(Minghui.org) A married couple was arrested in late August 2019 after their daughter, who currently resides in South Korea, wired money to them. They were accused of receiving funding from foreign forces to produce informational materials about their faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Qian Gentai and Ms. Zhang Xingji, two ethnic Koreans living in Changchun City, Jilin Province, have been subjected to financial persecution and constant harassment in the past 20 years because of their faith.
Their daughter, Ms. Qian Meilan, who also practices Falun Gong, escaped to South Korea in 2015. She has been mailing money to her parents every year to support them, as the couple is struggling to make ends meet after they were forced to shut down their business and sold their house.
The prosecutor has forwarded the couple's cases to the court, and they are facing trial. As no local Falun Gong practitioner is allowed to visit them and they don't have any relatives in Changchun, their daughter, whom the police have been wanting to arrest as well, is calling on the international community to help rescue her parents.
Mr. Qian and Ms. Zhang used to run a very successful food factory in Changchun and enjoyed a good life. They took up Falun Gong during its spread in China and soon enjoyed improvement in their health.
After the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, many practitioners were forced into displacement to avoid being arrested. Mr. Qian and Ms. Zhang provided shelter to several such practitioners.
After it was found out by the police, the couple were forced to close their food factory and also forced to live away from home to avoid persecution.
Because of non-stop harassment, they eventually sold their three properties and lived in a rental apartment.
The couple and their daughter were arrested by officers from Rongguang Police Station on May 9, 2007. The police interrogated Mr. Qian for nearly 80 hours. They beat him on the chest with rubber clubs, which caused severe internal bleeding and injuries while leaving minimal visible external injuries. His buttocks were covered with deep bruises and the flesh was separated from the bones. His toes were also black and blue.
It was only when Mr. Qian fainted because of the pain, did the police stop the beating.
The police ransacked their residence and confiscated their computer, printer and some cash. The family of three were later sent to labor camps to serve time.
After they were released, Mr. Qian and Ms. Zhang started a small business by selling Korean pickled vegetables to make a living, as they don't have any social security or pension because of the persecution.
In 2017, the couple bought a commercial space with the money they received from their daughter and were planning to rent it out. The police harassed their tenants and told them that their landlords were fugitives. Because of the harassment, they haven't been able to rent the property since.