Sun Caiyan, a Falun Gong adherent and mother of two, was placed in a detention center after police from the local Nanshan Police Station took her away on May 12, Minghui reported on May 18.
Police also went to her home and confiscated items including IDs and her household registration certificate without showing a warrant or leaving a list of property taken.
The Epoch Times reached out to the police station and the local state security department, also known as the 610 Office, on June 12. Both declined to comment.
Ms. Sun was previously abducted for her belief in 2014, and in 2015 was sentenced to three years and three months’ imprisonment.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient Chinese spiritual practice that teaches the core principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance along with a sitting meditation and four slow-moving standing exercises.
The practice quickly gained popularity in China in the 1990s after it was introduced to the public in 1992. By 1998, more people were practicing Falun Gong than there were members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the U.S.-based Falun Dafa Infocenter. Over 100 million Chinese people were learning the practice, compared to 60 million CCP members at the time.
The CCP’s persecution is ongoing in China.
A friend of Ms. Sun’s, a Falun Gong practitioner from Dalian who is now living in the United States, is calling for international attention to help rescue Ms. Sun and other practitioners suffering from persecution in China.
“We demand that the CCP immediately stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and release all Falun Gong practitioners being held in detention centers and prisons,” said Ms. Yang, herself a torture survivor from China.
Family Persecuted for Over Two Decades
Ms. Sun’s family suffered from persecution for more than 20 years after the CCP, regarding Falun Gong’s popularity as a threat, launched its nationwide persecution of the spiritual practice in 1999.In August 1999, one month after the launch of the persecution, both Ms. Sun and Mr. Guo were detained by local police for doing Falun Gong meditation exercises outdoors with several other Falun Gong adherents.
Mr. Guo was released after his father was forced to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong and promise not to go to Beijing to appeal for the practice. Ms. Sun was detained in a local drug rehabilitation center for two months and released in October.
In February 2001, Mr. Guo was arrested at his workplace and taken to Dalian Labor Camp, where he served a three-year term handed down by police without due process.
At the labor camp, Mr. Guo was subjected to brutal torture, including being stripped naked and beaten with spiked clubs, shocked with multiple electric batons simultaneously, force-fed, and sexually abused. His body was covered with scabies.
By early 2002, he was suffering from edema and had trouble urinating and later difficulty breathing. The guards took him to the hospital, where the doctor found that he had acute glomerulonephritis (inflammation of the tiny filters in the kidneys) and said he could die at any time. The labor camp called his family. When his family arrived at the hospital, the guards went away and left all the medical expenses to be borne by the family.
Mr. Guo was discharged and returned home after 19 days of treatment. But the local police and staff members from the local government and community kept visiting his home, knocking on the door, threatening him, and forcing him to renounce his belief. The couple had to leave their young children and elderly parents behind and go into hiding. They were away for six years, unable to return home until 2008.
The incident further traumatized her elderly father-in-law, who was at home at the time and witnessed the violent arrest and raid. The police then continued their constant harassment of her family, adding to the fear and mental pressure he had already endured for over two decades. He became bedridden and passed away in 2016.
Ms. Sun was sentenced to three years and three months in prison by the Dalian Shahekou Court and served the term at Liaoning Provincial Women’s Prison until her release in 2017.
When Ms. Sun was released in October 2017 after serving the full term, she was barely able to walk upon her release due to the torture suffered in the prison.
Ms. Sun’s father also suffered from tremendous long-term trauma due to the persecution endured by his daughter and son-in-law since 1999. He died in 2019.
Ms. Sun’s husband, Mr. Guo, passed away in June 2021, at the age of 51, as a result of sepsis and failure of all of his internal organs. His body and mind reached their limits after years of persecution, amid worry about his wife, the responsibility of caring for children and elderly parents on his own, and persistent harassment and coercion from the police and government workers.
‘Hope for International Assistance’
Following Ms. Sun’s arrest in May, her friend Ms. Yang is urging the international community to help rescue Ms. Sun, Ms. Sun’s mother, and other Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted in China.“I sincerely hope that the international community, especially conscientious lawmakers and agencies dedicated to human rights and freedom of belief, will advocate for the protection and rescue of Falun Gong practitioners,” said Ms. Yang.
“In mainland China, they still face relentless persecution that threatens their lives at every moment. We hope for international assistance in their plight.”
With the help of fellow Falun Gong adherents and U.S. lawmakers, Ms. Yang fled China in 2011 and has now settled in the United States.
