(Minghui.org) When Ms. Qi Yingchun refused to answer three harassment phone calls from officer Tao Junfeng on April 24, 2022, seven plainclothes officers went to her home at 3 p.m. They banged on her door, covered the peephole on the door and her security camera, and then cut off her home’s power and Internet connection.
Several officers smashed in her door and broke in shortly after. Claiming that someone reported her for practicing Falun Gong, they searched every corner of her home and pried open all of her cabinets and cases. Around 80 of her Falun Gong books, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, two desktop computers (including a broken one), a laptop computer, three media players, several cellphones, and her indoor security camera were all confiscated. Even the antique magazines and books collected by her parents weren’t spared.
Ms. Qi was then taken to the local police station, where the police forcibly collected her fingerprints, blood, and urine sample. They also performed an electrocardiogram and an X-ray on her. She demanded to know the reason for her arrest, and an officer responded that it was because she had just shouted “Falun Dafa is good.” As the local detention center refused to admit her due to the pandemic, she was released on a one-year bail a day later.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation self-improvement discipline. It was introduced to the public in May 1992 and quickly spread throughout China for its health benefits. Fearing its growing popularity, the Chinese Communist Party ordered its eradication from China in July 1999.
Before the persecution, over 100 people were doing the Falun Gong exercises together every morning on the campus of Renmin University of China, where Ms. Qi worked. But as the practitioners refused to renounce Falun Gong in the face of the persecution, many were taken to detention centers and given forced labor camp terms.
Ms. Qi worked at the audio-visual education center in the university. She took up Falun Gong in the summer of 1997. After the persecution began, she was arrested on March 26, 2001 and taken to the brainwashing session organized by the university. She was later forced to live away from home to hide from the police, and fired from her job on October 12, 2001. Her 20 years of service and pension was also cancelled.
Ms. Qi was reported by a friend for talking to her about the persecution of Falun Gong, and arrested on May 18, 2003. She held a hunger strike for 80 days, before being given two years at the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp. The guards constantly beat her because she refused to give up Falun Gong.
When she returned to her campus apartment on May 18, 2005, after serving the term, she was constantly monitored by the school security and community workers.
The harassment and surveillance intensified after the pandemic broke out in 2020. Even students, delivery workers, and other school employees were ordered to monitor her when she was walking on campus. She was often followed when she went to the nearby supermarket, bank, or hair salon.
She wasn’t allowed to leave home between January 20 and March 25, 2022, and especially during the Winter Olympics in February. If she had to go out, she had to seek permission from the local police.
Haidian Police Station: +86-10-82588210Tao Junfeng (陶军峰), police officer in the Renmin University of China neighborhood: +86-19810258285Liu(刘), police officer in the Renmin University of China neighborhood: +86-19810255553