Having already endured the loss of three family members due to the Chinese communist regime’s persecution, Sun Caiyan became, once again, ensnared in its brutal campaign.
Sun has been detained since May 12 after local police plucked her from the street in the northern Chinese city of Dalian for practicing the meditative practice of Falun Gong, her teen son wrote in a public letter published in July.
Since then, the family has been kept in the dark; authorities have refused to disclose any information about her circumstances. On Nov. 10, Minghui, a website documenting the persecution of Falun Gong, confirmed that Sun had been sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment.
This is the second time Sun has been imprisoned for her belief—in 2014 she was sentenced to 39 months. Sun’s two children have already lost their father and both grandfathers as the result of the Chinese regime’s 25-year campaign against Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual self-cultivation practice with five slow-moving and gentle exercises and moral teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It encourages people to assimilate to these moral values in their day-to-day life.
However, then-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin viewed Falun Gong’s moral teachings and growing popularity as a threat and in 1999, he launched a campaign of persecution to eradicate the practice. Its practitioners—numbering up to 100 million according to estimates at the time—have since faced mass arrest, lengthy imprisonment, and torture.
During the first time Sun was imprisoned, she was subjected to severe beating and torture at the notorious Liaoning Women’s Prison. In one instance, her hands were cuffed to her back, the prison police left her in the cold overnight with an electric fan blowing cold air at her, according to Minghui. She was extremely weak after three years and three months in the prison.
Family Saga
Sun’s husband Guo Qi, also a Falun Gong practitioner, died in 2021 after enduring incarceration and severe torture in a labor camp, according to Minghui. He was 51.
Guo was abducted on Feb. 19, 2001 by police from Heishijiao Police Station of Dalian City. He was taken to Dalian Labor Camp to serve a three-year term handed down by the police without due process, a Minghui report states.
To force Guo to renounce his belief, the police in the labor camp used various forms of torture upon him: he was stripped naked and beaten with a wolf-tooth club, shocked with multiple electric batons on sensitive areas, and subjected to force-feeding. Guo developed scabies all over his body, and endured severe swelling, an inability to urinate, and difficulty breathing, Minghui reported.
In February 2002, the labor camp police took Guo to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with an acute kidney problem that could cause his death any time.
The police forced Guo’s family to pay for his medical bill.
After 19 days of treatment, Guo was discharged and returned home. Local police continued to harass him and attempted to take him back to the labor camp, Minghui reported.
Guo and his wife left their home and children to live in hiding.
The incidents took their toll on Sun’s father-in-law and father, who died in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
Guo’s health also continued to decline, Minghui reported. He passed away in the hospital on June 15, 2021, after his internal organs failed and he developed sepsis.
He left behind his 49-year-old wife, 20-year-old daughter, 12-year-old son, and mother and mother-in-law in their 80s.
Wang Yuhe, Sun’s 85-year-old mother has also been locked up by the regime for her faith in Falun Gong. She was released from prison in September after enduring a three-year term, only to find that her daughter had been imprisoned. Wang is now living with her 16-year-old grandson, while seeking her daughter’s release.
Nationwide Persecution
The family’s experience mirrors the reality faced by millions of Falun Gong practitioners living under the CCP. The Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) has documented at least 5,000 deaths of Falun Gong practitioners across the country from the ongoing persecution.
In the two months of September and October this year, Minghui verified 31 deaths due to the CCP’s persecution, although the FDIC believes the actual number is much higher due to the regime’s strict censorship and the state-sanctioned practice of forced organ harvesting.
An independent people’s tribunal in London concluded in 2019 that forced organ harvesting had taken place in China for years “on a significant scale,” and that killing to supply the transplant industry continues to this day. The main source of organs, according to the tribunal, are detained Falun Gong practitioners.
On July 20, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement urging the Chinese regime to put an end to its persecution campaign against Falun Gong.
“For two and a half decades, PRC authorities have targeted Falun Gong practitioners and their families in a campaign of abuses and rights violations,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller at the time, using the official name for the Chinese regime. “We call upon the PRC to cease its repressive campaign and release all who have been imprisoned for their beliefs.”
From The Epoch Times