(Minghui.org) Three Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, residents who were under house arrest for practicing Falun Gong were deceived into going to a local police agency on December 4, 2023 to “sign some paperwork to have their cases closed.” They were seized as soon as they arrived and were put in criminal detention. They now face indictment for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
This is not the first time that Ms. Wei Denghui, 59, Ms. Dong Jinzhi, 62, and Ms. Deng Subi, 72, have been targeted for their faith. They were all arrested multiple times in the past. Ms. Wei was previously given 1.5 years of forced labor and 4-year prison sentence. Ms. Dong was also given 1.5 years of forced labor and sentenced to 5 years. Ms. Deng was sentenced to 8 years in June 2005.
Latest Persecution Stems from Arrest on May 24, 2022
The latest persecution of Ms. Wei, Ms. Dong, and Ms. Deng stemmed from their trip to Jintang County (which is under the administration of Chengdu City) on May 24, 2022. They distributed Falun Gong informational materials there that day, including placing a brochure on a police cruiser belonging to the Jintang County Domestic Security Office.
Captain Chen Fugang of the Jintang County Domestic Security Office ordered the arrest of the three practitioners soon after an officer discovered the brochure on the police cruiser. When he interrogated Ms. Wei in August 2022 (the details are in this article), Chen later told her that the police monitored her, Ms. Dong, and Ms. Deng during their entire trip. The police knew when the three women arrived in Jintang, which places they went to, to distribute Falun Gong informational materials, and what bus they took to get back to Chengdu.
Chen also bragged that no Falun Gong practitioner in Jintang County still dared to distribute Falun Gong informational materials and that he was offended that Ms. Wei, Ms. Dong, and Ms. Deng had the audacity to come to Jintang and raise awareness about the persecution. He vowed to expand the case.
The day the three women were arrested, May 24, 2022, Chen produced a video that only showed a hand placing a brochure on the previously mentioned police cruiser. The practitioners said the hand could belong to anyone so the video could not be used as evidence against them. They later realized (after Ms. Wei was interrogated in August 2022) that Chen must have had people on foot or in a car following them while they were in Jintang.
Chen also later approached Ms. Dong’s younger sister and showed her a picture of a woman’s back. He coerced the sister into acknowledging that the woman in the picture was Ms. Dong. It is unclear what setting the woman in the picture was in but it was apparent that Chen was trying to show that Ms. Dong distributed Falun Gong materials somewhere in Jintang.
Ms. Dong, Ms. Deng, and Ms. Wei were all released on bail shortly after they were arrested.
Taken Back Into Custody on June 1, 2022 and Then Released on 6-Month House Arrest
The Jintang County Domestic Security Office and its subordinate the Shuicheng Police Station took all three practitioners into custody on the night of June 1, 2022. After a few hours of interrogation at the police station, the three practitioners were taken to the Jintang County Hospital for physical examinations and COVID-19 tests. Afterwards, they were taken back to the police station.
The Jintang County Domestic Security Office gave all three women six-month house arrest on the evening of June 2, 2022 and turned them over to the Dawan Police Station in Qingbaijiang District, which oversees their residential areas. By that time, they had been in custody for nearly 20 hours.
The Dawan Police Station further tasked the Dawan Street Committee, Dawan Community, Shijiazhan Community, and Yihu Community with monitoring Ms. Wei, Ms. Dong, and Ms. Deng while they were under house arrest.
Ms. Deng’s and Ms. Dong’s homes were raided on June 2, 2022. It’s unclear whether the raid was carried out by the Dawan Police Station, the Shuicheng Police Station, or the Jintang County Domestic Security Office. Both women had their Falun Gong books, one laptop and two desktop computers confiscated. Ms. Dong also had 3,600 yuan cash seized.
Another local practitioner, Ms. Dai Xuefen, who happened to be visiting Ms. Dong on June 1, 2022, was also held at the Shuicheng Police Station for one night and had her purse confiscated.
Interrogated in August 2022
Ms. Wei received a call at 1 p.m. on August 19, 2022. The callers were from the Jintang County Domestic Security Office and the Shuicheng Police Station. They ordered her to report to them immediately. She went and was made to wait. Around 2 p.m., an officer with badge number 74596 told her that their “expert” would come to interrogate her.
The “expert” soon arrived and it was none other than officer Chen of the Jintang County Domestic Security Office. He wore a T-shirt, instead of his police uniform. He also had a cigarette in his mouth.
Chen instructed a female officer named Ma Lan to body search Ms. Wei before ordering her to sit on a chair with a plexiglass barrier.
Chen bragged to Ms. Wei that they knew everything about the trip that she, Ms. Dong, and Ms. Deng made to Jintang on May 24, 2022. He then asked if Ms. Wei occasionally read Falun Gong books with Ms. Dong and Ms. Deng. She refused to answer any questions and said he was trying to coerce her into “admitting guilt.” She urged him to stop persecuting law-abiding Falun Gong practitioners like her. He shouted at her multiple times, “You should have died long ago!”
Ms. Wei remained calm and warned Chen that she would expose his crimes on Minghui.org. He threatened her and told not to do it.
At the end of the interrogation, Chen ordered Ms. Wei to sign his interrogate records. When she asked to read the records first he refused. Ms. Wei refused to sign. He relented and passed the records to her.
Ms. Wei signed the records and also wrote that the police were breaking the law in accusing her of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners.
Chen wrote something on the interrogation records after Ms. Wei signed it, but he did not allow her to read what he wrote. He then instructed an officer to get a notice of summons for her to sign.
Ms. Wei was then let go. As she was waiting at a bus stop, a mini-van pulled up and she saw two officers from the Shuicheng Police Station inside. They ordered her to get into their van and searched her bag to see if she had a tape recorder which may have recorded Chen’s interrogation. They did not find anything and then checked her phone. They again did not see any recordings. They returned her phone and bag before letting her out of the van.
Ms. Deng and Ms. Su were also summoned and interrogated separately by Chen between August 17 and 27, 2022. Details of their interrogation remain to be investigated.
Deceived Into Reporting to Police on December 4, 2023 and Arrested
Chen and his people harassed the three women many times since November 2023. On November 29, 2023, the police returned to the practitioners’ homes and ordered them to report to the Jintang County Domestic Security Office the following Monday to “sign some paperwork to have their cases closed.” The police promised to clear them of prosecution once they signed the paperwork.
Ms. Wei, Ms. Dong, and Ms. Deng believed the police and went to the Jintang County Domestic Security Office around 9 a.m. on December 4, 2023 as ordered. As soon as they arrived, the police announced they were putting them in criminal detention and forced them to change into inmates’ uniforms and undergo physical examinations right there. All three women were found to have high blood pressure (with systolic readings higher than 200 mmHg), but they were still admitted to the Pidu District Detention Center at 5 p.m. that day (Pidu District was formerly known as Pi County).
Their family members who accompanied them to the Domestic Security office questioned the police why there was no advance notice of criminal detention. Chen responded that the criminal detention decision was top secret and said he’d soon submit the three practitioners’ cases to the local procuratorate.
The three practitioners’ families were sad that their loved ones were now facing indictment again for their faith after being repeatedly persecuted.
Ms. Wei Previously Given 1.5 Years of Forced Labor and 4-Year Prison Term
Ms. Wei took up Falun Gong in November 1995, two months after her husband died in a work accident. Their daughter was only four years old. Falun Gong helped Ms. Wei understand there is a reason behind everything, helped her overcome her grief and find hope in life again. She also changed from being an extremely introverted person to being outgoing and upbeat. Her health also improved and she no longer needed to constantly visit hospitals. As a teacher at the Technical School affiliated with Sichuan Chemical Company Limited, she also became more patient with and caring towards her students. She volunteered to take on difficult tasks and earned her school administration, colleagues’ and students’ respect.
After the persecution began, her colleagues distanced themselves from her for fear of being implicated.
Ms. Wei went to Beijing in November 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong, with her eight-year-old daughter in tow. They were both arrested. An officer from the Tiananmen Police Station in Beijing slapped Ms. Dong in the face. The local Dawan Police Station picked her and her daughter up from Beijing and detained her for 15 days and extorted 225 yuan from her. Her daughter was interrogated separately.
On the 16th day, Ms. Dong’s school security took her to a brainwashing center and forced her to pay 2,000 yuan. She was also disciplined by her school administration. They put her on two years of probation, during which time they cut her monthly pay from 700 yuan to 200 yuan for a while, before completely suspending her pay.
On September 28, 2001, Ms. Wei was arrested again, this time in her hometown in Hanyuan County, Sichuan Province. She was soon given 1.5 years of forced labor and taken to the Qingbaijiang District Detention Center in Chengdu City. On three occasions, detention center director Guo Xueqiang took her to the hospital to have her kidneys examined, possibly to see if she would be a good candidate for the communist regime’s forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. She was found to have kidney stones each time, and so avoided becoming a victim of the heinous crime.
She was later transferred to the Nanmusi Women’s Labor Camp in Zizhong County, where she was abused to the point of suffering severe vision damage. She had double vision and her eyes were always dazzled by light. She also felt dizzy.
On May 13, 2007, Ms. Wei and three other practitioners were arrested while distributing Falun Gong materials in Xiangfu Town, Qingbaijiang District. She was sentenced to four years in Sichuan Province Women’s Prison (located in Chengdu City). Her daughter, then 15 and a high-school junior who always excelled academically, had to drop out of school due to lack of money to cover school expenses.
After Ms. Wei was released, her school did not allow her to teach and she was eventually forced to take a buy-out, which resulted in her pension being only half the amount of those who had the same length of years of service.
Ms. Dong Previously Given 1.5 Years of Forced Labor and Sentenced to Five Years
Ms. Dong, a former storage worker in Qingbaijiang District, also credits Falun Gong for restoring her health and rekindling her hope in life.
Days after the persecution began on July 20, 1999, her employer forced her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong and had her stand under the scorching sun for three days.
The Qingbaijiang District Police Department once abducted her from home and held her at the Laodawan Police Station for more than ten days.
She was arrested on March 8, 2000, while doing the Falun Gong exercises in a park. She was released one month later, only to be arrested three more times that year, between April and July, also for doing Falun Gong exercises in public. The Hongyang Police Station was responsible for her arrests. They took her to a brainwashing center after arresting her on July 27, 2000. She was held there for one day and extorted 300 yuan.
In late September 2000, Ms. Dong and another practitioner Ms. Chen Guijun went to Zizhong County to distribute Falun Gong informational materials. The Sichuan Province Public Security Bureau deemed this a major case and ordered the local police to arrest them. Ms. Dong was forced to live away from home. Ms. Chen also managed to escape but she was arrested again in 2003 and sentenced to 9 years. She was tortured to death on December 21, 2003, at the age of 59.
Ms. Dong was arrested again on January 23, 2001 while distributing Falun Gong informational materials in Xindu County. The arresting officers from the Xindu County Police Department confiscated her cell phone, 700 yuan in cash, and handbag. They took her to the Xindu County Detention Center, where she was forced to do hard labor without pay. She went on a hunger strike in protest and was force fed. The guards also poured dirty or cold water on her.
After 11 months at the detention center, Ms. Dong was given one and a half years of forced labor and transferred to the Nanmusi Women’s Labor Camp in Zizhong County. She was not allowed to sleep and her health quickly deteriorated. The guards took her to a hospital and her family used their connections to get her transferred to a better hospital in Chengdu City. They later got her released on medical parole.
Ms. Dong was arrested again on April 14, 2003. She tried to escape that night by jumping out of a second-floor window in the police station, but ended up breaking her hips and her lumbar vertebrae was fractured. The police took her to a police hospital and she underwent surgery. One week later, she went on a hunger strike and demanded an immediate release. The hospital inserted a feeding tube into her nose once a day. Her nose bled but the doctors still inserted the feeding tube.
Less than two months after her surgery, Ms. Dong was moved to the Qingbaijiang District Detention Center, when she still could not stand or walk. Her legs were in unbearable pain, as if there were countless things drilling into her. She couldn’t control herself and kept screaming in pain. She had to take sleeping pills at night so as to not interfere with others’ sleep.
Around March 2004, Ms. Dong was carried into a courtroom to face trial. She was sentenced to five years. Her family managed to get her released on medical parole.
While she was in the police hospital, every three days, officers from the Qingbaijiang District Police Department went to the home she shared with her parents to pressure them to pay her medical expenses (about 20,000 yuan). Her parents could not bear the harassment and eventually paid 5,000 yuan.
The police also forced Ms. Dong’s husband to divorce her. Her mother struggled to care for her and her father, who could not take care of himself. Ms. Dong later recovered from her injuries by doing the Falun Gong exercises.
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