(Minghui.org) The current wave of criminal complaints filed against Jiang Zemin, former Chinese Communist Party leader who launched the persecution of Falun Gong, has prompted some policemen in China to think twice about their actions when interacting with Falun Gong practitioners. Instead of arbitrarily following the established persecution policies, many are now examining their own conscience and thinking for themselves. Below are three such instances that took place in Hebei, Shandong, and Heilongjiang Provinces.
In an extraordinary move, a local police officer in Yanshan County, Hebei Province returned 4,000 yuan extorted from two families of Falun Gong practitioners on August 11, 2015.
After two practitioners, Liu Aihua and Liu Guifang, were arrested on February 26, 2015 for talking to people about the persecution, they were released on condition that their families each submit 2,000 yuan as a “deposit” to guarantee that the practitioners would not leave home to expose the persecution again in the month of February.
Yet after the month was up, the police refused to return the money and said that the amount would only be returned if the practitioners came in person and submitted their fingerprints.
Liu Aihua then visited the Mengdian Police Station with two other practitioners. Du Zhiqiang, the police officer who arrested them, was not present. The three practitioners told the other policemen about the current groundswell to bring Jiang Zemin to justice. They recognized another police officer who was involved in persecuting practitioners and demanded that he return illegally-confiscated personal property.
The policeman responded, “I'm only a soldier, a pawn on the chess board. I have taken nothing and I know nothing.” But his voice revealed his misgivings.
The three practitioners then asked the receptionist to relay the message to Du Zhiqiang that they had stopped by to ask for their money back.
Du himself came to the practitioners' homes that same afternoon and returned the 4,000 yuan.
More recently, local government agents and police officers no longer harass and intimidate as relentlessly as they used to.
Two strangers visited practitioner Chen Songkui in Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province, in early August. They asked Mr. Chen, “Did you mail a criminal complaint against Jiang?”
“Yes, I did,” answered the 77-year-old Mr. Chen.
“Don't leave home,” one of the men said. “Just watch TV at home.”
Mr. Chen's son came out to the living room and asked, “Where are you from?”
The men admitted that one of them was from the government and the other from the local police station.
Upon repeated inquiries from Mr. Chen's son, one man said that his name was Zhao Hui and the other Shi Shulin. They prepared to leave immediately after they stated their names. “But don't leave home,” they warned again.
“Under what rights do you order people not to leave their own home?” Mr. Chen's son demanded to know.
The two men hurried to their car and drove off hastily.
Two plainclothes policemen came looking for Ms. Wang Huijun at her son's home on August 20, 2015. They ordered her to go to the local police station to answer a few questions and allowed her son to accompany her.
The two men asked her if she had sued Jiang Zemin, then demanded to know where she printed and mailed the criminal complaint, and who helped her put the complaint together.
“Yes, I sued Jiang Zemin,” Ms. Wang said. “Because he persecuted me. He's no longer the head of the state. As for your other questions, I'm not going to answer them. It's not good for you to know that information.”
She added that many high-ranking Party officials had received karmic retribution, the oriental expression for “what goes around comes around.” Even though corruption is always the official “crime” for their being taken down by the authorities, these people have all been instrumental in the persecution of Falun Gong.
Ms. Wang spoke to the policemen for over an hour and told them personal stories, including how she recovered from many illnesses after she took up the practice of Falun Gong.
The policemen asked Ms. Wang to give her fingerprints and sign several documents, to which she firmly refused.
The officers finally agreed to release Ms. Wang.