ms. Jin left the office, a police car was parked outside of her apartment building and the residential committee members were standing in the yard. They went over and asked for her cellphone, even though they had already gotten it from her husband.

Over the next few days, Ms. Jin tried to find the residential committee directors to let them know that no law in China deems Falun Gong a crime, which meant they were violating the law for harassing her.

On April 14, 2021, Ms. Jin went to the Xiaoxihu Police Station and asked the chief why he had sent officers to harass her on March 3. The chief said that they were intending to investigate her mind activities.

Ms. Jin told him there was no legal basis for the persecution. She also gave him two documents—the notice from the Chinese publication bureau that lifted the ban of Falun Gong publication in 2011 and the list of cults identified by the Ministry of Public Security, which didn’t include Falun Gong. As she was talking, some officers were still taking pictures of her.

Lin Jing of the residential committee called her on April 22 and told her that Political and Legal Affairs Committee members demanded to talk to her. Ms. Jin agreed to meet with them on April 25 (Sunday) at the residential committee’s office. Details on the meeting have yet to be clarified.

Related report:

Former Legal Professional Sues Jiang Zemin for Wrongful Imprisonment