Sichuan Woman Harassed for Her Faith and Ordered to Stand Facing Surveillance Camera Three Times a Day

(Minghui.org) A woman in her 50s was harassed in late September 2022 for her faith in Falun Gong. In addition to trying to coerce her into renouncing Falun Gong, the authorities also installed a surveillance camera outside of her residence and ordered her to stand facing the camera three times a day.

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

Police officers and village officials showed up at Ms. Zhong Fangqiong’s brother’s home in Jianyang City, Sichuan Province, where she was temporarily staying, at 3 p.m. on September 26, 2022. As no one was home, the officials called her brother and he returned home at around 4 p.m.

As soon as Ms. Zhong’s brother opened the door, the officials barged in and searched the place. A copy of Ms. Zhong’s Falun Gong book and the mat she used to do the Falun Gong meditation were confiscated.

When Ms. Zhong returned at around 4:30 p.m., a female official ordered her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. When she refused to comply, two male officers spread ink on the back of her hand and used it to stamp the renouncing statement they had prepared.

The female official said to her, “It’s done. You have now broken up with Falun Gong.” Then a male official said to the official, “Hurry up. We still need to go to the next one [another practitioner].”

Before leaving, the female official ordered local officers to keep a close eye on Ms. Zhong. She also instructed them to install a surveillance camera near the front door of Ms. Zhong’s brother’s home.

For the next two days, the village head came every morning to take Ms. Zhong’s photo.

On September 29, the village secretary, Zhang Hu, ordered an officer to install the surveillance camera. He said to Ms. Zhong, “Now with the camera, we don’t have to come every day to take your photo. You just need to stand on the front step facing the camera every morning, noon, and evening. We will then send the footage of you to the authorities in Chengdu (which has jurisdiction over Jianyang).”

Not seeing Ms. Zhong in the surveillance video, Zhang called her at 5 p.m. on September 30 and asked her if she was home. After confirming that she was, he ordered her to go out and stand on the step for the camera to record her. She insisted that she wouldn’t do it.

The village head called Ms. Zhong’s brother the next day and ordered him to take a photo of her and send it to him. Her brother agreed but said he would only do it once. It’s not clear if the authorities harassed Ms. Zhong again after that.

Ms. Zhong, a professional in the transportation industry, used to have congenital angioma (abnormal growth of blood vessels) and severe cerebral ischemia. Both of the conditions disappeared two months after she took up Falun Gong on March 5, 1999.

Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong after the persecution began, Ms. Zhong has been detained many times. She was sentenced to seven years following an arrest in 2007.

Since she moved in with her brother a year ago, the local authorities have been harassing her nearly once a month. She was followed on May 13, 2022, when she went out.