Qidong County, Hunan Province: Many Falun Gong Practitioners Harassed in 2021

(Minghui.org) Most Falun Gong practitioners in Qidong County, Hunan Province, have been harassed to varying degrees over the past year. The officials involved were from village committees or residential committees. Since June 2021, designated working groups dispatched from the city and provincial level went to Qidong County to work on every Falun Gong practitioner on their list in an effort to coerce the practitioner into renouncing his or her faith.

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

The staff members from village committees or residential committees called or visited the practitioners’ homes and took pictures of them. When practitioners pressed them why they did this, they replied that they were just following orders from their superiors.

After the working groups arrived in Qidong County in June 2021, the harassment escalated. They met with every practitioner and ordered them to fill out the form to renounce Falun Gong. They created personal profiles for each practitioner and were instructed to follow up with each one and send in the results.

The working groups reviewed the results in October. They summoned some practitioners to the office of the Qidong County Political and Legal Affairs Committee on October 22 and questioned them one by one. Wang Chenggang, a member of the county 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, accompanied the working groups to different townships, where they summoned and questioned more practitioners. Now that that effort has concluded, an insider revealed that the authorities were planning more brainwashing sessions to solidify the “transformation” results.

Due to the harassment, the daily lives of many practitioners were disrupted, and their family members were affected. Below are a few such cases.

Ms. Zhou Jiheng

Ms. Zhou Jiheng, 79, lives by herself. Three members of the residential committee went to her home three times in June but could not find her. They tried to find out more about her from her neighbors. One kind neighbor protected her and told her about these visits. Fearing further harassment or persecution, Ms. Zhou didn’t dare to return home for some time.

Her daughter went to the residential committee and told them that Ms. Zhou was unable to handle the situation given her current health and insisted they not harass her anymore. They stopped going to her home after that, but Ms. Zhou still lives in fear.

Mr. Liu Jishun

Mr. Liu Jishun, 75, was sentenced to three years in 2001 and given one year of forced labor in 2007. He was sentenced again to three and a half years after he was arrested in October 2014 and was later released on medical parole.

He suffered long-term harassment at home by the police, officials from the judicial office, and members of the residential committee. Unable to recover, he ended up in critical condition in March 2021 and was hospitalized.

Shortly after his release from the hospital, Chengdong Police Station officers made two visits to his home to harass him. They took pictures and warned him not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Residential committee members then went to his home and ordered him to fill out a form to renounce Falun Gong.

Mr. Liu was among the practitioners summoned to the county government on October 22. The working group asked him if he still practiced Falun Gong. He asked them in return, “I was near death from being persecuted and could hardly walk. I was fired from my job and have had no income for over ten years. You only ask me if I still practice Falun Gong. Why not ask about my health or my life? Can you solve my problems?” They were left speechless and had to stop there.

Ms. Tan Guihua

Ms. Tan Guihua, 74, makes a living collecting scrap. Someone reported her to the authorities in May 2021 when they spotted Falun Gong materials in the scrap she collected. The police raided her home and arrested her. Interrogated at the police station, she was unable to handle the intimidation and collapsed, foaming at the mouth. She regained consciousness a week later in the hospital.

Shortly after she was discharged from the hospital, the residential committee sent someone to threaten her not to distribute Falun Gong materials or practice Falun Gong anymore. She was also summoned to the county government on October 22 and questioned by the working group.

Ms. He Qionghui

Ms. He Qionghui, 58, stayed with a disabled relative to take care of her. Unable to find her since May 2021, the village committee sent someone to locate her son, who was working in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province (about 450 miles away), to look for her. Her son was so frightened that he has not dared to go back home since. After Ms. He learned about the harassment, she didn’t dare to go back home, either.