(Minghui.org) An elderly couple in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, were recently harassed for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. The police also threatened to implicate their children and grandson.
Mr. Wei Yingxin, 85, is a retired medical scientist from the Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Company in Guangzhou City. He also once worked as a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Management Science. Both he and his wife, Ms. Wan Mengying, have been repeatedly targeted over the past two-plus decades for practicing Falun Gong. He was previously sentenced to four years after an arrest in 2005 and suffered brutal torture at the Yangjiang Prison. He was not allowed to see his mother one last time when she died at 97 in 2008. His younger son struggled to cope with his imprisonment and developed clinical depression.
Latest Harassment Episodes
Four officers pounded on Mr. Wei’s door at around 3 p.m. on June 19, 2024. He did not answer and they kept knocking on the door for one hour. Mr. Wei finally relented. As soon as the police came in, one of them began to videotape and photograph Mr. Wei and Ms. Wan.
Ms. Wan condemned the police for breaking the law by targeting law-abiding citizens. They responded by smearing the founder of Falun Gong Mr. Li Hongzhi. Mr. Wei sternly stopped them. The police then suddenly left.
The couple’s daughter visited them a bit past 8 p.m. that night. She told them what happened earlier that day. The police had actually showed up at her home before harassing her parents. They ordered her son to take them to his grandparents’ home. The teen was terrified and called his father, who warned the police on the phone that he’d sue them should anything happen to the boy.
The police then called Mr. Wei and Ms. Wan’s older son and ordered him to take his parents to the Yongping Police Station by 9 p.m. The couple’s daughter said her brother would come pick them up in just a bit. Mr. Wei immediately texted his son asking him not to comply with the police as his parents broke no law in exercising their constitutional right to freedom of belief. Mr. Wei advised his son to refer the police to him if they called again.
Mr. Wei’s son heeded his advice, only to get another call from officer Cheng (+86-19928313654) the next day, again urging him to take his parents to the police station. Mr. Wei then called Cheng but no one answered the phone. He tried again the next two days but could not get hold of Cheng.
Mr. Wei’s daughter and son-in-law visited him on July 16, 2024, and said the police harassed them again past 10 p.m. the night before. The police threatened to jeopardize their jobs and their son’s future college education if they refused to work with them to get Mr. Wei and his wife to renounce Falun Gong.
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