(Minghui.org) My name is Lei Yingqun, and I am 73. I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, when I was tormented by numerous illnesses to the point of despair. Not long afterward, I was free of illness and always felt energetic. I benefited both physically and mentally from the practice.
However, on July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a brutal persecution of Falun Dafa. To seek justice, my husband and I went to Beijing to appeal to the central government. Afterward, our lives were forever changed.
My Husband and I Faced Multiple Arrests and Lengthy Imprisonments
After we returned from our appeal trip, both my husband and I were fired from our jobs. My husband, Wu Ruirong, was a bus driver with the Hunan Branch of China Southern Airlines, and I worked as an accountant at the Hengyang City Metal Materials Corporation in Hunan Province.
In the years that followed, I was detained seven times and once sentenced to four years in prison. My husband was detained six times and given two forced labor terms totaling more than four years of incarceration. Both of us were tortured to the verge of death on multiple occasions during our imprisonment.
However, the persecution wasn’t limited to us, It also extended to my close family members, leaving them suffering mentally and financially.
Family Members Endure Persecution
To help us, one of my brothers offered my husband a job at his furniture factory. Not long after my husband started there, a large group of police officers confronted my brother and coerced him into firing my husband.
Another brother who intended to have us work at his store was also threatened by the police, who forbade him from hiring either of us.
A few years later, a third younger brother offered us jobs at his wedding photography studio. However, in May 2008, the police came to the studio and arrested us. Two other practitioners, one of whom was also an employee at the studio, were detained at the same time. This incident severely disrupted the studio’s business operations, and consequently, we could no longer work there.
All the relatives willing to help us were subjected to harassment and intimidation, so they lost the courage to take us in or to provide us with jobs, thereby cutting off our means of making a living.
In 2001, officers from the Chengnan Branch of the Hengyang City Police Department detained my daughter—who was 15 at the time—taking her directly from school to the police station. They tried to find me through her because I had left home to avoid persecution. She was held for over 20 hours in a cold room without food or water.
Around this time, my third-younger brother was arrested, repeatedly interrogated, and forced to reveal my whereabouts. They also went to my older sister’s home to search for me, disrupting her family’s peace.
For years, my husband and I were forced to live away from home, with no job or a stable place to stay. The cruelest aspect of this persecution is its extension to practitioners’ families and relatives, forcing our loved ones to suffer and live in fear.
Brother, Harassed After We Left China, Passes Away
Because I refused to renounce my faith, I was placed on an online wanted list. I constantly faced the risk of arrest wherever our family went. We decided to leave China and fled to Malaysia, hoping to find a place where we could live freely and escape persecution.
However, the persecution didn’t cease.
Although we were living in another country, one day, the police suddenly intercepted my brother’s car as he was driving. They covered his head and took him to a police station, where they coerced him into revealing details about our departure and our activities outside China.
Not long after, he was detained for a second time. This time, he was subjected to prolonged torture, with intense lights shone directly into his eyes to prevent him from sleeping. After his release, the police frequently harassed him and extorted money from him, demanding that he pay for their personal expenses, such as foot massages and spa treatments.
Repeated intimidation and torture took a devastating toll on his physical and mental health. He became withdrawn and reticent, afraid to speak about these experiences—he didn’t even tell his wife. When he told me about them, he was really upset, and I sensed that he was feeling tremendous pressure.
Shortly afterward, he passed away. My family members dared not notify me, afraid that they would be targeted. It was more than a month later that I learned of his death from others.
The CCP’s Transnational Repression
Although we were living outside China, my husband and I didn’t escape further persecution.
On May 15, 2011, while my husband was explaining the facts about Falun Dafa to Chinese tourists at Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a large number of Malaysian police officers and plainclothes agents arrived, forcibly took him away, and detained him for six days. When he asked the police for the reason for his detention, he was told it was because he had affected the friendly relationship between Malaysia and the CCP.
Two months later, on July 13, 2011, he was back at Independence Square, sharing facts about Falun Dafa with Chinese tourists. A tour guide didn’t like what he was doing and, unable to stop him, called the police. The police took my husband into custody again, this time detaining him for 14 days. On July 27, the police formally charged him in court, accusing him of assaulting an officer. Despite witness testimony and strong evidence of his innocence, the court sentenced him to one year in prison.
We were aware that this was the result of the CCP’s infiltration and influence around the globe.
Persecution Continues for Almost 30 Years
Twenty-seven years have passed since the persecution began in China, affecting my family members and leading to the repression we experienced in Malaysia. The persecution continues to this day..
I hope that my family’s experiences help more people recognize the CCP’s evil and its growing threat to the world.
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