(Clearwisdom.net) Several arrests were made in Dagang, Tianjin, in February 2012. Mr. Zhou Xiangyang's elderly parents were arrested and taken to a brainwashing center. The elderly couple risked their lives to rescue their son, whose life was in danger as a result of being persecuted in Binhai Prison. Falun Gong practitioners Ms. An Chunrong and Ms. An Chunyun, and others who showed concern over the elderly couple's plight, were also arrested. The police charged them with having contact with people overseas.

Five police officers broke into Ms. An Chunrong's jewelry store in Dagang at 7:00 p.m. on February 28. One officer was in plainclothes, and one was carrying a video camera. They ransacked the store and found several copies of Falun Gong books and items with Falun Gong messages.

Ms. An and another clerk, Ms. Wang Baozhu, advised the police not to arrest them, but the police refused to listen. They arrested and took Ms. An to the Banchang Road Police Station. Shortly after, another five police officers went to the jewelry store and forced Ms. Wang to go to the police station to “assist them in conducting an investigation.” Ms. An was taken to the Dagang Detention Center that same evening.

At 7:00 p.m. on February 28, officers from the Shanggulin Police Station ransacked the home of Ms. An's younger sister, Ms. An Chunyun, and took her computer, printer, and other personal belongings.

Ms. An Chunyun was able to escape, but the police had tapped her cell phone and listened to the conversation between her and her husband. Dagang police arrested Ms. An on March 2 in her hometown in Wuqing. She was held in the Tianjin No. 1 Detention Center.

At 7:30 p.m. on February 28, five police officers went to Ms. Bai Shuqin's home. One of them deceived Ms. Bai into opening the door by claiming they were checking household registrations, and four other police officers followed him and entered the house. A female police officer videotaped everything, while others searched the home. They found several Shen Yun Performing Arts Chorus Concert DVDs and Shen Yun Performing Arts DVDs. Ms. Bai was arrested and taken to the Banchang Road Police Station. The police interrogated Ms. Bai and did not release her until 11:00 a.m. the next day.

On the evening of February 28, officers from the Banchang Road Police Station harassed another practitioner at his drugstore. They confiscated several boxes of his personal belongings and took the clerk on duty to the police station. They interrogated the clerk until 2:00 a.m., traumatizing him.

According to an insider, the arrests of these practitioners is linked to the severe persecution of Mr. Zhou Xiangyang, who is still being held in the Binhai Prison, Tianjin.

On January 16, 2012, Mr. Zhou Xiangyang, who had not had any food or water for more than 330 days, was taken to the Xinsheng Hospital in Tianjin for emergency treatment. His elderly mother contacted the prison officials several times in order to take Mr. Zhou home, but to no avail. Mr. Zhou's parents had no alternative but to travel on their own tractor for one and a half days to reach Binhai Prison. They stood outside the gate of the prison, wearing vests over their winter clothes on which they had written messages about rescuing their son, who is in critical condition. They waited for the prison officials to give them a reply.

Many kindhearted people wanted to do something for the elderly couple, and the international community also showed concern over this matter. All this attention focused on Mr. Zhou's plight caused Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents to panic. Police vehicles patrolled the area and videotaped all the nearby vehicles as well as the people in the area.

Three nights later, at 1:10 a.m. on February 20, 2012, Mr. Zhou's parents waited outside the prison to demand the release of their son. A riot squad and special police vehicles suddenly appeared at the prison gate, and trailers and ambulances surrounded the scene. More than 20 police officers dragged Mr. Zhou's parents' off of their tractor, carried them into an ambulance, and drove them to the Changli County Brainwashing Center. The police also arrested Hao Yin and his wife, Gao Yan'em from Ji County, who were at the scene.

In the following days, the Tianjin Police Department and Dagang District Police Department verified the license plate numbers of vehicles in the area and identified the people who had been to Binhai Prison from their video recording. Many practitioners and their relatives in the Dagang District were interrogated or harassed. At the same time, the police followed Ms. An Chunrong, and tapped her phone in an attempt to collect evidence to frame her. Not long ago, the Dagang Health Bureau, where Ms. An worked, held a meeting at which it was announced that the reason that the CCP police agents persecuted Ms. An was that she had had contact with people overseas.