(Minghui.org) A married couple in Pingchang County was arrested on July 8, 2014 and sentenced to 7 years on July 21, 2015 for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.
Mr. Zhao Banghai is serving time at Jiazhou Prison in Leshan City. His wife, Ms. Li Changqiu, is incarcerated at Chengdu Women’s Prison.
The couple’s daughter, Ms. Zhao Qingqing, tried to visit both of them in January 2018, but she was only allowed to see her mother. The 17-year-old girl’s grandmother and other relatives accompanied her on the trip, but they were denied visitation with both of her parents.
The grandmother and relatives not only worry about the imprisoned couple, but they are also concerned about Qingqing, who has been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since her parents’ arrest.
A Typical Teenager No More
Qingqing used to be a typical teenager, carefree and happy. The arrest of her parents, however, turned her world upside down.
More than three dozen agents broke into her parents’ apartment in Chengdu on July 8, 2014 and took them away.
He Yong (head of Longquanyi District 610 Office), Li Qiang (an officer from Pingchang County Police Department), and a person from the local court showed up two days later to try to take Qingqing’s paternal grandmother and aunt to their hometown in Pingchang County.
Qingqing was only 14 at the time, and she was so terrified that she cried out aloud. Her maternal uncle, who happened to be visiting, was threatened by police to not disclose the arrest of his sister and brother-in-law to anyone.
Mr. Zhao’s mother firmly refused to return to Pingchang. He Yong turned to threaten the landlord, who was forced to ask her to move out.
The elderly woman found another place, but He Yong used the same tactic to make the new landlord evict her, her bedridden daughter and young granddaughter.
Once a healthy girl, Qingqing began to fall ill often and had to be hospitalized from time to time. She fell behind academically and dropped out of school upon her teachers’ advice. She became withdrawn and often cut herself. Her doctors couldn’t pinpoint a definitive cause for her physical symptoms, and concluded that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Qingqing’s maternal grandparents died in distress one after another in less than two years of their daughter’s and son-in-law’s arrest. The sad news only aggravated Qingqing’s symptoms. Her paternal grandmother struggled to care for her and her aunt.
Qingqing’s relatives on her mother’s side requested that one of her parents be released on bail to take care of her, but officer Yuan Shimin, who was in charge of the case, said the higher-ups wouldn't allow bail.
Qingqing’s parents appeared in court on July 21, 2015. Days before the trial, police dispatched agents to monitor her paternal grandmother. On the day of the trial, only three of her family members were allowed inside the courtroom. Her parents were both sentenced to seven years in prison at the end of the hearing.
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