(Minghui.org) A married couple in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, was arrested on May 11, 2024, for their faith in Falun Gong. While Ms. Zhang Fengxia was released on bail one week later due to her severe heart condition, her husband Mr. Sun Xiaoming remained in custody and was sentenced to 2.5 years on October 28, 2024. Ms. Zhang, who didn’t show up for the hearing as she went into hiding to avoid the persecution, was put on the police wanted list.
While displaced, Ms. Zhang recently wrote a letter to the officials involved in the case, urging them not to persecute Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhang recounted that after both she and her husband were arrested on May 11, 2024, the police revealed that they could release one of them. Given her husband’s poor health, she asked to have her husband released. While having a physical examination at the Hongshan District Detention Center around 2 a.m., however, she was found to have a severe heart condition and released on bail a few days later. She went to see a doctor and surgery was recommended.
Still trying to rescue her husband and worrying about their family’s poor financial condition, Ms. Zhang declined the surgery. She spent more time doing Falun Gong exercises and her condition indeed improved.
For six months, she worked hard to try to prevent her husband from being indicted or sentenced, but all of her efforts went in vain.
“I understand you are doing your job and you don’t get to make decisions on such cases. But I believe you still have the leeway to alleviate the persecution or give him a lighter sentence. I feel sad, seeing my husband still sentenced for breaking no law. I no longer have faith in the justice system in China and I was forced to live away from home,” she wrote in the letter.
“After so many years, you should be keenly aware that Falun Gong practitioners are all good people and it’s practiced by people around the world. I urge you to think about why we still hold fast to our faith despite facing such severe persecution in China.”
Ms. Zhang said that Mr. Sun used to struggle with femoral head necrosis and was unable to work or even care for himself. She struggled to look after him and their young son. Instead of lending a helping hand, her parents-in-law, who shared a house with them, only urged her to work harder. Desperate, she ran back to her parents’ home and contemplated divorce. In the end, not wanting her husband to completely lose hope in life, she returned to the home they shared with his parents.
Yet her resentment towards her parents-in-law didn’t go away. She and her family moved out, even if it meant she had to take on more farming work herself.
“My heart was trembling when I saw my in-laws. I was complaining every day how much I suffered and how unfair they treated me. I also complained about my husband’s inability to protect me or care for the family. I had no consideration for his feelings when I said those harsh words. When I lost my temper, I sometimes hit my son, even though I regretted doing so each time. I was exhausted and lived in despair. I learned to play mahjong to seek relief. I longed to be a kind person, but in reality, I was full of resentment and jealousy. In today’s society with moral decline, I didn’t know where I was going,” Ms. Zhang wrote.
When she and her husband later read Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, they were in awe of the straightforward yet profound teachings. They understood that mishaps and suffering in life was a result of one’s own wrongdoing in previous lives and one needs to be a good person, in order to return to one’s true, original self.
“Falun Gong didn’t only enable my husband to stand up again, but also dissolved my resentment and purified my heart. I understood the true meaning of one’s life.”
She reflected on her behavior and became more understanding of her in-laws. She visited her in-laws’ home, which she vowed she would never set foot in again.
“If I didn’t practice Falun Gong, maybe I would be resentful towards my in-laws until I die. Because of my competitive mentality, maybe I would develop many ailments myself and live a miserable life. But Falun Gong taught me that I should live my life as a kind person and stay positive and upbeat no matter how many difficulties or injustices I face.”
With good health, Mr. Sun returned to the workforce and was awarded “model worker.” Ms. Zhang also won the trust and respect from her co-workers, who used to hold negative views about Falun Gong due to the communist regime’s propaganda. Some people said to her, “You showed me the power of true faith.”
Ms. Zhang also wrote in the open letter that during the persecution for the past 25 years and counting, countless families have been torn apart, and countless practitioners were detained, sentenced, and tortured. Some became disabled and some died.
“When I see people go on vacation or spend time with their families, I envy them. But facing such unprecedented suppression and the danger of being arrested and beaten to death at any time, how can I not be afraid or under pressure. Now I’m forced to live away from home, without knowing when I can return. I’m worrying about my husband who is serving time in prison, my elderly parents who need my care, and my son who just got married.
“I remember reading the report about a big highway landslide on May 1, 2024. It was pitch black and the cars couldn’t see what was ahead of them and fell off the broken highway. A family of five noticed the situation and stopped the car in time. When the father tried to stop other cars from driving forward, those people verbally abused him. With no other way, he knelt in the middle of the road, thus saving many people. I was so touched when I read his story. They could have left, but they didn’t, because their kindness wouldn’t allow them to. Such kindness and courage are exactly what we need in today’s society. So people are standing on the edge of the cliff without realizing it. The only way out is to return to the tradition and restore morality. This is also the reason why Falun Gong practitioners kept telling people the facts all these years, despite the danger we are facing ourselves.
“Throughout our lives, we are constantly making different choices, big or small. We may be able to make up small mistakes. But in front of the ultimate choice of right or wrong, life and death, making the wrong choice might bring eternal regrets to us. Don’t sell off your conscience to money or power. We all play a part in society and it’s our own choice which way to go.
“I hope no more Falun Gong practitioners will suffer from the persecution. I also hope all kind-hearted people are blessed and enjoy a happy life.”
Inner Mongolian Man Sentenced to 2.5 Years and Wife on Wanted List for Practicing Falun Gong