Tonghua City, Jilin Province: Falun Gong Practitioners Harassed in “Zero-Out” Campaign

(Minghui.org) The authorities in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, have been carrying out the “zero-out” campaign aimed at forcing every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce their faith.

Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, is a mind-body cultivation practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

On May 18, 2021, Liu A’ming, the Party secretary of Kuaida village, took some gifts and brought three men from the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and one female police officer to the home of Mr. Wang Chuanfu and his wife Ms. Xu Shuzhen.

The group told the couple that this year marked the Chinese Communist Party’s centennial anniversary and instructed them not to go out to talk to people about Falun Gong or put up information about it. One of them asked the couple to sign the guarantee statements that were prepared in advance and assured them that the authorities won’t look for them anymore after they have signed it.

Ms. Xu replied that she wouldn’t sign the documents as she had benefitted from practicing Falun Gong, and she told them to take the gifts back. Regardless of what Liu said, the couple refused to sign. The officers left eventually.

Prior to this, the village officers and two other unidentified persons went to the couple’s home in March and harassed them.

On June 3, 2021, Liu and Song Yanan, a staff member of the village, went to the couple’s home again. Liu took out the guarantee statements and said to Mr. Wang, “I don’t want to visit you but I don’t have a choice. You don’t have to write or sign the guarantee statements today. I will take a photo of you and that’s it. I will submit the document to the higher-ups, and if they come to look for you in the future, I’ll help you.” In fact, the documents had been secretly signed by the authorities on the couple’s behalf without their knowledge.

Song asked the couple to help them by allowing them to take their photos.

When Liu handed the documents to Mr. Wang, Song secretly took a photo of Mr. Wang receiving the documents.

The couple explained to them the facts about Falun Gong, the persecution. They said it would go against their conscience to sign the statements. When the couple urged Liu and Song to learn more about Falun Gong, they perfunctorily agreed and left.

In May 2021, the daughter of another practitioner, Ms. Jin Taixian, received a phone call from the cultural community committee, asking for Ms. Jin’s number. The daughter told the person that her mother recovered from her illnesses after practicing Falun Gong, and she told him not to harass them again.

When Ms. Jin went to visit her relatives on June 6, 2021, the secretary of the cultural community called Ms. Jin several times. When Ms. Jin finally picked up the call, the secretary threatened that if she didn’t sign the guarantee statements, it would affect the opening of her daughter’s store and her grandson’s schooling; her pensions would also be cancelled. Ms. Jin refused to comply.