An infant was forcibly separated from her mother when she was only 10 months old because the communist police arrested her parents on July 20, 1999, when the Chinese communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong.
Her mother, Liu Xinying, was a nurse at Dalian Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital; her father, Qu Hui, was a tally clerk at Dalian Seaport.
The child’s memory of her father was that he was always lying in bed. She used to ask her mother why other kids’ fathers were all standing tall but hers wasn’t.
The child’s father was paralyzed due to police brutality on March 20, 2000. He was bed-bound for 13 years until he passed away in 2014.
The persecution claimed both her parents’ lives one after another. The child lost her mother on April 22.
Since former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Jiang Zemin launched the persecution campaign against Falun Gong in 1999, numerous families have been torn apart, leaving too many orphans and children wondering what happened to their parents and family members.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind and body spiritual practice that follows the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
Letter From Mother
The child’s mother once wrote to her from jail. She said that she had always wanted to give a positive answer to the question regarding why her father was always lying in bed. “But that would only happen when justice is served, because I don’t want to taint your pure and young heart with the darkness in society,” Liu wrote.Qu was imprisoned in Dalian Labor Camp after he was abducted by the police in 1999.
On the morning of March 20, 2000, he was left with cervical spine fractures, high paraplegia, and genital ulceration after nearly 12 hours of torture by police because he refused to sign an agreement to renounce Falun Gong.
The hospital announced he was “dying” and he was removed from the labor camp.
Liu, also imprisoned in the labor camp, was released on bail.
Seeing her dying husband, she knew only the practice of Falun Gong would bring her peace of mind, and bring him hope of divine power.
Gradually, he was able to breathe without a ventilator and urinate on his own.
To take care of her paralyzed husband and raise the child, Liu relied on relatives for financial support.
She told her child: “People’s help, sympathy, and understanding for us are their promotion and support of kindness and morality.”
In June 2004, Liu began her journey of filing a complaint, despite everyone worrying about her safety. She firmly believed that having faith and being a good person is not a crime. She wrote that it is unacceptable to allow the police to break the law and cause permanent injury to anyone. She visited the authorities at all levels with the photo of her disabled husband, the complaint, and Qu’s oral statement exposing his brutal persecution in the labor camp.
Qu passed away with his eyes wide open on Feb. 19, 2014, after 13 years of suffering.
For years, he was in bed in a 13-square-meter room; along with the monotonous and lonely life was the excruciating pain that put him in a state of madness. Liu was by his side day and night.
When he passed away, Liu held his hands and burst into tears. The child comforted her, “Mom, please don’t cry. You have done all you can to help papa.”
Endless Abductions
On Feb. 19, 2004, Liu was abducted and no one came to pick up her child from kindergarten. Her disabled husband was left at home without anyone caring for him, with no food or water, and his bed was wet with urine.Liu was detained by a labor camp until late that night. The camp demanded she file a release form at the camp that day, but when some visitors of the camp asked her if Falun Gong is good, she answered “yes.” The camp staff kept her there for the whole day.
On July 6, 2012, the child went home only to find the home was a mess and her mom was nowhere to be found. Through the night, the then-13-year-old child cried and her father screamed in despair.
That day, Dalian police captured more than 70 Falun Gong practitioners and raided their homes, including Liu, over a special action targeting local Falun Gong practitioners who installed a satellite dish for receiving signals from the New York-based NTD, the sister media of The Epoch Times, a case known as the “Dalian SD Case.”
Liu was only released 24 hours later after her elderly father went about to look for her and told the relevant staff that her handicapped husband needed her care.
On June 21, 2013, the child went home realizing her mother was missing again. Already a junior high student, the child called a cab and went straight to the local police station to bring her mother home at 10:30 p.m.
Earlier that day, Liu helped to drive around 12 lawyers participating in defending 13 practitioners implicated in the Dalian SD case. At the police station, she was warned not to drive around the lawyers. But the next day, she gave all of them a ride.
Less than a month after Qu passed away, local authorities went to arrest Liu.
In the early morning of March 21, 2014, local police waited around her apartment and arrested her on her way out. But a local detention center refused to take her because of her poor health.
On Sept. 23, 2014, the then 15-year-old child once again came home finding the home was in a mess, with the computer and Falun Gong books missing. She knew her mom was arrested again. In tears, she called around and found out she was detained at the Dalian 210 Hospital.
That morning, local community staff called Liu with an excuse about a job opportunity, but instead, she was arrested. The detention center once again rejected her due to her health. Liu was transferred and detained again at Dalian 210 Hospital.
On Sept. 29, a local court sentenced Liu to five and a half years of imprisonment and rejected the attendance of her child and grandfather at the hearing.
Persistent Courage
The child received a letter from her mother dated on Sept. 20, 2015.In the letter, Liu described how she endured hardships in life due to her faith. She felt the responsibility to carry on with the hope that “there’ll be no more tragedies, those who hurt her would not commit more sins.” She confirmed that her survival would safeguard her own daughter from becoming an orphan, her own father from losing a daughter, and her friends from losing a friend, and that’s the reason why she “sustained strong and came through.”
“After this separation,” Liu believed both she and her daughter will “shine the purest brilliance with the rebirth of life like a phoenix rises from flame.”
When the child saw her mother it was more than half a year later. She arrived at Liaoning Women’s Prison with her 70-year-old grandfather.
Liu looked haggard, dark, and skinny, and her blood pressure was 240. The three of them burst into tears. She wanted her father to take good care of himself, and her daughter to study hard, keep up high morale, and be a good person.
The time went by fast—the police told them they had only 30 minutes, and the meeting would get terminated right away if they talked about Falun Gong.
The grandfather talked to the police, and asked them to release her because her blood pressure was too high. But the police said, “What’s the big deal about it? We have people with blood pressure as high as 280.”
The clothes they brought with them were rejected, and the money they wanted to put into her account was also rejected. They were told she did not have an account.
At the end of March 2020, Liu was released.
The child was already working out of town. Every time Liu visited her, some strangers were always following from behind.
At around 6 p.m. on April 22, Liu passed away.
