(Minghui.org) Ms. Guo Hongwei and her husband had just managed to put their son to sleep a bit past 10 p.m. on March 20, 2024, when they heard pounding on the door.
Ms. Guo, around 56 and from Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, asked who was there. A man answered that they were from the Qinghemen District Police Department and that they came to investigate her involvement with Ms. Li Cuiyu.
Both Ms. Guo and Ms. Li practice Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. The police said they had just arrested Ms. Li earlier that night while she was distributing Falun Gong materials. They came for Ms. Guo because they knew that she had been in contact with Ms. Li while monitoring the latter.
Ms. Guo refused to open the door and condemned the police for harassing law-abiding citizens like her. Her adult son, once a healthy man, developed a mental disorder after witnessing her repeated persecution over the years for practicing Falun Gong. Every harassment episode in recent years was triggering her son, making it even harder for the couple to take care of him.
The police left, but not before threatening to return the next day.
Starting in early May 2021, the Qinghemen District Police Department ordered its subordinate police stations to monitor and harass Falun Gong practitioners in their jurisdictions. Liu Jinbo, deputy director of the local community office, showed up at Ms. Guo’s home one day in the name of delivering a welfare benefits document. She was not in, and he called her to question where she was. She said she was visiting a friend, and Liu demanded to know the name and address of the friend. One hour later, officer Wang from the Aiyou Police Station called her and questioned where she was at the moment and whether she still practiced Falun Gong. She asked for his full name, and he threatened to summon her to the police station.
Five officers from the Aiyou Police Station broke into Ms. Guo’s home at around 2 p.m. on February 23, 2022. They confiscated a few Falun Gong books and a music player. One officer threatened to detain Ms. Guo when she demanded to see a search warrant.
An officer from the Qinghemen District Police Department called Ms. Guo at around 10 a.m. on November 6, 2023, notifying her that he was coming to do a welfare check of her son. The officer soon arrived and asked her some questions. He took notes and then left.
The local community office director led two officers and came on December 8, 2023, again in the name of checking on Ms. Guo’s son. One officer whipped out his cell phone to take pictures of her, but she stopped him.
Prior to the “Two Sessions” in March 2024, the local community office director called Ms. Guo and warned her not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Two days later, three officers showed up at her home and again threatened her not to go to Beijing. On March 9, 2024 two days before the conclusion of the “Two Sessions,” the police again came to warn her not to go to Beijing.
The “Two Sessions” are the annual meetings of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC). This year the CPPCC began on March 4, 2024, and the NPC one day later. They both concluded on March 11. The communist regime has been known for intensifying its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners around such major political conferences or other major events.