Displaced Sichuan Woman Suffers Mental Disorder after Being Intimidated by the Police

(Minghui.org) A 74-year-old woman in Miyi County, Sichuan Province, was forced to live away from home in May 2021 to avoid being persecuted for her faith in Falun Gong. Ms. Xiong Guangrong was tracked down and intimidated by the police. While it’s not clear whether she was arrested during that time, the police harassment and intimidation took a toll on her physical and mental health.

When she recently returned home, she was delirious, had severe memory loss, and was incontinent. When her family took her to the hospital, they discovered she’d had a stroke. She also had diabetes.

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

Ms. Xiong was previously arrested on June 9, 2016, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. She was held in the Miyi County Detention Center for 12 days and released on June 21. Four months later, on October 19, she was arrested again after being reported for handing out Falun Gong materials and detained at the Shuanggou Detention Center for another 12 days.

While Ms. Xiong escaped another arrest on July 21, 2019, because she wasn’t home when the police came, she was arrested soon after on her way home from grocery shopping. She was detained for over three hours and interrogated. The police wanted to know if she had been distributing Falun Gong materials.

Two police officers went to Ms. Xiong’s rented apartment in December 2020 to arrest her, but she was out grocery shopping. They waited outside for her until noon. Ms. Xiong’s landlord, who was questioned by the police as to her whereabouts, informed her that the police were looking for her. To avoid being arrested, Ms. Xiong was forced to live away from home for days.

When she did return, there was a knock on her door at 7:30 a.m. on January 12, 2021. She opened up, only to find the police standing outside. She tried to close the door, but the police pushed it open and injured her hand during the struggle.

The police (one of them named Mao Jianping) ransacked her residence, telling her “You are disrupting the social order by promoting Falun Gong.” Her Falun Gong books, informational materials, DVDs, four media players, and a DVD player were confiscated.

At the station, the officers interrogated Ms. Xiong, demanding to know where she got her Falun Gong materials. She refused to answer and was released that afternoon.

Ms. Xiong was arrested again on February 20 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong at a farmers’ market. She was interrogated by Li Wanbo and Liu Junzhi at the Baima Police Station. She refused to answer their questions and urged them not to participate in the persecution. They ignored her and took her to her home to search it. They didn’t find anything related to Falun Gong and left.

Officers Mao Lidao and Zhu of the Miyi County Police Department and Zhong Chaochao of the Baima Police Station ransacked Ms. Xiong’s home again at 7:30 a.m. on March 5. All three had harassed her before.

They pushed Ms. Xiong into the police car and took her to the police department. After a brief interrogation, they took her to a shoe store and took a picture of her. Ms. Xiong learned that one of the store employees had reported her for talking to him about Falun Gong. The police also took her to the farmers’ market, where she was reported in February, and took a photo of her there. She was allowed to go home after the photos were taken.

Two officers returned on March 25, took her to the Miyi County Procuratorate, and told her to sign a bail release document. She refused to comply.

After that, she noticed that two officers followed her whenever she went out again. Whenever she talked to people on the street, they would question and photograph them.

In April, the police submitted Ms. Xiong’s case to the procuratorate, which quickly indicted her and moved her case to the Miyi County Court.

Ms. Xiong received a subpoena from the court on May 7 and was ordered to report to the court on May 18. She decided to live away from home, only to be harassed and intimidated by the police, who tracked her down.