(Minghui.org) A married couple and their daughter, all natives of Jiexi County, Guangdong Province, have been detained for half a year for their faith in Falun Gong. The daughter is now in serious condition and her 97-year-old paternal grandmother is left without anyone to care for her.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Cai Zhongda, Ms. Zeng Sufang and their daughter Ms. Cai Xiaoting were arrested on December 15, 2021, after being reported for distributing calendars with information about Falun Gong. They were held at the Jiexi County Detention Center. Ms. Cai, 27, was taken to the hospital for resuscitation on March 6 and has been taken back to the detention center. She remains in serious condition at the time of writing, but other details remain unclear.

Both Mr. Cai, 60, and Ms. Zeng, 53, used to struggle with poor health. They spent much of their income on medical bills, yet their conditions didn’t have much improvement. 

After taking up Falun Gong in 1999, they regained their health and saw their family-owned business doing better and better. Once they were buying goods and the vendor gave Mr. Cai an extra bag of cigarettes worth 800 yuan. After he found out, he returned it to the vendor, who was very happy and surprised. He said that was the first time someone returned things to him, while most others always tried to take advantage of him. 

After the communist regime launched the persecution in 1999, Mr. Cai was repeatedly targeted for upholding his faith. He was arrested on September 27, 2003 after being reported for distributing Falun Gong materials in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, where he and his wife opened a new shop earlier that year. The police kept him at the Guangzhou City No. 1 Detention Center for two years and also monitored Ms. Zeng around the clock. The police forced the couple’s landlord to terminate their lease, forcing Ms. Zeng to move. The harassment and Mr. Cai’s incarceration also forced Ms. Zeng to close the new shop, resulting in over 100,000 yuan loss.

Ms. Zeng later opened another shop in Shunde City in the same province. She was arrested there on April 14, 2006 and held at the Leliu Detention Center in Shunde City for a month. She was abused to the point of vomiting blood, but the guards refused to release her. They instead transferred her to the Sanshui Brainwashing Center. She was confined in a small room and forced to watch propaganda videos smearing Falun Gong every day. The torture caused her to develop a severe condition with her lungs and she also had tightness in her chest. After three months of brainwashing, she was released.

Ms. Zeng and Mr. Cai later opened a shop in Zhongshan City in the same province. On December 9, 2008, Mr. Cai was arrested again while doing business and denied family visits. When Ms. Zeng went to the police station to demand his release, the police threatened to arrest her. The police also forced her daughter’s school to expel her and her landlord to evict the family. 

Mr. Cai was later sentenced to three years at the Sihui Prison. Ms. Zeng had to sell their business in Zhongshan City and bring her two children back to their hometown.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Chen Jihua (陈继华), head of Jiexi County Police Department: +86-13502691138Li Weiqin (李伟钦), head of Domestic Security Office: +86-13923565668Wang Hanyi (王汉意), head of Nanshan Police Station: +86-13828138468Zeng Shuanghui (曾双辉), head of Jiexi County Detention Center: +86-13502563992Xiao Hongjun (肖洪俊), president of Jiexi County Procuratorate: +86-13822990757

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)