07/02/2019
HAN SHENG
(Photo taken from internet)
In China, where freedom is not free, decorating one's home or having a “sensitive” social media username” is reason enough to be arrested or even sent to jail.
In China, in the midst of the severe repression carried out by the authorities against all religions and beliefs, The use of sensitive words can also become sufficient grounds for arrest and conviction.. This is the unpleasant lesson that Mr. learned the hard way.. Huang, a villager county deXiayi en la ciudad de Shangqiu, in the province central china henan. He 26 November 2018, He used a brush to write the Chinese character “忍” (rěn, What does “tolerance” mean?” or “endure”) on the patio wall that faces the street of his own home.
The next day, Officials from the local poverty alleviation office discovered the character “忍” written on the wall. Maybe, by interpreting it as a “danger signal”, They insisted on calling the police. Although the wife of Mr.. Huang said he would remove the character immediately, Officials prevented him from doing so in order to preserve “criminal evidence.”.
Immediately upon arrival at the location, three police officers began to take photos of the character that was written on the wall and sternly asked Mr.'s wife. Huang: “¿Why did you write the character ‘忍’?? ¿You are expressing dissatisfaction with the Government?”.
Mr.'s wife. Huang was quick to explain that her husband wrote the character to encourage her to endure the pain and suffering caused by her illness.. The police reprimanded her saying: “¡Write the character “忍” It means that you believe in a xie jiao!”.
After that, police officers searched the house, rummaging through each and every room, and they even used a lever to open a sewing machine so they could check it.
Although they did not find any suspicious items, they didn't give up. They went to the place where Mr. was working.. Huang to ask what his intention was in writing the character equivalent to “tolerance.”. Thereafter,, The police arrested Mr.. Huang so he could be questioned more thoroughly.
After one of Mr.. Huang, who is a government official, advocated on his behalf and assured that he did not have any type of religious belief, the police reluctantly agreed to release him.
Jiang Linghua, resident of Yancheng city in Jiangsu province, was not so lucky.
For two from the year 1997, Jiang Linghua practice Falun Gong with some friends and family, until in the year 1999 The Chinese government launched a comprehensive repression campaign against this new religious movement. She stopped practicing it right after that. Nevertheless, He never assumed that even if they had passed 16 years, would be arrested and sentenced to prison because of her online username.
He 13 October 2015, Jiang Linghua was in his shop when, suddenly, more of 20 plainclothes police surrounded her. Without presenting a search warrant, The police deliberately proceeded to raid the same. After finding a hand-copied book with contents related to Falun Gong, They forcibly escorted her to the local police station..
during the interrogation, The police stated that Jiang's username on the QQ application —instant messaging platform— The era sutra is so great, jīng fǎ hǎo dà, equivalent to “Buddhist verses are very good”, being similar to the slogan frequently used by Falun Gong practitioners 法轮大法好, Fǎ nhat à fǎ hǎo, which means “Falun Gong is very good.”. She further , Jiang's Qzone account —a social networking site— also contained 25 articles attributed to Falun Gong. The police used this to claim that Jiang Linghua was still practicing Falun Gong and forced her to give the names of other Falun Gong practitioners..
Jiang explained that he hadn't thought of anything in particular when he chose his QQ username., and that someone else had sent him the items in question. He stated that he had not even finished reading them. After that, the police threatened the future of his close relatives to force Jiang to sign and admit his guilt. The police also tricked her into saying that if she followed their instructions and admitted that she believed in Falun Gong, would be promptly released. Jiang believed them and put his name and signature on a document.
After the police obtained this “criminal evidence”, Jiang was accused of “using an organization xie jiao to undermine law enforcement.”. And because of this she was sentenced to one year and six months in prison..
Jiang recalled that while she was detained, She was forced daily to watch indoctrination videos and, often, was harassed. The living conditions in the prison were so terrible that they caused him to experience severe hair loss.. for a while, he even thought about committing suicide.
Since Jiang Linghua's arrest, no one could take care of managing their store, fact that resulted in economic losses of more than 200 000 yuan (approximately 28 500 dollars).
“I suffered the injustice of being imprisoned for a year and a half for no reason”, stated, adding that although it was released in the year 2017, Government staff still call her frequently to ask if she practices Falun Gong..
“¿How come they still won't leave me alone?”, once asked. To which the government official responded: “I know he's never done anything wrong.. "I'm just following the orders of my superiors.".
(All names are pseudonyms.)
Reported by Han Sheng
