Police Director Arrests Practitioners and Their Families, Threatens to Eradicate Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) The police in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, arrested more than ten Falun Gong practitioners and their family members on the evening of September 14 and the morning of September 15, 2023. Zhou Wei, chief of the Songlin Police Station in Jiamusi City, was the main perpetrator behind the mass arrest. He has threatened to force all practitioners in his jurisdiction to renounce their faith.

Zhou, 43, has been on the police force for over ten years. He often harassed practitioners in his jurisdiction, ransacked their homes and arrested them. Many of the practitioners he arrested have been sentenced to prison.

The following summarizes the Songlin Police Station’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the past five years while Zhou was the chief.

(1) Several officers from the Songlin Police Station broke into Mr. Duan Yifa’s home on September 26, 2019 and ransacked it. They arrested him and submitted his case to the Xiangyang District Procuratorate, resulting in his indictment. Mr. Duan developed dangerously high blood pressure while in custody. When his family went to Zhou to seek medical attention for him, Zhou shouted, “Nobody forced him to practice Falun Gong. If he dies it’s his fault.” Mr. Duan was tried by the Xiangyang District Court in April 2021 and was sentenced to five years in prison.

(2) On the morning of September 14, 2020, an officer from Songlin Police Station charged into Mr. Song Tieli’s drug store, claiming that he sold illegal drugs. The police ransacked the store and arrested both Mr. Song and the clerk Ms. Wang Xiaohong, who also practices Falun Gong.

The police took the two to a hospital for a health check the next day. Mr. Song’s blood pressure was dangerously high to be detained but the police colluded with the doctor to forge the results of his health exam. That evening he and Ms. Wang were transferred to the Jiamusi City Detention Center.

(3) Ms. Wu Yuying went home on the afternoon of November 21, 2020 and could not open the door with her keys. Zhou and eight other officers showed up from nowhere and used their key to open her door. They had been waiting outside of her home for a while. After they went inside, Ms. Wu found that things had been moved around, and accused the police for entering her home without her consent. She also suspected they changed her lock. The police did not deny it and started searching her place again. They then took her to Jiamusi Central Hospital for a health check. That evening the police released her after the detention center refused to take her in due to her poor health.

(4) Several officers and a police car arrived at Ms. Qu Yuxia’s home on November 24, 2020. The officers kicked and pried open her door, ransacked her home and arrested her. She spent a night at the Songlin Police Station and was taken to Jiamusi Central Hospital for a health check next day. When the police took her to the Jiamusi Detention Center, the guards refused to admit her because of her hypertension. The police took her back to the hospital and forced her to take medicine to lower her blood pressure before they took her back to the detention center. As her blood pressure remained very high, the police had no choice but to release her on November 25.

(5) An officer from the Songlin Police Station called Ms. Dong Min’s son on November 25, 2020 and demanded his mother’s cell phone number. After her son refused to cooperate, the officer called her husband and asked for her work address. The police threatened to force his son’s employer to fire him and remove the grandson from the daycare if he refused to cooperate. Her husband, after giving her work address to the police, called her right away. She left work before four officers, including Zhou, arrived. Five days later the police called her family again demanding she sign the statements to renounce her faith. The harassment rendered Ms. Dong unable to work. She was also forced to live away from home to hide from the police.

(6) The police broke into Ms. Wang Shubo’s home, ransacked her place and arrested her on the evening of February 20, 2021. Seven months later she was sentenced to four years in prison by the Xiangyang District Court on September 24, 2021. She is now incarcerated in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison.

(7) Mr. Li Guihua was imprisoned for four years because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. She was released from Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on June 20, 2023. In less than three months the police arrested her again on September 15 and took her to a detention center.

(8) The Jiamusi City Police Department mobilized all of its divisions to arrest practitioners in different districts in Jiamusi City on September 14 and 15 of 2023. At the time of this report, nine practitioners remain incarcerated. They are Ms. Dong Min, Mr. Ren Changbin, Ms. Huang Shaobo (Shaopu), Ms. Qu Yujie, Ms. Wang Yujia, Ms. Yang Guifen, Ms. Liu Yan, Ms. Li Guihua, and Xiaoping (last name unknown).

On the evening of September 14, Zhou and three officers broke into Ms. Dong Min’s home and confiscated her Falun Gong books. Zhou had Ms. Dong go to the police station to sign some paperwork. When she got to the station, she was given 15 days in the Jiamusi City Detention Center.

Information on the Perpetrators in Songlin Police Station:

Songlin Police Station: [phone], [phone]Zhou Wei (周围), police chief: [phone], badge number 053222Liu Zhongwu (刘忠武): [phone], badge number 050392Guo Dalong (郭大龙), police officer: [phone], home: [phone]Liu Zhongwu (刘忠伍), deputy chief

Related report:

Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province: Ten Falun Gong Practitioners and Two Family Members Arrested in 24 Hours