The Epoch Times By
The Chinese regime has been raiding the homes of Falun Gong practitioners and detaining them all around the country during the month of June, ahead of its upcoming 100 year anniversary celebration on July 1.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will celebrate the centennial of its founding next month. In order to “maintain social stability,” which is the term used by the regime to justify its totalitarian rule in China, the CCP announced a series of strict controls on the Chinese people in June—particularly in Beijing, the nation’s capital.
Practitioners of Falun Gong—a traditional Chinese spiritual practice from the Buddha school that teaches the values truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—have been among the targets that the regime wants to control.
Since June 1, reports have emerged of practitioners having their homes raided by local police. Their private property has been seized, and some police even detained non-practitioner family members.
“We condemn all forms of the CCP’s persecution [on Falun Gong practitioners],” Erping Zhang, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center in New York, told The Epoch Times on June 17.
“The CCP’s persecution has been ongoing since July 1999. There is no indication, thus far, of any policy change from the CCP, and we continue to witness the ruthless campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China,” Zhang said. “We continue to call on people of good conscience around the world to speak up against the CCP’s violence on Falun Gong.”
Practitioners of the spiritual discipline Falun Gong hold a parade in New York to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day and to protest the ongoing persecution of the group by the Chinese Communist Party in China, on May 13, 2020. (Larry Dai/The Epoch Times)
Large-Scale Detentions
On June 10, Mudanjiang Municipal Police Department in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province ordered police from across the city’s six counties and four districts to arrest Falun Gong practitioners from their homes.
The regime said that the arrests were part of a campaign it has named “Safety July 1.”
In a 36 hour period, police detained 28 Falun Gong practitioners in the city, harassed another six, and seized cell phones, computers, printers, books, cash, and even bank cards from practitioners’ homes, reported Minghui.org, a website dedicated to documenting Falun Gong’s persecution in China.
At 3 a.m. on June 10, several policemen broken into Falun Gong practitioner Guo Libin’s house in Hailin, a county-level city in Mudanjiang, detained Guo and his wife, grabbed Guo’s son’s bank card, as well as raided his sister’s house, seizing her home entertainment system, cell phones, and books.
At 8 a.m., policemen from Aimin district hired a locksmith and broke into the house of practitioner Chen Yanwei when Chen and her family were at home. They then detained Chen and her sister Chen Yanfu.
In some cases, the police even used pepper spray on practitioners as they tried to protect their belongings.
In Dalian city of northeastern China’s Liaoning Province, 29 Falun Gong practitioners and at least six of their non-practitioner family members were also arrested from their homes between June 1 to 3 as part of the regime’s “Safety July 1” campaign, while police in eastern China’s Shandong Province conducted their own home raids on Falun Gong practitioners as part of the campaign.
Minghui.org also reported on similar arrests happening in Beijing and Tianjin cities, and Sichuan, Guangdong, Gansu, Hebei, Yunnan, and about a dozen of other provinces.
Scared to Lose Power
The Chinese regime launched its cruel persecution to eradicate Falun Gong in July 1999, and it is estimated that millions of practitioners have been detained, tortured, and even killed in the past 22 years.
The new centennial-related campaign has more reasons on top of the continuous persecution.
“The CCP regime has detained Falun Gong practitioners, petitioners, democracy activists, and even ultra-leftists who they don’t trust ahead of the centenary,” Tang Jingyuan, U.S.-based China affairs commentator, told The Epoch Times on June 17. “It’s because Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Beijing authorities are scared to lose power.”
Tang pointed out that the regime wants to consolidate its dictatorship, and Xi eagerly wishes to hold onto his totalitarian position.
“In the past decades, Falun Gong practitioners have revealed the persecutions that they suffered in China, and exposed the crimes the CCP committed when faced with calls to end the persecution, inside and outside of China. This scares the CCP,” Tang said.
“CCP wants to silence Falun Gong practitioners by escalating the persecution and detaining as many practitioners as possible. But history has told the CCP that people who have beliefs, such as Falun Gong practitioners, aren’t afraid of evil. They will do whatever they believe is good for others and the society.”
