Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province: Three Targeted for Supporting a Practitioner Facing Prosecution for Their Shared Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Three Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, residents were targeted for supporting another local facing prosecution for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Liang Jun, Ms. Hong Yanrong, and Ms. Yu Shuyun accompanied Ms. Ni Guiyun to the Beidaihe District Police Department on June 26, 2023, to submit some materials urging the police to stop pursuing prosecution of Ms. Ni for her faith.

The former three practitioners were harassed shortly after the police department visit. Ms. Liang and Ms. Hong were arrested on July 14, 2023, and remain in detention as of today. Ms. Yu avoided being arrested because she was not home when the police came.

According to insiders, the authorities targeted the three women because they feared local Falun Gong practitioners banded together to raise awareness of the persecution ahead of the annual Beidaihe Meeting (also known as the communist regime’s summer summit) to be held in Beidaihe District in early August. It has become a common practice for the regime to intensify persecution of Falun Gong practitioners before major political meetings, such as this summer summit, or around anniversaries related to Falun Gong.

78-Year-Old Ms. Ni Indicted for Her Faith, Friends Offer Moral Support

Ms. Ni, a 78-year-old resident of Haigang District, was arrested by officers from the Caigezhuang Police Station on September 9, 2022, while she was talking to people about Falun Gong at the Caigezhuang Market in the Beidaihe District. The police found her home address after seizing her senior bus pass from her bag. They next raided her home. Her son paid a 1,000-yuan bail bond and got her released later that day.

The Caigezhuang Police Station officers harassed Ms. Ni at home many times starting in April 2023. They, together with the Haining Road Police Station (which got involved in her case for an unknown reason), next submitted her case to the Funing District Procuratorate, which has been assigned to handle Falun Gong cases. The procuratorate indicted her and submitted her case to the Funing District Court on May 31, 2023.

Ms. Ni had visited the two police stations many times, urging them to drop her case. They turned a blind eye and still submitted her case to the procuratorate. After she was indicted, Ms. Ni also visited the procuratorate and the court many times but was turned away each time without being allowed to meet with any prosecutor or judge.

Given this, Ms. Ni hired a lawyer to write up some materials explaining the legality of practicing Falun Gong and condemning the wrongful indictment of her. She intended to submit the materials to the Funing District Procuratorate, the Funing District Court, and the Beidaihe District Police Department (which oversees the Caigezhuang Police Station and the Haining Road Police Station).

Ms. Ni’s friends, Ms. Liang, Ms. Hong, and Ms. Yu, offered to accompany her and her lawyer to the Beidaihe District Police Department.

Ms. Ni’s Lawyer Almost Taken to Police Station

The five of them went to the police department on June 27, 2023. The receptionist called the police supervision director, who asked the lawyer to leave the materials with the receptionist for him to pick up later.

At that time, two young officers walked by and the lawyer then handed the materials to them to take a look. One officer saw it was about Falun Gong and said, “You dare to mention Falun Gong?” He immediately called the Haining Road Police Station.

Jiang Zixu and an officer surnamed Yang from the Haining Road Police Station soon arrived at the police department. They ordered the lawyer to go with them.

The lawyer said, “I’m fine with going to your police station, but I can’t ride with you.” After a long standoff, Jiang called his police chief. The chief said since Ms. Ni’s case had already been submitted to the court, it was no longer their business. He asked the lawyer to talk to the procuratorate and the court instead. The lawyer thus avoided being taken to the police station.

Harassed After Visit to Police Department

Around July 3, someone from Ms. Hong’s neighborhood committee knocked on her door. She didn’t open it but later went to check with them what it was about. They said the committee director wanted to talk to her. The director was not in that day.

For the next two days, there were people knocking on her door every day. Ms. Hong again refused to open the door.

The Xigang Road Police Station in Ms. Ni’s neighborhood showed up at Ms. Hong’s home on the morning of July 11 and asked if she had gone to the Beidaihe District Police Department on June 26. She said yes and explained that the police department refused to accept Ms. Ni’s materials.

Hours later, officer Lyu Tiejun from the Hepingdajie Police Station in Ms. Yu’s neighborhood called her husband. He asked Ms. Yu to go to the police station in the afternoon to verify something. If she didn’t show up, the police would then visit her at home.

Ms. Yu called Lyu after she returned home at noon. He asked about her home address and where she worked. She said she couldn’t tell him and urged him not to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. He threatened to suspend her husband’s social security benefits. Ms. Yu warned him that he was infringing upon her human rights and personal freedom. He denied having done so.

Lyu called Ms. Yu’s husband at around 5 p.m. that day, saying the police were heading to his home. Three officers and one neighborhood committee worker showed up a bit later. They looked around the house and left without saying anything.

Arrested On Same Day

Ms. Liang was arrested a bit past 8 a.m. on July 14, 2023, while she was talking to people about Falun Gong at a local fair in Funing District. The police then went to raid her home at around noon.

Ms. Gong Junmei, another local practitioner, went to visit Ms. Liang at around 1 p.m. that day. The police were still there and they arrested Ms. Gong too. She was later released due to health reasons.

Ms. Hong’s home was raided and she was arrested at around 1 p.m. that day. Five hours later, Ms. Yu’s home was also raided. She was not around at the time and her husband refused to reveal where she went.

According to insiders, Ms. Liang, Ms. Hong, and Ms. Yu were targeted simply because they accompanied Ms. Ni to the Beidaihe District Police Department, which reported the matter to its supervising agency, the Qinhuangdao City Police Department. The municipal police department then ordered the arrest of the three practitioners. Ms. Gong was arrested because she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ms. Liang and Ms. Hong remain detained at the time of writing.

Ms. Ni to Stand Trial

Since her friends were arrested, Ms. Ni was unable to submit her materials to the Funing District Procuratorate and the Funing District Court. The court notified her on July 25 that she was scheduled to stand trial three days later. By law, the court should have also informed her lawyer of the hearing, but they never told him about it.

It is unclear whether the hearing was held on July 28 as scheduled.