Families of Falun Gong Practitioners Forced to Help Persecute Their Own Family

(Minghui.org) Both Falun Gong practitioners and their families became victims in China’s Zero-out Campaign. Authorities have gone after every local practitioner and ordered them to renounce their faith since 2020.

Not only did the officials arrest and torture the practitioners, they deceived and threatened their families, turning them against Falun Gong. As a result, some family members pressured or even physically hurt the practitioners, trying to help authorities force them to renounce their beliefs.

The authorities stopped at nothing in their harassment campaign, causing practitioners and their family members physical, financial, and mental distress. My son’s family and I are also victims.

Several men went to my son’s home at the end of 2020 and demanded to know where I was. At the time, my grandson had just been born. Although my son worried about the safety of his wife and son, he also knew that the officials would arrest and torture me once they found me. He refused to give up my location.

The men, who did not identify themselves, came back to harass and threaten his family repeatedly. They told my son that if I continued to practice Falun Gong, his son would not be qualified to serve in the military or hold public office after he grew up.

They then told him that, if he helped them to find me or signed a piece of paper on my behalf, he wouldn’t have such problems. My son panicked and signed the paper without even reading it. After he signed, an official told him, “From now on, we’ll talk to you if we can’t find your mother.”

My son never told me about the harassment and pressure he endured, until one day he couldn’t take it anymore. He broke down in front of me and cried, telling me that he’s been discriminated against and bullied since he was little because I practiced Falun Gong. He had no one to complain to and had had to shoulder everything on his own.

It hurt me to see him suffer because of me. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials harassed him and made him worry about his family’s safety and his own son’s future. His wife lived in constant fear and stopped lactating a few months after giving birth. They had to spend extra money for the formula, which worsened their already strained finances. He had to work odd jobs to earn extra money.

I could barely support myself, let alone help my son. My husband died a few years ago due to the pressure from the persecution. My employer cut my salary for years and eventually fired me, and I was unable to find a new job for the same reason.

Three officials went to my son and other relatives’ homes in March 2022 and again told them how my practice would jeopardize my one-year-old grandson’s future.

No law in China says that Falun Gong practitioners’ children and grandchildren cannot hold public office, serve in military, or be promoted. The authorities lied to strike fear into the practitioners and their families just so the practitioners would sign the papers to renounce Falun Gong.

I knew a practitioner who lived alone after her husband passed away. Her grandson got a position in the police department. The authorities told him that, if his grandmother didn’t sign to renounce Falun Gong, he could kiss the opportunity goodbye. Full of anger, his mother, the practitioner’s daughter, and the family went to the practitioner’s home and tore up the place. The daughter forced her mother to sign and give up her faith. The daughter’s family watched the practitioner closely to ensure that she did not resume the practice.

This practitioner stopped reading Falun Gong books and doing the exercises. She lived in misery, yet it wasn’t her daughter’s concern. The CCP officials had no problem lying, instigating hatred and conflicts, and breaking up families.