(Minghui.org)
Name: Ma QingxianChinese Name: 马清贤Gender: FemaleAge: 60City: JinanProvince: ShandongOccupation: UnknownDate of Death: December 2021Date of Most Recent Arrest: in early 2000sMost Recent Place of Detention: Laiwu District Detention Center
Name: Qi QingxinChinese Name: 齐庆信Gender: MaleAge: 60City: JinanProvince: ShandongOccupation: coalmine workerDate of Death: early February 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2002Most Recent Place of Detention: a local labor camp
A married couple in Jinan City, Shandong Province died less than 100 days apart after suffering years of persecution for upholding their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Ms. Ma Qingxian, 60, died in December 2021. Her husband, Mr. Qi Qingxin, died in early February 2022. He was also 60. The couple were married for about 40 years, yet they lived apart in their last 20 years of life because Ms. Ma had been forced to go into hiding in 2002 to avoid being arrested for her faith.
Ms. Ma Twice Arrested Before 2002
Ms. Ma took up Falun Gong in 1996 and soon recovered from her illnesses. Her husband also joined her in the practice. After the communist regime began the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, the couple were repeatedly targeted.
Ms. Ma twice went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong before 2002 and was arrested both times. She was held at the Laiwu District Detention Center after she was escorted back to Shandong Province each time.
After her second detention, she once recounted the brutal force-feeding she endured in custody. She said her perpetrators held a big kettle of boiled corn paste and poured the paste into her mouth and nostrils. She had corn paste all over her face, neck, chest, back, and hair. She almost suffocated. Another practitioner, Mr. Shang Qingling, was also force fed at the same detention center. The guards even force-fed him excrement at one time. He sustained severe lung injuries and died on January 31, 2001.
Both Husband and Wife Arrested in 2002 – Wife Went into Hiding and Husband Given 2 Years of Forced Labor
Ms. Ma and her husband were both arrested in 2002 and taken to the Huangzhuang Town Government compound. Mr. Qi was fired by his employer, Panxi Coalmine (located in Gangcheng District, Jinan City).
The police threatened to give the couple forced labor, but they managed to escape from the government compound and went into hiding in the nearby Xintai City. Mr. Qi was arrested again shortly afterwards while distributing Falun Gong informational materials. He was then given two years of forced labor. Ms. Ma spent the next 20 years on the run to avoid the persecution.
Authorities Fail to Catch Ms. Ma
After Mr. Qi was released in 2004, the police kept harassing him and hunting for his wife.
Around 2016, seven people from the Xintai City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, the Huangzhuang Town government, and the Qijialing Village government showed up at Mr. Qi’s home and ordered him to turn in his wife, who had been put on the wanted list. [The couple lived in Qijialing Village, Huangzhuang Town, Gangcheng District, Jinan City].
The agents from the Xintai City Political and Legal Affairs Committee said that they knew Ms. Ma’s whereabouts but somehow just couldn’t catch her. Every time they chased her to a location, she would always leave before they arrived. They ended up arresting five or six other practitioners, who under pressure admitted that Ms. Ma had supplied them with Falun Gong informational materials for distribution.
The Xintai City Political and Legal Affairs Committee then turned to the Huangzhuang Town government and the Qijialing Village government for help, which was why they all showed up that day. Mr. Qi condemned them for harassing him and hunting for his wife. They left and later went to Xintai City to search for Ms. Ma, who again managed to escape.
Endless Harassments
Every time a politically sensitive date came up, the authorities would come to harass Mr. Qi. They ordered him to renounce his faith and accused his wife of abandoning him because of her practice of Falun Gong. Mr. Qi refuted them saying that it was the persecution that forced his wife to live away from home.
While Panxi Coalmine had long fired Mr. Qi, his household registration was still with them in the Gangcheng District. Ms. Ma, on the other hand, still had her household registration in her hometown in Huangzhuang Town. More than once did the authorities in both Gangcheng and Huangzhuang demand the couple to transfer their household registration to the other district. Under the communist regime’s persecution policy, local governments were responsible for monitoring Falun Gong practitioners in their jurisdictions so Gangcheng and Huangzhuang were both trying to offload the task to each other. Mr. Qi rejected their demands each and every time.
Ms. Ma’s Death in Displacement Followed by Husband’s Passing
Ms. Ma lived a very difficult displaced life. The shelters she stayed in different places had no heat in the winter and she had to keep drinking hot water to keep warm. As a result, she developed the symptom of frequent urination. To avoid being arrested, she also had to stay alert 24/7. More than once she decided to leave her temporary residence late at night because she had a hunch that the police were coming at her. The police indeed arrived hours after she left.
Mr. Qi worried about Ms. Ma and his health also declined. In his last two years of life, he had whole body edema and blood in his urine. His wife’s passing in December 2021 dealt yet another blow and he died in less than 100 days.
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