1,184 Falun Gong Practitioners Targeted for Their Faith in August 2020

According to information collected by the Minghui.org website, 463 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and 721 harassed for their faith during the month of August 2020. Two hundred and ninety-two practitioners remain in custody at the time of writing.

Among the 1,184 arrested or harassed practitioners, 211 had their homes ransacked. A total of 18 practitioners were extorted for a total of 154,812 yuan, averaging 8,600 yuan per person. Six practitioners were extorted of between 10,000 and 50,000 yuan each.

Sixty-six of the targeted practitioners were between 65 and 86, including 42 arrested and 24 harassed. Twenty-three practitioners were in their 80s.

The practitioners came from all walks of life, including engineers, teachers, and government employees.

Hebei, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Sichuan were the top five provinces with the most practitioners targeted.

In Shanghai, the police forcibly collected the practitioners’ blood samples; took their photos, fingerprints, and palmprints; and recorded their voices, handwriting, and heights in a new round of harassment. Some practitioners suspect that the collecting of so much personal information is related to the organ harvesting crimes, as well as for the authorities to establish a comprehensive surveillance network of the practitioners in China.