(Minghui.org) Two locals in Qujing City, Yunnan Province were harassed in April 2024 for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. One of the women was approached by the police again in June.
Below are the details of their recent harassment and past persecution.
Two officers from the Baishijiang Police Station, including one named He Shuhua, summoned Ms. Huang Xilan, in her 70s, on April 25, 2024. They reminded her that she was still on one-year bail following an arrest on July 10, 2023, so she should report to them whenever summoned again. They asked her whether she still practiced Falun Gong. Before she even answered, they wrote that she no longer practiced and ordered her to sign the document. Ms. Huang refused to sign. The police threatened to keep her there until they got her signature. She then challenged them to pick up her father, who was scheduled to be discharged from the hospital in the afternoon and take care of him on her behalf. The police relented and released her.
Officer He summoned Ms. Huang to the police station again on June 13. His assistant took photos of Ms. Huang without her permission.
Ms. Huang, who'd retired from the Qujing City Textile Factory, was twice given two-year labor camp terms, following her arrests in January 2000 and July 2005. She was allowed to serve the first term at home. She was arrested again on March 20, 2010 while studying Falun Gong’s teachings in another practitioner’s home and sentenced to ten years. The police continued to harass her after she was released.
Ms. Tang Shuilan, 59, boarded a train with her sister to Nantong City, Jiangsu Province on April 23, 2024 to celebrate their mother’s upcoming birthday, who is in her 90s and lives on her own.
A police officer called Ms. Tang the next day (when she was still on the train) and demanded to know her whereabouts. She told the officer about her trip. Hours later, the railroad police came to check her and her sister’s IDs and got their cellphone numbers. As soon as they arrived in Nantong at around 10 a.m. on April 25, Ms. Tang’s sister’s husband called and said the local authorities wanted their mother’s address.
A Xiaohai Town Police Station officer showed up at Ms. Tang’s mother’s home on the morning of April 26, asking for Ms. Tang and her sister’s phone numbers and demanding to see their IDs. Ms. Tang questioned why he was doing so and the officer responded that it was an order from above.
Upon learning about the harassment of the sisters on their way to Nantong, their mother worried about Ms. Tang so much that she began to cough non-stop at night. It’s not clear whether Ms. Tang’s sister practices Falun Gong. To avoid having her mother implicated, Ms. Tang returned home right after celebrating her mother’s birthday.
Ms. Tang later learned that officers of the Economic Development District Domestic Security Division and local police questioned her brother-in-law at work on the early morning of April 25. They asked for her mother’s address and the situation about Ms. Tang and her daughter. The police also called Ms. Tang’s husband, who was working out of town, to ask about her situation and her mother’s address.
This isn’t the first time that Ms. Tang has been targeted for her faith. Six officers from the Economic Development District Domestic Security Division and the Xicheng Police Station raided her home on the morning of March 14, 2017. As she wasn’t home, the police took her daughter to the police station to take her photo, and collected her blood and DNA samples and fingerprints. Then they took her to the Economic Development District Domestic Security Division for interrogation and released her at around 4:40 p.m. Ms. Tang was arrested two days later on March 16. It’s not clear how long she was detained.
The police harassed Ms. Tang again during the “Zero-out” campaign in 2020.