(Minghui.org) Having lost her husband, father, and father-in-law to the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Sun Caiyan is now facing another prison sentence for her faith. Her 85-year-old mother, who had just finished serving three years in September 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, is calling for her acquittal.
Ms. Sun, of Dalian City, Liaoning Province, was arrested by officers from the Nansha Police Station on the evening of May 12, 2024. She was held at the Yaojia Detention Center. The police later submitted her case to the Shahekou District Procuratorate, which then transferred it to the Ganjingzi District Procuratorate.
During Ms. Sun’s hearing by the Ganjingzi District Court on September 9, 2024, she refused to be represented by the court-appointed lawyer and acted as her own lawyer. Five days after her hearing, her mother, Ms. Wang Yuhe, was released from prison. Ms. Wang went to the court on September 24, trying to talk to judge Lu Dandan in charge of Ms. Sun’s case. After spending over two hours waiting in line and finishing the required paperwork, Ms. Wang, who is paralyzed in one side of her body, was told that the judge wouldn’t meet with her. She kept calling the judge upon returning home, but no one ever answered the call.
Since the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Sun’s family has been repeatedly targeted. She was sentenced to three years and three months after an arrest in 2014. Her husband, who lived under tremendous pressure over the years, died on June 15, 2021, at the age of 51. The mental pressure from the persecution also took a toll on the health of her father-in-law and father, who died in June 2016 and 2019, respectively.
Ms. Wang, after serving the three-year term in her 80s, was devastated to learn about her daughter’s latest arrest upon returning home. She is now having mobility issues and blurred vision from cataracts. She and her 15-year-old grandson struggled to live on their own. She wrote the following letter to judge Lu, calling on her to acquit Ms. Sun.
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Dear Judge Lu,
I’m Sun Caiyan’s mother. I’m 85 this year. I heard that you are handling my daughter’s case. I’m writing to you to let you know about our family’s situation, why we practice Falun Gong and how broken our family has become due to the persecution. The letter might be long. But it’s all my heartfelt words and I hope you can finish reading it.
Simply because I told others about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong, I was given a three-year prison term. I was just released from the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison in September 2024 and was longing to reunite with my daughter. I was saddened to learn that she had been arrested and was facing another prison sentence. Looking at her wretched home, I felt so sad. I now struggle with paralysis on one side of my body and mobility issues. I cannot see clearly due to cataracts. I’m unable to live on my own and I need care. To make things worse, my pension has been suspended and I have no income.
Now I live with my 15-year-old grandson. The poor child never lived one day in peace since he was born. He has already lost his father, and now his mother is detained and facing a prison sentence. I often saw the teen boy crying and sighing. Both of us need Caiyan so much. Without her, every day is so difficult.
Caiyan had very poor health since she was little. After having pneumonia, she suffered long-term breathing difficulty. When her condition was severe, she needed to take several breaks while climbing the stairs to our home. She tried various kinds of medicine and injections, but none had much effect on her. She lost hope in life even more when seeing that my husband and I always fought with each other.
After Caiyan took up Falun Gong later on, her outlook on the world completely changed. She understood the purpose of life. She lived by the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance and was upbeat all the time. Her lung condition completely disappeared. She also landed a decent job.
Amazed by her changes, I also began to practice Falun Gong. The slipped disc and sciatica [pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the leg] that had been tormenting me for years soon went away. I stopped fighting with my husband and our family became very harmonious.
Caiyan later met Guo Qi at the practice site and they soon got married.
We thought our troubles were behind us, but in July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party suddenly launched the persecution, resulting in mass arrests, detention and torture of Falun Gong practitioners. For speaking up against the persecution, Caiyan was arrested, detained, fined, and fired from her job.
Having experienced multiple political campaigns under the rule of the communist regime, I was terrified by the frequent harassment by the residential committee and I stopped practicing Falun Gong. But not long after, the many ailments I had before recurred and I became bedridden. I sought treatment from various doctors, but my conditions kept worsening. With no other hope, I resumed practicing Falun Gong and was back on my feet a week later.
On February 19, 2001, my son-in-law Qi received a call from his manager, asking him to report to work even though he had taken that day off. As soon as he arrived at his workplace, he was arrested by officers from the Heishijiao Police Station. At around 2 a.m. the next day, the police opened his door with his key and attempted to arrest Caiyan, who was nine months pregnant with a due date of March 15. She began to have abdominal pain. They relented and left, only to return six hours later, still attempting to arrest her. She had already left home. The police searched their place and confiscated some of their belongings.
Qi was secretly given three years of forced labor. No one informed us. It took us much effort to find him at the Dalian Forced Labor Camp. The guards tortured him, including stripping his clothes and beating him with a wooden stick covered with spikes, shocking him with multiple electric batons, and force-feeding him, in order to force him to renounce Falun Gong. His body was covered with scabies. He also had systemic edema, was unable to pass urine and had difficulty breathing. The guards took him to the hospital in February 2002 and he was found to have acute glomerulonephritis (inflammation of the tiny filters in the kidneys). After the doctor said he didn’t have many days left, the guards fled and left us to pay for his medical bill.
After Qi was discharged, the labor camp guards often came to harass him and attempted to take him back to finish serving the term. To avoid further persecution, he and Caiyan were forced to live away from home, leaving their older daughter with us. They finally returned home in 2008.
By then, Caiyan’s father-in-law had been struggling with Parkinson’s disease for more than ten years. Caiyan and Qi took good care of him and his condition improved quite a lot. He was able to sweep the floor, wipe the table and go up- and downstairs from his apartment on the fifth floor to have a walk outside.
Caiyan and Qi had a boy in 2011.
Caiyan was arrested again on July 21, 2014, by officers from the Navy Plaza Police Station and Chunhai Police Station. She was later sentenced to three years and three months. Witnessing the violent home raid by the police, as well as experiencing non-stop harassment to the family afterwards, Caiyan’s father-in-law struggled to cope and became bedridden. He passed away in June 2016.
Caiyan was so weak when she was released in October 2017 that she had to take a break after walking just a few steps. Yet the police and the community workers continued to harass her in person or over the phone. The long term fear and persecution also took a toll on my husband’s health and he passed away in 2019.
Over the years, Qi also endured enormous pressure from the persecution. He suddenly died on June 15, 2021. He was only 51.
With her loved ones passing away one after another, Caiyan struggled to care for her son and me, while doing her full-time job. We depended on each other. Life was hard, but we were still able to manage it.
But on October 14, 2021, only four months after Qi’s passing, I was arrested at home by Liu Yu and another officer surnamed Yang from the Heishijiao Police Station. The authorities didn’t allow my lawyer or family to visit me. I was later sentenced to three years and transferred to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on December 31, 2021. Since April 2023, the Jinpu New District Social Security Bureau suspended my pension. Meanwhile, due to the torture in prison, I was very weak and unable to walk on my own. Caiyan applied for medical parole for me, but guard director Li, who also suspended my family visit for two months, denied the parole.
When I was released on September 14 this year, I was so eager to see Caiyan, only to be told that she was arrested by officers from the Nansha Police Station for putting up a poster about Falun Gong. I heard that she is now in the Dalian Detention Center and has already made one court appearance, which our family wasn’t allowed to attend. I long for her return every day. I’m so worried for her.
I could talk for days about the suffering our family has endured over the past 25 days!
I also want to let you know that the persecution is illegal. I want to point out that no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong or labeled it a cult in China. Freedom of belief is a basic right of citizens protected by the Constitution. Possessing or distributing Falun Gong materials is completely legal. The materials are Falun Gong practitioners’ personal assets, not evidence of their crimes. Falun Gong teaches people to be kind. The practitioners live by its principles in their daily life and cause no harm to anyone or society at large.
Judge Lu, I urge you to think about the consequences every time you sentence a Falun Gong practitioner to prison. How much torture they might suffer in the prison, how much pain and suffering it would bring to their families, and whether the practitioners would be killed for their organs, separating them from their families forever.
The decision is in your hands. Whether it’s out of conscience or upholding justice, I hope you do your best in your power to prevent my daughter from suffering more harm, and give some hope to our broken family.
Thank you for reading the letter! You will be blessed for your kindess!
Sun Caiyan’s mother, Wang Yuhe
Related Reports:
82-year-old Woman Serving Time for Her Faith Denied Medical Parole Despite Poor Health
82-year-old Woman Abused While Serving Time for Her Faith
81-year-old Woman Imprisoned to Serve a Three-year Term from Six Years Ago
A Family’s Uphill Battle to Get a Falun Gong Practitioner Released
Liaoning Man Dies After He and His Family Suffer Two Decades of Persecution
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