(Minghui.org) A railroad transportation company employee in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province has been repeatedly harassed in the past few months for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
During a recent harassment on August 20, 2021, the local police and community officials showed Ms. Kou Huiping pictures of her mother in fear and distress after being threatened. They said, “We will make your mother suffer every day like this. She is already so old. If one day she can’t stand it and passes away, it will be all your fault!”
As Ms. Kou stayed firm in her faith, the police kept harassing her family members, including her daughter and siblings, and threatened to force them into homelessness or fired from their jobs, in order to force Ms. Kou to comply. Her family members’ lives were severely disrupted and her relationship with her family was also damaged.
The Harassment
Police from the Railway West Village Police Station called Ms. Kou’s younger brother on August 10, 2021 looking for her.
Bai Zhiqiang, the secretary of the Ju’an West Community of Railway West Village, called and texted Ms. Kou on August 18, demanding to meet with her for an urgent matter. Ms. Kou didn’t go to meet with him because of something at home.
Bai called again on August 20. With Ms. Kou’s consent, he came at 10:40 a.m., but with a group of nine people, including Chen Zhikai from Chengguan State Security, Kang Bin from Xicun Police Substation, Qi Guohong, director of the emergency management office of Xicun Subdistrict, Xiao Zhou and a few others from the comprehensive management office of Xicun Subdistrict.
Several police officers recorded the scene, claiming that they were carrying out the “zero-out” campaign to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners. They attempted to force Ms. Kou to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply.
The officers brought instant noodles around noon, preparing to stay at Ms. Kou’s place and take turns pressuring her. They first threatened to take her to the local brainwashing center, and later said all of her family members’ jobs would be impacted. They searched for her family members’ information in front of her, in order to intimidate her. They also called Ms. Kou’s brother and ordered him to persuade her. Ms. Kou still refused to comply.
The police then ordered another group of officers to harass Ms. Kou’s elderly mother. At around 3:00 p.m., those officers came and showed Ms. Kou pictures of her mother looking terrified after being threatened. Ms. Kou refused to look at the pictures.
They said, “We will make your mother suffer every day like this. She is already so old. If one day she can’t stand it and passes away, it will be all your fault!”
Ms. Kou said, “There is nothing wrong with being a good person and following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.”
“You dared to sue the former chairman!” they accused her.
Ms. Kou responded, “Yes, I sued him [for launching the persecution of Falun Gong]. It is my right! I love our country! I’m being responsible for our country.”
They said, “If you sign the paperwork to give up on the practice, we will remove your name from the blacklist in the Ministry of Public Security.”
Ms. Kou replied, “I am proud to be a Falun Gong practitioner!”
The officers then resorted to deceiving Ms. Kou by claiming that several practitioners that she knew had signed the renouncing statement to give up their belief. “As long as you don’t go out to promote Falun Gong or distribute flyers, you can practice however you want and nobody will bother you,” they said, still trying to persuade her.
Ms. Kou responded, “The Constitution grants citizens the freedom of speech and the freedom of belief. What you are doing is against the Constitution.”
After these officers left, Wang Guilan, former director of Hezheng residential committee who was very active in persecuting local practitioners before retiring two years ago, came around 5 p.m., after she was rehired by the authorities to transform the practitioners.
No matter what Wang said, Ms. Kou stayed unmoved. At around 5:20 p.m., everyone started leaving but officer Kang Bin. Ms. Kou took this opportunity to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to him.
Qi Guohong, former head of local 610 Office and current director of the emergency management office of Xicun Subdistrict, called Ms. Kou’s elder brother on August 26. They said that if Ms. Kou refused to give up her belief, he would not be able to emigrate abroad.
Qi Guohong and two officers then went to Ms. Kou’s elder sister’s home and threatened to shut down her private business. They also called the landlord of Ms. Kou’s younger brother and told the landlord not to rent the apartment to a Falun Gong practitioner’s family member. As a result, the brother’s own business and his child’s schooling were severely disrupted.
Additionally, the officers harassed Ms. Kou’s mother again, as well as Ms. Kou’s daughter, who had just graduated college and was in her first month of her new job’s probation period. The police threatened that the daughter would lose her job because of Ms. Kou’s practice. Ms. Kou’s daughter called her and said she was driven crazy by the harassment.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Xiao Zhengming (肖正明), secretary of Chengguan District Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-931-8473201, +86-13993121175Wang Guilan (王桂兰), officer of Chengguan District 610 Office: +86-13299313074Chen Zhikai (陈志凯), director of Chengguan District Domestic Security Office: +86-13399317327
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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