Elderly Woman Dies Hours after Mass Arrest Outside of Beijing

Police took Ms. Han Yuqin from her home in Tangshan City at around 5 a.m. For reasons unknown authorities sent her to the hospital for emergency treatment but she passed away by 4 p.m. At least one other person abducted in the raid was also sent to the hospital for emergency treatment and remains in intensive care. 

The raid was a community-coordinated effort, with residential committee leaders calling practitioners the night before ordering them to give up the practice, and local locksmiths being brought the morning of the raid to force open doors.  

Some practitioners had barricaded their doors from the inside with metal bars, resulting in an hours-long standoff that ended when news of Ms. Han’s death circled back. 

Ms. Han’s death is the 28th known death in 2020, and the raid is another example of what appears to be an upsurge in anti-Falun Gong activity since February. Arrests, brainwashing classes and propaganda campaigns have all been reported in higher numbers since the loosening of quarantine measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.