(Minghui.org) Two police officers and a residential committee staff member knocked on Ms. Wang Guoying’s door on March 26, 2021. Her home health aide opened the door. Upon entering, one officer claimed that his family name is also Wang and he’d just started working in the area. The other two people took pictures and videotaped Ms. Wang’s home.
The officers also asked the name of Ms. Wang’s aide and where her hometown was. They held up a photo and tried to identify whether she was the person in the photo. The officers then asked for the aide’s phone number. When she refused to answer, one officer went up to her phone that was charging in the living room and called another officer in order to get her number. They also searched the drawers of Ms. Wang’s cabinets, never showing their IDs or a search warrant.
This is just one of the recent incidents of harassment that Ms. Wang, a 69-year-old retired teacher in Beijing, has experienced for her faith in Falun Gong. Since the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline, in 1999, Ms. Wang has been repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith.
Her husband was so traumatized by the persecution that he passed away prematurely. Her daughter, a once straight A student, developed severe depression and had to quit school. Her family’s ordeal and the mental stress from the persecution have also taken a heavy toll on Ms. Wang’s own health and she became incapacitated a few years ago. Yet the police still come back periodically to harass her.
Prior to this latest incident of harassment, a female plainclothes police officer and a uniformed male officer came to her home on October 22, 2020. They searched every room of her home and took photos of her and her niece, Ms. Yang Xiaofeng, who was there cooking for her.
Even when Ms. Wang was in a coma, the police and residential committee staff members still harassed her on July 19, 2018, and videotaped her.
Taking Up Falun Gong
Ms. Wang used to suffer from frequent fevers and colds before she took up Falun Gong. Doing the practice not only improved her health but also changed her character. She became more open-minded and considerate. Her relationship with her brother-in-law and mother-in-law improved. When her mother-in-law fell ill, Ms. Wang visited her every week, washed her hair, and also helped her cook or do the laundry. Her mother-in-law was very touched by her changes.
Arrests and Labor Camp Term
About one and a half years after the onset of the persecution, in early 2001 Ms. Wang went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was arrested and taken to a detention facility in nearby Baoding City, Hebei Province. Only a few days after she was released, Ms. Wang was arrested again while waiting for a bus, and taken to the Pinggu District Detention Center in Beijing.
Ms. Wang was arrested two more times and held in brainwashing centers both times. She was forced to pay a 4,000-yuan “tuition” fee, and her workplace also withheld two months of her salary (over 4,000 yuan).
In October 2006, Ms. Wang was arrested again and given a labor camp term. She was subjected to brainwashing every day. Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards beat her, forced her to stand for long hours, and deprived her of sleep. She was also ordered to do intensive unpaid labor.
In addition to the physical torture, the guards always claimed that Ms. Wang had high blood pressure and forced her to take unknown drugs. When she resisted on one occasion, the guards ordered a dozen inmates to beat her and force-feed her. A female guard threatened to strip off her clothes and throw her into a male cell if she didn’t take the drug.
Family’s Plight
During Ms. Wang’s labor camp term, her workplace suspended her salary. The police frequently harassed her husband and daughter, causing her husband to suffer a stroke and her daughter to develop depression.
With both of them unable to take care of themselves, Ms. Wang’s niece Ms. Yang Xiaofeng often came to cook and clean for them. After Ms. Wang was released in June 2008 and reunited with her family, their situation began to improve.
But the police didn’t stop persecuting Ms. Wang. In July 2013, she and her niece were arrested again. As Ms. Wang failed the physical examination, she was not admitted by the detention center and released. Yet the police and her supervisors at work still came back a few more times to harass her and demand that she renounce Falun Gong. When Ms. Wang remained firm in her faith, the authorities stayed outside of her apartment and monitored her around the clock. They also followed her wherever she went.
The ongoing harassment caused tremendous distress to her family and disrupted their normal life. Her husband often burst into tears. Her daughter’s depression became more severe and she often locked herself in her room and developed a fear of talking to strangers. Although her daughter had the highest score in her school in the high school entrance exam and was admitted to the Beijing No. 4 High School, one of the most prestigious high schools in China, her condition forced her to quit school later on.
For practicing Falun Gong, their niece Ms. Yang was also arrested eight times and incarcerated for over eight years. At one point she was on the verge of death, in a delirious state, and struggled with memory loss due to torture in custody.
As Ms. Yang was the main caregiver to Ms. Wang’s husband when Ms. Wang was imprisoned, the repeated persecution of his niece also contributed to Ms. Wang’s husband’s distress and eventually led to his premature death.
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