(Minghui.org) The Chinese Communist Party stops at nothing to try to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief. Because an elderly couple in Suining City, Sichuan Province refused to renounce their faith in Falun Gong, the authorities harassed their family members, threatening to bar their grandchildren from joining the army or finding a job. As a result, the grandson picked up a knife and attempted to force his grandparents to give up Falun Gong. 

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

The most recent round of harassment of Mr. Gong Shuliang and Ms. Xiong Jinhua started on July 5, 2022. As the police couldn’t find Mr. Gong at home, they went to his daughter’s shop and located him there.

The officers ordered Mr. Gong to go with them to the township government for a talk. He refused to comply and said he would talk to them right there. The officers then ordered him to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. They threatened that if he didn’t comply, his grandchildren wouldn’t be allowed to find a job in the future.

Mr. Gong clarified the facts about Falun Gong, but the officers refused to listen and kept pressuring him to sign the statement. Before leaving, they threatened to withhold his pension and investigate whether the three generations in his family before him had committed any crime. If so, Mr. Gong and his family would be implicated.

On July 10, the authorities called Mr. Gong’s granddaughter, a teacher in Chengdu City, and told her that she may lose her job if her grandparents refused to sign the renouncing statement.

The authorities also called Mr. Gong’s grandson, 17, and another granddaughter, 15. Knowing that his grandson wanted to join the military, they threatened him that his dream would be dashed because of his grandparents’ faith. The authorities kept calling the two teenagers, who are siblings, sometimes several times a day.

Unable to bear the pressure, they went to Mr. Gong’s home at 9 a.m. on July 12 and tried to pressure their grandparents to sign the statements. “If you don’t, our lives will be ruined by you.”

An hour later, the teenagers’ mother, Mr. Gong’s daughter-in-law, also came to their home. She threatened her in-laws with suicide. Four police officers and four township government officials also came in the afternoon and joined her.

Despite the tension, Mr. Gong remained calm and said he just wanted to be a good person by practicing Falun Gong. But because of the persecution, he couldn’t live a normal life. 

No matter what he said, his grandson kept verbally abusing him. The police recorded the teen and even asked him to save some propaganda videos against Falun Gong on his phone. 

Later on, other family members of Mr. Gong’s daughter-in-law also came to pressure him and his wife. As the elderly couple still remained firm, their grandson grabbed a knife and pointed at them, “If you don’t sign it, I will disown you today and change my last name!”