(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Xiao Jing was sentenced to a three-year prison term in 2009 and four years in September 2013 for talking to people about Falun Gong.
After her release on March 15, 2017, she could not remain in Yiwu City. Her family members were threatened that they would have to leave the city if she did not renounce Falun Gong. She left to avoid further persecution and to make life easier for her husband and daughter. She is struggling to survive.
The following are Ms. Xiao Jing’s words, recounting her persecution:
Threatened on Release from Detention
I was born in Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province in 1971. My husband, Qiu Zhenhua, and I moved to Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province in 2003. My husband opened a business in 2010 and we rented a house in Yiwu.
My health deteriorated starting in 2006 and doctors could not help me. I then started to practice Falun Gong, and I returned to good health.
I was arrested on March 16, 2013, for writing notes that included phrases like, “Remember that Falun Dafa is good and Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance is good, you will be safe in times of catastrophe! Heaven will eliminate the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Withdraw from the CCP to stay safe!”
I was sentenced to four years in prison on September 25, 2013, and taken to the Zhejiang Women's Prison on November 7, 2013.
After being released on March 15, 2017, I returned to Yiwu City to be with my husband. Landlord Zheng Zhixiong came to see us on the morning of March 16, 2017. He had been informed by local police that I was a Falun Gong practitioner. He asked me to sign a supplementary contract, which had nothing to do with renting the house.
“If you refuse to sign it,” he said, “I'm afraid I cannot rent the house to you. My son could lose his job because of it.”
He saw that I was silent and added, “Its not just me. Others in Yiwu City will also be afraid to rent a house to you. If so, you and your husband would not be able to stay here. Even if you move back to Jiangxi Province, it will be the same. You see, all crows are black. Have you see any ones that are white?”
I refused to sign, so he told me that I would harm my daughter, who was coming home during her school break. My family would also be torn apart.
Consequences for Returning to Yiwu City
For more than seven years, my husband operated his business in Yiwu City and raised my daughter alone while I was being persecuted. My daughter experienced our house being ransacked twice when she was alone at home in 2008 and 2009, and suffered an irreparable trauma. She was only around 11 years old at that time. She became a college student in 2015, and is studying at the Hebei Institute of Technology. My husband's business has been going well. He did not want to give it up.
The message was that if I didn't sign the contract, my husband would not be able to continue renting the house in Yiwu.
I thus decided to take a train on March 21 to visit my mother in Jiangxi Province. While on the train, I returned a missed call from my husband. However, someone else answered and told me that he was from the local police station. He asked me if I still believed that Falun Gong is good. I said yes. He then said that I should not come back to Yiwu or they would drive my husband out of the city, and he would lose his business.
The police officer returned the phone to my husband. My husband told me that he was asked to go to the local police station after I left. Officers from the 610 Office and the Domestic Security Division were there. He was told that I could not stay in Yiwu, or he could not do business there.
Two days later my husband called me again. He was told that another Falun Gong practitioner was sentenced to ten years in prison for exposing the persecution on the Minghui website. My husband told me not to do the same. Local police officers talked to my husband again in April about my situation, and demanded that I give up Falun Gong.
My husband allowed me to practice Falun Gong and contributed a lot to keeping the family together while I was detained. He has now succumbed to the constant pressure and threats from the police and the 610 Office. He told me that I had give up Falun Gong because it was detrimental to the family and the business.
I would not give up Falun Gong, no matter the pressure.
Being Harassed and Losing Personal Freedom
I now have to stay in my hometown of Xiushui County and look for a job. My sister-in-law advised that even a personnel manager in a supermarket would ask whether a job applicant is a Falun Gong practitioner, which was not the case in the past.
After I purchased a computer in April, six officers from the Xiushui County Domestic Security Division visited my mother's home. I realized that I had been under surveillance. They warned me not to access the Minghui website.
I was imprisoned for several years because I practiced Falun Gong. Since I have been back home, I have been threatened in two provinces. So many people around me have been implicated, including my mother, my husband, my daughter, and those who my husband and I have contacted.
My husband still runs the business alone in Yiwu, and without my contributing any income.
I bought a train ticket on April 28 and was going to Yiwu to see him. My husband was told to inform the police if I was coming to Yiwu. They directed him to provide a guarantee statement that I would not do anything related to Falun Gong, including bringing Falun Gong books. If caught, he would have to leave Yiwu.
Since I returned home from prison, I have encountered so many open and hidden threats. My life, my family members, and the family business have all been under threat. There is nowhere to appeal!
