(Minghui.org) Four residents in Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province were arrested in April 2019 for upholding their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999. One of the four Falun Gong practitioners remains captive at the time of writing, while the other three have been released.
Ms. Li Chunhui and Mr. Peng Yanfeng were arrested on April 25, 2019 when they went to a police station to inform the police there about Falun Gong and the truth behind the persecution. The police ransacked Ms. Li's home the next day, confiscating Falun Gong books, a photo of the founder of Falun Gong, and her personal belongings.
Ms. Li was initially given administrative detention (which by law is up to 15 days) in Hegang Detention Center. The police later changed her to criminal detention, which can run up to 37 days. Xing'an District Procuratorate has approved the arrest of Ms. Li, which means she is facing possible indictment for her faith.
The detention center claimed that Ms. Li was a key coordinator in the Falun Gong group and thrice denied her father's request to visit her.
Ms. Li was born in 1975. She had back pain and signs of renal failure, which then led her to have bad temper and quarrel often with her husband.
After she was introduced to Falun Gong, she lived by the practice's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Her back pain disappeared. She was pregnant three months later and now has two boys. She no longer argued with her husband.
Ms. Li's latest arrest was preceded by an earlier one on December 27, 2014, when she and a few other practitioners went to a large farm to hand out calendars bearing messages about Falun Gong. Police interrogated her for a whole night and detained her for fifteen days.
Mr. Peng Yanfeng was arrested with Ms. Li Chunhui. He was detained for fifteen days and then released.
Prior to this detention, police arrested Mr. Peng and his wife from their home and ransacked their home on February 14, 2019. They detained the couple illegally for over forty days and didn't release them until their relatives were forced to pay a bond of 20,000 yuan (3,000 USD).
Police arrested Ms. Hao Hongyun in late April. They put her in Hegang Detention Center for thirty days before releasing her. Her family had 10,000 yuan extorted from them.
Ms. Hao regained her health after practicing Falun Gong. She was reported to the police and then arrested on December 27, 2013. Police detained her for over ten days. Her company also withheld her salary.
Similar as to Ms. Hao, police also arrested Mr. Ding Jiwang in late April, put him in Hegang Detention Center for thirty days and extorted 10,000 yuan from his family before releasing him.
Mr. Ding and his son were diagnosed with Hepatitis B in 1995. He spent a lot of money on treatment, but was not able to cure it. Then he was advised to practice Falun Gong, which indeed made the illness go away.
During the Olympic Games in 2008, police arrested Mr. Ding from work and later ransacked his home. Police used physical torture when interrogating him. He was later given one year of forced labor.
When Mr. Ding was detained, his family struggled to pay his daughter's college tuition and his son's medical bills. Eventually, a Falun Gong practitioner lent them the money so that his daughter could go to college.