(Minghui.org) While still in elementary school in 2018, Yingying (an alias), who is now about 13, saw her father arrested and sentenced to prison. Only a year later, her mother and grandmother were also arrested and sentenced. When her father was finally released in 2023, he was in serious condition due to torture in custody and died months later at the age of 41. Her mother is not due to be released until March 2027.
The suffering of this family in Dengzhou City, Henan Province, all stems from the Chinese Communist Party's persecution of their shared faith, Falun Gong, that began in July 1999. For practicing this ancient spiritual discipline based on Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, members of their family have been repeatedly arrested, detained, and tortured over the past 26 years.
Yingying’s father, Mr. Zhou Hongyu, was first arrested on October 23, 2008. While held at the Dengzhou City Detention Center, he was forced to do more than 20 hours of slave labor every day. The guards instigated the inmates to beat him when he struggled to complete his work quota. The inmates slapped him in the face, whipped him with rubber shoes, poured cold water on him, and verbally abused him.
The police intended to have Mr. Zhou sent to a forced labor camp a month later but had to release him after he failed the required physical exam.
Mr. Zhou was arrested again on August 2, 2017, after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. He was detained for 15 days.
Mr. Zhou went to visit his brother on October 22, 2018. Four officers followed him to his brother’s home and arrested him. He was later sentenced to four and a half years and transferred to the Zhengzhou Prison. Due to abuse in prison, he suffered from edema on and off after he was released in May 2023. He never recovered and passed away on January 14, 2024, when Yingying was 12.
Yingying’s mother, Ms. Sun Haihong, was persecuted even before she formally started practicing Falun Gong. One night in late 2000, she went with her mother (name unknown), a Falun Gong practitioner, to distribute Falun Gong materials. Both of them were arrested. While being held in the Xinye County Detention Center, Ms. Sun, then 18, was forced to do slave labor. During an interrogation session, the guards slapped her in the face. She was later released on a 4,000-yuan bail.
Despite the persecution, Ms. Sun later started to practice Falun Gong and married Mr. Zhou. She sought Mr. Zhou’s release after he was arrested again on August 2, 2017, only to be threatened by the police. Officer Xia Han said to her when she visited him on August 11, 2017, “How dare you ask for your husband’s release! You are the ringleader of Falun Gong practitioners in Dengzhou. We can easily get you sentenced to up to 10 years!”
Ms. Sun went into hiding with her five-year-old Yingying to avoid being arrested. She was later arrested in Nanyang City in the same province on August 30, 2019, along with her mother. She was sentenced to seven and a half years, and her mother to five years. Both of them were admitted to the Henan Province Women’s Prison in Xinxiang City.
Because Ms. Sun did the Falun Gong exercises while held in the Eighth Division in the fall of 2021, several inmates dragged her down from the upper bunk bed and hit her head the ground.
Ms. Sun was soon transferred to the Ninth Division. To force her to renounce Falun Gong, the guards and inmates deprived her of sleep in late 2021. They also slandered Falun Gong and its founder. Ms. Sun protested by shouting, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good.” The guards responded by deducting points from her account.
Ms. Sun was held in solitary confinement for a month in the fall of 2022 because she refused to squat. After that, she was ordered to do forced labor. She was later transferred to the Sixth Division for the old and infirm.
Ms. Sun’s mother has been held in the Ninth Division; her situation isn’t clear.
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