(Minghui.org) A group of police officers broke into Mr. Sun Zhentie’s home at around 6:30 a.m. on April 14, 2021. One officer quickly flashed a piece of paper that he claimed to be the arrest warrant and put it back before Mr. Sun could read it. Before taking the 61-year-old Changchun City, Jilin Province resident away, the police took pictures of him and his 26 Falun Gong books.

This is the fourth time that Mr. Sun has been arrested for practicing Falun Gong since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute this mind-body discipline in 1999. 

A police officer claimed that the arrest was to “maintain social stability,” as the celebration of the CCP’s 100-year founding is coming up in a few months. 

When Mr. Sun’s family went to the Dongzhan Police Station the day after his arrest to seek his release, the police didn’t allow them to enter their office building and were very rude to them. They claimed that Mr. Sun has been taken to the Weizigou Detention Center, without specifying how long he would be held there.

Mr. Sun’s family hasn’t told his father about his arrest, fearing it may deal a heavy blow to the elderly man in his 90s who is struggling to recover from a stroke. Before being arrested, Mr. Sun often visited his father, took him out for a walk or helped him take a shower. In addition to his own father, Mr. Sun also frequently visited his parents-in-law and cooked for them. 

Mr. Sun, a senior thermoelectric engineer, took up Falun Gong in 1998. He credits the practice for improving his health and turning him into a better person. Living by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, he often extended a hand to people when they needed help and also refused to take bribes at work, even though it was common practice for many of his colleagues. His excellent work performance also earned him a top employee award in 2002.

On March 6, 2002, the day after several practitioners in Changchun successfully tapped into local TV cable and broadcast video programs for 40 minutes exposing the illegality and brutality of the persecution, over 5,000 local practitioners were arrested, including Mr. Sun. The police took him away at work and then ransacked his home.

Due to the importance of his duties at work, his supervisors went to the detention center and tried to persuade the police to release him. But Mr. Sun was still detained for 15 days.

Over the next two decades, Mr. Sun was arrested two more times and held in a brainwashing center. The mental pressure from the persecution took a toll on his health. He developed diabetes and needed emergency treatment after falling into a coma in 2011.