(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old resident of Hechuan District, Chongqing was arrested on July 24, 2024, while shopping at a supermarket. Ms. Gao Jie’s current whereabouts aren’t known. Her latest arrest came only seven months after she completed an 18-month prison term for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Gao, a former elementary school teacher, developed severe health problems in her 30s, including hepatitis B, gastroptosis (stomach displaced downward), thrombocytopenia (low platelet count in the blood), insomnia, chronic enteritis, rhinitis, bone spurs, and hemorrhoids. She took up Falun Gong in May 1996 and regained her health just months later.
Since the Chinese communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Gao has been arrested for her faith around ten times. She was given forced labor three times (in 2001, 2011, and 2012) and twice jailed for a total of 6.5 years (June 2003 – June 2008 and June 2022 – January 2024). Her employer, Shuangyan Elementary School (located in Yunmen Town, Hechuan District), fired her in June 2003. Her husband feared being implicated, and divorced her. Their daughter struggled to put herself through college. Ms. Gao’s parents were harassed by the authorities and died in distress.
When Ms. Gao was released on January 3, 2024, after completing her second prison term, she was denied a low-income subsidy and also faced constant police harassment when she tried to find odd jobs to make a living.
In early March 2024, only a few days after she began working as a personal care aide for a retired teacher, the authorities harassed Ms. Gao at her employer’s home. She had no alternative but to quit her job. She then landed another personal care aide job for a family in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, more than 200 miles away, only to be arrested again two weeks later and ordered to leave Chengdu. She returned to her home in Hechuan on March 31, 2024.
Ms. Gao found another job as a home aide in Yuzhong District, Chongqing in mid-July 2024. After the police in Hechuan found out about it, they instructed officers from the Shiyou Road Police Station in Yuzhong to monitor her.
Ms. Gao was arrested on July 24, 2024, by officers from the Shiyou Road Police Station, as soon as she took out a 20-yuan bill to pay for her groceries, when the police monitoring her noticed a Falun Gong-related message printed on the bill.
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