(Minghui.org) A 42-year-old resident of Wuhan City, Hubei Province suddenly went missing around April 23, 2024. Her family and friends suspect that she might have been arrested for inquiring about her parents, who are in detention for upholding their belief.
Ms. Huang Liyu’s parents, Mr. Huang Keming (a retired math professor from Wuhan University) and Ms. Peng Ruilin (a retired worker from the Hubei Province Maternal-Child Health Center), are also Wuhan residents. The couple, both 72, were arrested at home at 6 p.m. on December 12, 2023, for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The arresting officers, in plainclothes, were from the Luojiashan Police Station. Several agents from the Wuchang District Political and Legal Affairs Committee, an extra-judicial agency tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong, were also present.
The officers took the couple to the Luojiashan Police Station. At around 10 p.m., Ms. Peng was transferred to the Wuchang District Brainwashing Center. Her husband was taken home at 2 a.m. the next day. The police confiscated a large amount of valuables before taking Mr. Huang back to the police station. He developed some health symptoms and was released on bail at 11 a.m. The police arrested him again on January 11, 2024.
While Ms. Huang was notified of her mother’s transfer to the brainwashing center on December 13, 2023, she was not given any further updates. After her father’s latest arrest, the police also refused to disclose his whereabouts. Ms. Huang made numerous inquiries, but the police never gave her a clear answer. One officer even accused her of “causing trouble” for her parents’ case, saying, “Did you report to Minghui.org that our police station arrested your parents? We had planned to release them but the higher-up now ordered us to keep them in custody.” Another officer claimed that they worried that Ms. Huang’s parents might be subject to her “bad influence” if released. Ms. Huang, who took up Falun Gong in October 2000, was also on the police’s radar.
Ms. Huang turned to the local street committee and her parents’ former employers for help, but they also gave her the run-around.
Ms. Huang’s family and friends suddenly lost contact with her around April 23, 2024. They suspect she was arrested by the same Luojiashan Police Station that arrested her parents.
This is not the first time that the family of three have been targeted for their faith. Ms. Huang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 25, 2000 and was arrested there. The then-18-year-old Wuhan University freshman was taken back to Hubei Province and served a one-year term at the Hewan Labor Camp. Her father’s university sent him to the Hubei Province Brainwashing Center in 2004. He was arrested again on June 1, 2005, while teaching a class. He was taken to the same brainwashing center afterwards. His wife was arrested on September 18, 2019, after a colleague reported her for talking to a patient about Falun Gong. She was detained for 15 days.
Persecution of Falun Gong Linked to China's Educational System, Including Colleges and Universities
University Students in China Illegally Sent to Forced Labor Camps