(Minghui.org) Four residents of Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province were arrested at a home on February 8, 2024, two days before the Chinese new Year, for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

The arresting officers from the Yilan County Domestic Security Office, the Guanyue Police Station, and the Dongcheng Police Station raided all four practitioners’ homes. They released Mr. Wang Fuyou, 82, later that day, but kept Ms. Fu Guiqin, 73, Ms. Wang Yumei, 60, and Ms. Gao Jing in detention. It’s unclear where the three women are being held.

Ms. Fu and Ms. Wang were targeted previously for practicing Falun Gong.

Past Persecution of Ms. Fu

Ms. Fu, a textile worker, was arrested three times in 2000. She was detained for 75 days following her first two arrests and given one year of forced labor after her third arrest. She was brutally tortured at the Wanjia Labor Camp, including having boiling water poured over her entire body, force fed, and made to sit on a small stool motionless for long periods of time. She also witnessed how another practitioner, Ms. Meng Xianzhi, was beaten to death.

Ms. Fu faced frequent harassment from the local government, police, and street committee after she was released on December 29, 2002. She and her husband temporarily moved in with her sister in Jiangsu Province in 2003. The Yilan police tracked them down and notified their counterparts in Jiangsu Province to arrest Ms. Fu from her sister’s home. She was held at the Changzhou Prison in Jiangsu Province for more than one month. It was unclear whether she was ever sentenced.

Ms. Fu and her husband returned to Yilan after being released, only to be arrested at home three years later on February 11, 2006. The arrest was ordered by three Yilan County government officials, including county executive Liu Wenbin, deputy Party secretary Liu Fengren, and Political and Legal Affairs Committee secretary Zheng Wen. Ge Bin from the Xicheng Police Station, Sun Zhihui from the Wuguocheng Police Station, and agents from the Yilan County Domestic Security Office, carried out the arrest.

Ms. Fu was given two years of forced labor and brutally tortured at the Wanjia Labor Camp and Qianjin Labor Camp. Details of her persecution are available in the related report below.

Past Persecution of Ms. Wang

Ms. Wang was arrested on November 14, 2000 while en-route to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was held at the Yilan County Detention Center for more than 100 days and fined more than 6,000 yuan.

Days before the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was set to begin on November 8, 2002, Lu Junshan, chief of the Yilan County Police Department, ordered a mass arrest of local Falun Gong practitioners in an attempt to prevent them from raising awareness of the persecution.

A group of officers scaled Ms. Wang’s fence and broke into her home in the middle of the night when she was asleep. They held her at a local detention center for more than 100 days before giving her three years of forced labor at the Wanjia Labor Camp. She was forced to work for more then ten hours every day without pay. She was released on April 20, 2005.

Related Report:

Ms. Fu Guiqin's First-hand Account of the Long-term Persecution She Has Suffered