(Minghui.org) A 77-year-old woman living on her own has been repeatedly harassed since December 2021 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
A group of police officers, residential committee staff members, and 610 Office agents showed up at Ms. Liang Guangzhen’s home in Maoming City, Guangdong Province, on December 14, 2021, and asked her if she still practiced Falun Gong. They took photos of her, recorded her voice, and videotaped her.
Ms. Liang expressed her determination to keep practicing Falun Gong and urged the officers not to participate in the persecution. One officer attempted to take her copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, but she stopped him.
The officers came back in January 2022 to harass her again. Upon entering, the police said, “We are the police. We are here to visit you. Are you still practicing Falun Gong?”
“Yes. How great it is to follow Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance (Falun Gong’s principles) to be a good person.”
Agents from the 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, ordered her to give up her belief. Ms. Liang replied, “You just don’t want me to be a good person. Do you want me to start doing bad things to stop you from coming again? You have really brought so much misery to me [in the persecution]. All of my four children disowned me to avoid being implicated and they haven’t come to see me for seven years. Falun Gong practitioners are all good people. It’s you Communist Party agents who always engage in corruption, gambling, and prostitution.”
The officers didn’t refute her, but took a few of her Falun Gong books and left.
Another group of officers came a few days later and ransacked Ms. Liang’s home. All of her Falun Gong books were taken away and the police refused to provide a list of confiscated items.
The police returned again a few days later. They still asked her whether she practiced Falun Gong. She said yes. The officers took away the portrait of Falun Gong’s founder on her wall and then left.
Past Persecution
Prior to the latest harassment, Ms. Liang, a retired residential committee director, has been sentenced to four years for upholding her faith.
She was arrested with another practitioner Ms. Huang Huaping, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong materials on September 20, 2012. The police confiscated her 5,000 yuan in cash, computer, printer, and Falun Gong informational materials. They first took her to the Maoming City Brainwashing Center and then put her on criminal detention when she refused to renounce Falun Gong. She was transferred to the Maoming City Detention Center on September 29. Ms. Huang was released on October 10, 2012.
Ms. Liang was released on bail due to her high blood pressure on September 30, 2012. Huang Mengyuan of the Maonan District Procuratorate indicted her on October 25, 2013, and moved her case to the Maonan District Court. She was charged with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” a standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong.
Ms. Liang stood trial on November 8, 2013, and was sentenced to four years on December 10, 2013. The judges in charge of her case were Jiang Guowei, Zheng Haiping, and Chen Rong. The court clerk was Ke Fengqun.
Ms. Liang appealed with the Maoming City Intermediate Court on December 18, 2013, but her appeal was turned down. She was taken to the Guangdong Province Women’s Prison in mid-January 2014.
When Ms. Liang was released in July 2017, she learned that her four children had been pressured by the 610 Office into selling her home and that they had already collected a 160,000-yuan down payment from the buyer.
She was very weak from the torture in prison and needed a place for some good rest. Her children attempted to take her to a senior center about one hour drive from Maoming to prevent her from walking back home. With her strong protest, they backed out of the home sale so that she could still live on her own in her own house. She resumed practicing Falun Gong and gradually recovered.
The authorities harassed her from time to time, leaving her living in fear and distress.
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