(Minghui.org) The police in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province launched a new round of campaign against Falun Gong practitioners in April and May 2020 for raising awareness about their faith and telling people how the Chinese communist regime has been covering up information about the coronavirus pandemic with similar tactics to those used in the persecution.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chines communist regime since 1999.
At least eleven practitioners in Xiangfang District were confirmed to have been arrested between April 7 and 8, 2020 for making phone calls to people about Falun Gong. Some of their homes were ransacked.
While two practitioners were soon released due to their advanced ages, the other nine practitioners were sent to Taikang County Detention Center in Daqing City, about 100 miles from Harbin.
The nine practitioners are: Ms. Tang Zhuyin, Ms. Cai Xiuying, Mr. Zhu Mingdi, Ms. Li Yanqing, Ms. Jiao Qihua, Ms. Zhao Lihua, Ms. Huo Xiaohui, Ms. Ding Yan, and Mr. Lang Baohua.
On May 4, 2020, Ms. Chen Yawen gave a person a QR code card to access uncensored information about the pandemic, only to be held by the person and reported to the police.
When Ms. Chen refused to answer the police questions, they threatened to step on the photo of Falun Gong’s founder. The officers also forcibly collected her fingerprints and forced her to press her fingerprint on the interrogation record when she refused to sign it.
The police confiscated Ms. Chen’s Falun Gong related materials at home and her family’s computer, as well as tearing down the stickers on her wall that said “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good.” Ms. Chen was released the next afternoon.
Mr. Zhang Xianjun, his wife Ms. Xu Yan and Ms. Li Huimin were placing cards with information about how to break internet censorship on the windshields of private cars on May 16, 2020, when a police officer saw them, followed them and then arrested them.
The three practitioners were brought to Dongfeng Police Station and interrogated. At the same time, other groups of officers searched the practitioners’ homes, confiscating two copies of Falun Gong books from the couple and the book The Ultimate Goal of Communism from Ms. Li.
When the police were planning to release them around 4:30 p.m., they noticed a big key on Mr. Zhang’s keychain. Despite Mr. Zhang’s telling them that it was for his electric bike, the police didn’t believe him and returned to his home and thoroughly searched it again, trying to find some significant evidence to charge him. All of the couple’s Falun Gong books, Falun Gong founder’s photo, two computers, cellphones and 300 copies of Falun Gong keepsakes, were confiscated.
The police interrogated the three practitioners again at Shuangcheng Police Department. The three practitioners were released around 10 p.m. Mr. Zhang and his wife were put under house arrest and ordered to report to the police every day. The police also forbade them from selling their house or moving in the next six months.
Ms. Li Jinfeng was harassed and had her photo taken on May 19. The police asked for her cellphone number and threatened her to not go out again to raise awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong.
Ms. Yang Hua and Mr. Liang Dafa were harassed around May 20.
The police went to Mr. Guo Longquan and Ms. Wu Shengxue’s homes on May 29, 2020 in attempts to harass them. But both practitioners weren’t home.
On the same day, the police also attempted to harass Mr. Ma Zhanlou and take his photo. While Mr. Ma wasn’t home that day, the police returned on the next evening.
According to information available to Minghui.org, the Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Department established a command center in Harbin to persecute Falun Gong in early 2019. The goal of the center was to monitor and collect information about how Falun Gong practitioners spread information about their faith.
Yang Bo, the head of Heilongjiang Province Domestic Security Division, is in charge of the center. It’s reported that he has recruited over 100 staff members and received funding from the central government of up to 10 million yuan.
Yang was a guard at Suihua Forced Labor Camp. Because of his active participation in the persecution, he was promoted to the deputy director of provincial Domestic Security Division in September 2004, specifically in charge of the persecution of Falun Gong in Heilongjiang. He has ordered several group arrests of practitioners in Heilongjiang in the past few years, including the 119 practitioners arrested on November 9, 2018 and 17 practitioners arrested on September 11, 2019.
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