(Minghui.org) Since May 2021, several members of a family in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, have been harassed for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Han Kai, a senior engineer around 50, tried to explain the facts of the persecution to the police and residential committee staff members, but they wouldn’t listen and arrested him on June 15, 2021, on his way to work. The residential committee director accused him of “having contact with foreign forces” and took him to the Jiang’an District Brainwashing Center.
Shortly after Mr. Han’s arrest, his wife, Ms. Zhou Huiyun, an elementary school teacher in her 40s, was also arrested and the authorities refused to reveal where she is detained.
Ms. Zhou’s school was recently assigned a new principal, who is also the secretary of the school’s Chinese Communist Party committee. Prior to her arrest, the new principal worked with residential committee staff members to pressure Ms. Zhou into giving up Falun Gong, threatening her with the loss of her job if she didn’t comply.
In addition to the couple, Ms. Zhou’s parents, who are in their 70s, were also harassed. Her father is Mr. Zhou Kelan, who is retired from the Fourth Exploration and Design Institute of the Ministry of Railways. Her mother is Ms. Yu Yuying. Since May, the couple has noticed people outside their home monitoring them. On June 8, several people knocked on their door, but the couple refused to let them in. A week later, the authorities installed two cameras outside their home, one facing the front entrance and the other facing their bedroom.
Still mourning the death of Mr. Han’s father in the pandemic last year, Mr. Han’s mother, Ms. Cai Guizhen, an 81-year-old retired automobile factory worker, was also harassed and ordered to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong. The authorities threatened to take her to the brainwashing center as well. Now the elderly woman is under tremendous stress due to the harassment and the arrests of her son and daughter-in-law.
Since the onset of the persecution, the Zhou family has been targeted for their faith. Ms. Zhou’s older sister, Ms. Zhou Huirong, was fired by the hotel where she worked in 1999 for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was arrested in December 2003 and tortured in a brainwashing center. She passed away on January 31, 2005. She was 36.
Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, has played a leading role in holding brainwashing sessions where practitioners are pressured to renounce Falun Gong. Currently, there are about 70 documented brainwashing centers in Wuhan.
Often known as “Legal Education Centers” or “Transformation Learning Centers,” these brainwashing centers are located in government offices, colleges and universities, state enterprises, and private companies and residences. Nursing homes, hospitals, welfare homes, guest houses, and hotels are also used to hold brainwashing sessions.
Starting in 2021, the authorities in Wuhan gave the brainwashing centers new names, such as “care homes” or “care centers,” in order to avoid the increasing international scrutiny of the hidden crimes taking place in these facilities.
According to the latest information collected by Minghui, between January and June 20, 2021, 43 practitioners and a family member in Wuhan City have been held at 13 brainwashing centers, nine of which were recently established.
In March and April of 2021, 18 practitioners were arrested and taken to various brainwashing centers. Among the 21 practitioners who were taken to brainwashing centers between May 18 and June 20, 16 were sent to the Jiang’an Brainwashing Center.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Wang Qiang (王强), director, 610 Office: +86-15342787782Baibuting Residential Committee: +86-27-82290051Jiang (姜), Xingfushidai Residential Committee: +86-18162588483Wang Xinyue (王欣玥), a community worker: +86-18572837707
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Wuhan Opens Nine New Brainwashing Centers to Incarcerate Steadfast Falun Gong Practitioners