Cases of Arrest Double and Harassment Triple in March and April, With 2,285 Publicized So Far
Based on an original article from Minghui.org
Between March 1 and April 30, 2021, a total of 2,857 Falun Gong practitioners were confirmed to have been arrested and harassed, including 1,090 arrests and 1,767 harassment cases.
Among the 1,090 newly confirmed arrests, 168 took place in 2020, 95 were between January and February 2021, and another 826 were arrested were between March and April 2021.
For the 1,767 harassment cases, 7 dated back to 2016, 155 took place in 2020, 143 happened between January and February 2021, and another 1,459 cases were between March and April 2021.
Due to the information blockade in China, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners cannot always be reported in a timely manner, nor is all the information readily available.
Intensified Persecution in March and April 2021
Combined with cases reported previously, the total arrests in January and February 2021 now number 297 and 165, and the confirmed harassment cases for the two months 256 and 228, respectively.
Compared with the first two months in 2021, March and April saw a steady surge in persecution cases. The 826 combined arrests in March and April nearly doubled the 462 combined cases in January and February. And the 1,459 combined harassment incidents in March and April triple the 484 reported incidents of the preceding two months.
Taking a deeper dive into the cases that took place in March and April 2021, 546 of the 826 arrested practitioners (66%) remain in custody at the time of writing. A total of 232 (28%) of the arrested practitioners and 80 (5% of 1,459) of the harassed practitioners had their homes ransacked.
Demographics
Ninety of the arrested and one hundred of the harassed practitioners were over 65. The oldest practitioner harassed was a 94-year-old practitioner in Dalian City, Liaoning Province.
Some of the targeted practitioners were retired, while the others came from all walks of life, including engineers, doctors, teachers, accountants, factory managers, lawyers, and nurses. For those who worked for government agencies, the authorities have used tactics such as threatening to suspend all employees’ year-end bonuses, to incite hatred against the practitioners from their coworkers.
Hebei (350), Shandong (346), Sichuan (263), Heilongjiang (220), and Liaoning (182) are the top five provinces with the most persecution cases reported, followed by Hubei (169) and Jilin (160). Fourteen other provinces reported double-digit cases and eight provinces had single-digit cases. The location of one harassment case was unknown.
Below is a sampling of the arrests and cases of harassment that occurred in March and April 2021:
Once Tortured in Prison for 17 Years and Losing 45 Lbs in 2 Months, Human Rights Hero Arrested Again
Seven people broke into Mr. Sun Changjun’s home and took him away on April 6, 2021. Sun called his family that evening and told them he had been taken to a hotel. His family has not heard from him since and only recently found out that he was taken to Yanji Brainwashing Center.
The people who broke into Sun’s residence in Yanbian Prefecture, Jilin Province, were agents from Wangqing County 610 Office and domestic security officers in Yanbian. Before the arrest, agents from the 610 Office called him and warned that they had a “special plan” to make him renounce his faith in Falun Gong.
Sun’s latest arrest came only a year and a half after he was released from serving 17 years in prison. On March 5, 2002, Sun and several other practitioners intercepted television signals in the city of Changchun, broadcasting videos on eight cable channels which clarified the truth about Falun Gong and exposed the regime’s lies and slander.
The authorities went on a frenzy of mass arrests the night of the broadcast. Sun, then 26, was sentenced to 17 years in Jilin Province Prison. He suffered unbelievable torture and almost died.
Mr. Liu Qingyu and his wife Ms. Zhang Chang were celebrating his birthday at a restaurant, when seven local officers barged in and forced the couple into a police car on April 12, 2021.
The police also took the couple’s keys and broke into their home, confiscating personal belongings, including a printer, computer, and debit cards.
Liu is currently detained in the Dashiqiao City Detention Center and his wife in the Yingkou City Detention Center.
The authorities prevented Liu’s lawyer from visiting him, saying that Liu’s case was very significant, since he was a coordinator of local practitioners and was “colluding with foreign forces” to print and distribute informational materials about Falun Gong.
Ms. Sun Lijuan and her husband Mr. Zhang Baoguo of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, were arrested at home by the Jinzhou police on April 25, 2021. The police confiscated their cellphone, Falun Gong books, and photo of Falun Gong’s founder. Both were then taken to the Jinzhou City Detention Center.
Police from Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, had discovered that the couple had been posting information about Falun Gong on the popular social media platform WeChat and reported them to the police in Jinzhou, located nearly 1,000 miles away from Jiaozuo.
When Sun’s family went to the Juyuan Police Station in Jinzhou on April 27, they saw several officers from Jiaozuo, who claimed that they were investigating the couple’s case and they would take Sun to Jiaozuo two days later.
The couple’s family quickly hired a lawyer, but when the lawyer went to the detention center to visit Sun on the afternoon of April 28, she had already been taken away by the Jiaozuo police. Meanwhile, Zhang continues to be held in the Jinzhou City Detention Center.
Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province: Nine People Arrested for Their Faith Within Four Hours
Nine people in Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province, were arrested between 8 p.m. and 12 a.m. on April 11, 2021, for their faith in Falun Gong.
The nine practitioners are Ms. Tang Rongzhu, Huang Zengyou (gender unknown), Ms. Liu Yuxiu, Ms. Lai Chengmei, Ms. Shao Yanfang, Ms. Lai Lanying, Ms. Lan Qiuxiang, Deng (first name and gender unknown), and a woman whose first name is Hua (last name unknown).
The nine practitioners were held in separate rooms and given comprehensive physicals. They were also ordered to read random sentences, likely to record their voices. The police took their heights and photographed them from all sides. They also ordered them to sign a thick stack of paperwork. The content of the papers is unknown.
Four of the practitioners were released the next day, but two continue to be held in Yangshan County Detention Center and three have been taken to the Lianzhou City Lockup.
Liaoning Woman Detained for Telling People How Falun Gong Changed Her Life
Ms. Wang Jingdi of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province was arrested on April 16, 2021 for raising awareness about the persecution of her faith and sharing how the practice positively impacted her life. Despite failing the physical, she was given ten days in detention and denied family visits before being released on April 29.
Ms. Wang, 55, used to have severe tuberculosis and migraines, and the pain caused her to have a bad temper. She often fought with her husband and was on the verge of getting a divorce.
After she began to practice Falun Gong in 2007, she quickly regained her health. She took on household chores and became more considerate of her husband. She also took the initiative to improve her poor relationships with her in-laws and her own mother. After her mother fell ill, she invited her mother to move in with her and took meticulous care of her until she passed away.
Original Article: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2021/5/11/192349.html
