(Minghui.org) The 610 Office was established on June 10, 1999, weeks before the Chinese Communist Party officially started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20 that year. An extra-legal agency, the 610 Office was given power to override the judicial and law enforcement systems in the campaign against Falun Gong.
This report presents three cases of Falun Gong practitioners in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province who were harassed by local 610 Office agents for upholding their faith. The harassment episodes took place at a university library, a hair salon, and a private home. Bao Xiaomu, a member of the Chengdu City 610 Office, was the chief perpetrator who led the police to harass the practitioners whose cases are reported below in reverse chronological order.
Bao led four men and two women to the Xipu Campus Library of Southwest Jiaotong University at 10 a.m. on September 22, 2023. They ordered the library director to have an employee, Ms. Chen Xin, come to a conference room.
As soon as Ms. Chen arrived, Bao yelled, “Your university said that we’re now in charge of you!” She next instructed two of her six subordinates to search Ms. Chen’s librarian desk to see if there were any Falun Gong materials. She also told the police to raid Ms. Chen’s home. She turned on the police camcorder and said she was to begin work.
Bao had one of the women accompanying her take pictures of Ms. Chen as she placed her hands on the conference room table. Afterwards, Bao began telling her “story.” According to many other local practitioners who were harassed by Bao, her story kept changing, from where she grew up to which subject she majored in, in college to her parents’ professions. Her purpose of telling her “story” was always the same. She attempted to portray herself as an intelligent woman who was trying to “help” Falun Gong practitioners break free from something deemed anti-CCP.
Ms. Chen’s university was ordered to provide lunch for everyone. After that, Bao played anti-Falun Gong videos. Ms. Chen refused to watch them.
When dinner time came, Bao had the university send in food again. She said Ms. Chen ate too slowly and threatened to have her husband and son implicated if she refused to renounce Falun Gong.
Bao then ordered Ms. Chen to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. When she refused Bao instructed one of her subordinates to write one on her behalf. One of the men grabbed Ms. Chen’s hand and inserted a pen into her fist to write her name on the statement. He then tried to force her to fingerprint it. He did not get a clear print and Bao put Ms. Chen in a chokehold until she made a clear fingerprint on the paper.
Bt that time it was around 8 p.m. Bao and her subordinates took Ms. Chen to her university-assigned housing to raid her home. They searched her purse but could not find the key, so they knocked on the door. Her son was home alone and asked who was there. They said they were escorting his mom home. Ms. Chen told her son it was 610 Office agents trying to search their home. He refused to open the door and condemned the police for breaking the law.
One woman attempted to put Ms. Chen’s hand on her phone to unlock it with her fingerprints. She wanted Ms. Chen to call her son from her phone so he would open the door. Bao promised to leave once Ms. Chen’s son opened the door to only let her in. Ms. Chen was worried that her son may not know how to deal with all the tricks Bao and her subordinates were playing and opened the door with the key which was in her pocket.
Bao and her subordinates barged in and searched everywhere. They confiscated her laptop and dozens of Falun Gong books. One woman talked to Ms. Chen’s son and asked if his parents had marital issues since his father was not home yet.
During the commotion, Ms. Chen’s husband returned home. Bao then called the local police station. Two officers arrived about 50 minutes later and searched Ms. Chen’s home. They tallied the confiscated items but did not give Ms. Chen a list as required by law.
Bao led more than ten agents and broke into the hair salon co-owned by sisters Ms. Yang Shuhua and Ms. Yang Shujun at 3 p.m. on August 25, 2022. Without showing their IDs or a search warrant, they ransacked the place. Ms. Yang Shuhua tried to stop Bao, but the latter shouted at her, “Get out!” Another person held Ms. Yang and warned her that Bao had some physical condition and that she might fall with the slightest physical contact.
Bao ordered officers to hold the two sisters while the rest of them continued to search the place. They confiscated the sisters’ Falun Gong books, tablets, cell phones, bank cards, IDs, and some cash.
Bao then had a woman in a white coat measure the sisters’ blood pressure, in preparation to give them COVID-19 vaccine shots. As both sisters were found to have high blood pressure, Bao had to cancel the shots. After the sisters signed the results of their blood pressure as requested, the woman in a white coat produced a piece of paper with scribbled words and also asked them to sign.
Ms. Yang Shujun signed it without looking at it closely. But Ms. Yang Shuhua was alert and asked the woman what the content was about. The woman said, “Nothing, just sign it.”
Ms. Yang Shuhua insisted that they explain the content to her. They then recounted the three requirements written on it, “1) Don’t oppose the Chinese Communist Party or socialism; 2) Don’t believe in any cult’s teaching; and 3) Don’t participate in any Falun Gong related activities.
When Ms. Yang Shuhua refused to sign the document, Bao threatened to detain her, freeze her bank account, and withdraw 10,000 yuan from it every day. Her bank account would soon be emptied.
As Ms. Yang remained firm and refused to sign the document, Bao called in officers from the Fuqing Road Police Station. Bao and the other left after the police arrived. The police photographed and videotaped the sisters before taking them to the police station. Ms. Yang Shuhua’s daughter was forced to pay 2,000 yuan as a bail bond. The sisters were released on bail around 8:30 p.m. The next day and now face prosecution, after the police submitted their case to the local procuratorate in August 2023.
Mr. Lu Zhiyong and his wife, Ms. Rao Qun, were enjoying the company of their daughter and her family around 9:30 a.m. on August 10, 2022 when they heard pounding on the door. They heard someone yelling, “We are the police! Open the door!”
Mr. Lu’s son-in-law looked through the peephole and saw numerous agents crowding the hallway. Mr. Lu refused to open the door so the police banged on the door even louder. They threatened to call in a locksmith and Mr. Lu’s son-in-law opened the door.
More than ten people barged in. Bao yelled to Mr. Lu’s daughter, who was holding her two-year-old child, “Move away! We’ll raid the home!”
Mr. Lu demanded to know their identities and one of them said, “No, we can’t tell you; otherwise you’d expose us on the Minghui website.”
Mr. Lu and Ms. Rao kept urging Bao and the police to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners like them. They did not listen and instead mocked Ms. Rao for having loose teeth and a trembling head. Ms. Rao said Falun Gong made her illness free but the communist regime jailed her for three years for her faith. Her health was ruined after years of torture in prison. Her head sometimes shook uncontrollably.
Under Baos directive, the police searched everywhere except for a locked room (which they initially missed). They also used foul language to defame Falun Gong, Mr. Lu and his wife videotaped everything. When Mr. Lu and his family countered by videotaping them, the police threatened to confiscate their cell phones.
The police did not find anything they wanted and turned their attention to the locked room. They ordered Mr. Lu to open it but he refused. An officer attempted to smash the door but Mr. Lu stopped him.
Bao then changed tactics and called in a nurse to give Mr. Lu and his wife COVID-19 vaccines. The couple were both found to have high blood pressure and the nurse refused to inoculate them. Bao whipped out a piece of paper which stated that those who refused vaccines must bear the consequences if they became infected. She then forced Mr. Lu and Ms. Rao to sign and fingerprint the statement.
Bao used the signed statement to cover the entirety of another piece of paper except for one corner. She then ordered the police to grab Ms. Rao’s hand and take picture of her hand on the covered paper to make it appear that Ms. Rao fingerprinted the paper. The paper had words written on it to the effect that Ms. Rao agreed to renounce Falun Gong.
Bao and the police took some Falun Gong books and materials and left.
Two Sisters Face Prosecution for Their Shared Faith After Enduring Three Years of Harassment