Zhejiang Woman Detained for Texting “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Is Good”

(Minghui.org) At around 6 p.m. on June 24, 2021, Ms. Chen Wenying in Leqing City, Zhejiang Province received a phone call from the local police station and was asked to go there. She went there, only to be taken into custody as soon as she arrived.

One police officer claimed that Ms. Chen had spoken to others about Falun Gong and punished her with a 10-day administrative detention. The only evidence the officer provided was that Ms. Chen sent a text message containing the phrase “Hello, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance (the three tenets of Falun Gong) is good” to four people in the months prior to her arrest. This information was obtained through Ms. Chen’s phone service provider.

While the local detention center has stopped admitting new detainees due to the recent uptick of coronavirus cases in the city, the police still forced them to accept Ms. Chen, citing an order from the Leqing City Domestic Security Office.

After Ms. Chen was released, she called many city departments and tried to report her experience. The director of the city’s organizational department expressed sympathy toward Ms. Chen and said she shouldn’t have been punished for sending the text messages.

Ms. Chen started practicing Falun Gong before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution in 1999. For upholding her faith, Ms. Chen has been forcibly sent to brainwashing centers on four separate occasions. While taking trains or buses, she often has her cellphone or bags searched, as her ID has been flagged.

Ms. Chen and her husband ran a company with over 50 employees. She always treated her employees with compassion and kindness and was always ready to help anyone in need. She was also very nice to her mother-in-law and took care of her when she was sick. In fact, Ms. Chen’s mother-in-law often joked that her daughter-in-law was more filial than her own daughter. Nonetheless, Ms. Chen lives every day fearing for her safety simply due to her faith in Falun Gong.

Due to frequent harassment and the surveillance of daily life and cellphone use, her family is also living under tremendous pressure, and they sometimes blame Ms. Chen for causing the inconvenience and bringing the danger to them, when it’s too much for them to bear.

Force Fed for Four and a Half Months

In 2001, Ms. Chen was held in custody for an entire month because she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

In 2006, the police failed to find the person who hung up a banner reading “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” at a local popular tourist site. They simply arrested Ms. Chen to close the case and gave her a 1.5-year term at the Moganshan Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Chen went on a 4.5-month hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention. The authorities force fed her during the period. She often suffered severe bleeding and her teeth began to crack as a result. As a result of the brutal force-feeding, Ms. Chen choked and almost died several times.

Harassed for Years

At 4 a.m. on August 17, 2010, more than 30 agents showed up at Ms. Chen’s home with the intent of taking her to a brainwashing center. After Ms. Chen escaped, police officers blocked the road around her home and kept it under surveillance around the clock. After Ms. Chen was forced into displacement to avoid being arrested, the police threatened her family to reveal Ms. Chen’s whereabouts and warned that her two children, one studying in college and one working at a company, would face retaliation if she refused to return home. Unable to bear the harassment, her husband threatened to divorce her.

While it’s not clear when Ms. Chen returned home, the police attempted to harass her and take her photos in August 2017. As Ms. Chen was not at home, the police took photos of every room. Several days later, they called Ms. Chen and ordered her to send them a photo of her standing in her living room. Ms. Chen refused to comply.

About a month later on September 9, the police tried once again to obtain Ms. Chen’s photos, this time by pressuring her husband. Later, three police officers harassed her at work. Ms. Chen questioned why they repeatedly asked for her photos when she hasn’t committed any crime or harmed anybody. The police couldn’t answer her question and threatened to arrest her.

Ms. Chen left for Hangzhou City on a business trip on December 8, 2019. At the train station, two unidentifiable personnel checked her ID and searched her bags and cellphone. Ms. Chen took pictures of the two personnel and said she would sue them for invasion of privacy. One of them immediately ran away.

In May 2020, a police officer notified Ms. Chen that he would be visiting her at home. Ms. Chen refused to receive him, as her husband got upset every time the police came. The police still came despite her protest, when it happened that her husband wasn’t home. They requested to take her photos again, but Ms. Chen firmly rejected it and said that she would take their photos if they took hers.

After the police officer left, another officer called Ms. Chen again a few days later and demanded to take her picture. She still refused to comply.

Perpetrators’ contact information:Leqing City 610 Office: [phone], [phone]Domestic Security Office: [phone], [phone], [phone]Li Hailong (林海龙), police officer of Hongqiao Police Station: [phone]Ye Weiqiong (叶伟琼), the secretary of Leqing Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone], [phone]

(More contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)