(Minghui.org) A married couple in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province were frequently harassed by the authorities since July 2019 for their faith in Falun Gong. After they lived away from home to hide from the police, the husband began to suffer health issues and was later found to have late-stage liver cancer.
After the hospital discharged him due to the coronavirus epidemic, his condition deteriorated quickly and he passed away on February 28, 2020, at the age of 56.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Months of Harassment
Under orders from the Lanzhou City Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), an extra-judiciary agency tasked to persecute Falun Gong, the local police officers and residential committee staff began to harass Mr. Wang Yuqing and his wife Ms. Zhao Ting once every few weeks starting in July 2019.
The authorities claimed that Ms. Zhao was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong and threatened to send her to Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center. They also attempted to force the couple to renounce their faith in Falun Gong, or the local police and residential committee staff might lose their annual bonus.
When Ms. Zhao clarified the facts about Falun Gong to the officers and urged them not to participate in the persecution, Wang, a local residential committee director, said to her over the phone, “What you said about Falun Gong is right, but we don’t have any other choice. We are following orders from above.”
The officers came a few more times in September and November, 2019 to harass the couple.
On November 26, 2019, the officers recorded their visit with a camera. They said they would have to send Ms. Zhao to the brainwashing center before the new year. They also mentioned that the PLAC has provided funding to hire two aides to take care of Ms. Zhao’s mother in her 80s and Mr. Wang, who was also suffering from poor health at that time.
The officers threatened that this was the last warning to Ms. Zhao. If she still refused to sign the statements to renounce Falun Gong, staff from the PLAC would come to arrest her.
Family’s Plight
To avoid being taken to the brainwashing center, Ms. Zhao started to live away from home on November 28, 2019.
Her 83-year-old father became so distraught at her ordeal that his health quickly declined. He had blood in his urine for ten days.
Ms. Zhao returned home on December 16 to take her father for a checkup. He was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent surgery. While he was still recovering, the police harassed his daughter again.
Ms. Zhao was forced to live away from home again. As both her husband and mother were suffering from poor health and unable to care for themselves, she came back and took the two of them on the run as well.
The mental pressure from the harassment took a toll on Mr. Wang’s health. He began to suffer some medical issues and the three of them had to come back home.
While taking care of her father, Ms. Zhao was also looking for hospitals to treat her husband.
But due to the coronavirus epidemic, local hospitals refused to take new patients. Mr. Wang was only admitted to a hospital on January 16, 2020 and was soon diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer.
He was in critical condition two days later and was resuscitated. Even when he was in a coma, he shouted, “Run! Run! They are coming for you! You can’t be arrested!”
Knowing that he was worried about her, Ms. Zhao said to her husband, “Don’t worry. They can’t take me away.”
Mr. Wang’s son also said to him, “Dad, please be assured, I will protect mom.”
On January 22, shortly after Mr. Wang woke up from the coma, he was forcibly discharged from the hospital, which was preparing to take coronavirus patients.
Mr. Wang’s condition continued to deteriorate after he went back home. He passed away six days later.
Past Persecution of the Family
Mr. Wang, a former middle school physical education teacher, took up Falun Gong in 1996 and credited the practice for curing his severe liver condition. Because of not giving up their shared faith, he and his wife were repeatedly arrested, detained and harassed in the past 21 years. Their son was detained in the police station and beaten by the officers when he was 9 years old.
After Ms. Zhao was forced to live away from home to avoid being arrested in late 2001, the authorities arrested Mr. Wang in September 2002 and detained him for 15 months. Their son, only 11 then, was left at home by himself during the time. Without no one to take care of him, the boy was often starved and lived in fear.
Ms. Zhao was arrested again during the “Knocking on Doors” persecution campaign in 2017 and held in a brainwashing center for more than ten days.
Related report:
Nine Years of Persecution for Zhao Ting and Her Family (Lanzhou City, Gansu Province)
