(Minghui.org) The Minghui website previously reported on Ms. Hao Yuyong’s 4.5-year sentence for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. This article presents newly obtained information about her past persecution.
Ms. Hao, a 60-year-old resident of Daxing’anling Prefecture, Heilongjiang Province, was admitted to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on February 2, 2024. She is set to be released around March 2028. Prior to her latest persecution, she was arrested multiple times for upholding her faith.
Detained Three Times for Going to Beijing to Appeal for Falun Gong
In October 1999, three months after the persecution started, Ms. Hao went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong, only to be arrested and taken back to Daxing’anling. Although she was released after a brief detention and paying a fine, the police arrested her again shortly after and held her in a brainwashing center. She was beaten and had injuries to her head when she refused to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Hao decided to go to Beijing again in 2000 and was intercepted at the Dayangshu Rail Station in Inner Mongolia. She was taken back to Heilongjiang and held at the Songling District Detention Center for 30 days.
Husband Beat Her for Fear of Being Implicated
In the winter of 2001, Ms. Hao’s husband’s employer ordered him to keep an eye on his wife so that she did not practice Falun Gong again. She refused to write statements to renounce Falun Gong and her husband hit her with a club. She immediately bled profusely and was rushed to the hospital. She ended up having several stitches to close the wound on her head. Days later, the Songling District Police Department officers raided her home. After discovering Falun Gong materials, they took her to the police department and detained her for three days.
Ms. Hao was arrested on the afternoon of October 31, 2017, by the Changhong Police Station officers. They took her to the Jiagedaqi District Detention Center before raiding her home. They confiscated her computer and that of her daughter’s.
Targeted During the Zero-out Campaign in 2020
Li Xiaoli, secretary of the Guyuan Town Community Committee, called Ms. Hao in April 2020 and demanded to know her home address. Li called again one month later and ordered her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong, threatening to cause trouble for her daughter and son-in-law’s jobs and her grandson’s schooling.
Chief Li Jinzhu of the Guyuan Town Police Station called Ms. Hao in June 2020 and also demanded to know her home address.
Li and about five town government employees, including Sun Hongyan, broke into Ms. Hao’s home in July 2020. She was not in, and Li and two others (a man surnamed Tian and a woman surnamed Liu) returned in a few days. Tian took out his phone to videotape Ms. Hao and she stopped him. She urged them not to persecute law-abiding citizens like her. They then left, but not before threatening her daughter that she risked having her mother detained for a while. The younger woman was so scared that she cried.
After that, the authorities kept harassing Ms. Hao’s daughter on the phone.
Chief Guan Yutao of the Songling District Police Station and director Zeng Fanhui of the political and legal affairs committee approached Ms. Hao’s daughter and son-in-law on November 25, 2020. They said to the young couple, “This is the zero-out campaign to make sure every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist renounces Falun Gong. If you do not sign the statements on your mother’s behalf, we could directly send her to prison, which would also help us meet the requirement of zeroing out.”
On December 1, 2020, the Guyuan Town government and the Songling District government asked the Changhong Police Station to bring Ms. Hao to them. The police couldn’t get a hold of her and called her daughter. The younger woman said she was at work and could not go to the police station. Plus she had to pick up her child after work. The police said they’d wait for her no matter how late she got there.
Ms. Hao’s daughter went to the police station reluctantly. The police kept threatening her. She initially said nothing but then asked what the police would do if their own mothers were arrested for their spiritual beliefs. One officer insisted they would not stop targeting Ms. Hao. Her daughter begged the police to just talk to her.
The endless harassment and persecution also caused discord between Ms. Hao’s daughter and son-in-law. Her daughter often cried in fear. Now that her father has recently passed away and her mother is in prison, the younger woman is devastated beyond words.
Related report:
Heilongjiang Woman Serving 4.5 Years for Raising Awareness of the Persecution of Her Faith
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