(Minghui.org) The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit was held in Qingdao City, Shandong Province on June 9-10, 2018. This was the fourth SCO summit in its 18-year history to be held in China, and it was the first outside of Shanghai (2001 and 2006) and Beijing (2012).
Ahead of the summit, authorities in Qingdao and its neighboring cities launched large-scale arrests of local Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong is a spiritual meditation practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.
Sun Qisheng, Party Secretary of the Weifang City Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), slandered Falun Gong in a TV appearance. The PLAC is a non-judicial agency tasked with eradicating Falun Gong and given power to override the judicial and law-enforcement systems.
Under Sun's orders, Weifang police arrested many local practitioners in an attempt to stop them from going to Qingdao to appeal for Falun Gong. A total of 163 practitioners were arrested between April and June. Among them, Rong Chuncheng was arrested twice, on April 12 and May 14, respectively.
The arrested practitioners were from Weifang and its eight subordinate regions, including the cities of Shouguang, Gaomi, Changyi, Qingzhou, Zhucheng, and Anqiu, as well as the counties of Changle and Linju.
