From Engineer to Prisoner: Family Torn Apart for Upholding Their Faith

Chunxia Liu (Courtesy of Liu Li)

Former engineer Liu Chunxia practiced her faith for 26 years in China.

Yet since 2001, she has been in and out of jail, illegally detailed for her spiritual beliefs, while also losing her job, family, and freedom.

Chunxia was an adherent of the meditation practice Falun Dafa, which combines meditation and moral teachings to cultivate the mind and body.

“She was also known for her dedication as an engineer at Huibang Company of Hui'an Group in Shaanxi Province,” said her sister Liu Li,  an Australian citizen, in an interview with The Epoch Times.

“My mother turned to Falun Dafa due to her poor health and experienced significant improvements. Inspired by its teachings on truthfulness and compassion, my sisters and I also began practicing.

“In our professional and personal lives, we strive to treat others with kindness and integrity, which has naturally brought us a lot of happiness.”

However, Chunxia’s faith was met with severe oppression from the Chinese communist state.

She was illegally dismissed from her job and placed in a brainwashing centre. When she refused to wear a prison uniform, guards stripped her naked and forced her to stand outside in the harsh winter of Shaanxi.

She eventually escaped and lived as a homeless person to avoid capture.

Chunxia was arrested again and sentenced to five years in prison in 2001, followed by another four years in 2018. After being released in 2021, she was arrested once more last year.

Now 56 years old, “almost all the best years of her life were spent in prison,” her sister said.

Liu Li, whose family members in China were arrested for their spiritual beliefs, speaks at a rally held by Falun Gong practitioners in Canberra, Australia, on March 27, 2024. (The Epoch Times)

Falun Dafa, or Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline rooted in China’s ancient traditions. During the 1990s, it quickly gained widespread popularity in China due to its significant health benefits.

However, in 1999, then-Party leader Jiang Zemin perceived its rising popularity as a threat to his authority and the atheist ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. He ordered the faith to be suppressed on July 20, 1999, leading to a large-scale persecution.

The communist regime launched a vast propaganda campaign to discredit Falun Gong and pressured international institutions, media outlets, and governments to align with its stance.

Practitioners, noted for their excellent health and clean lifestyles, also became targets for forced organ harvesting—a state-sanctioned practice involving the mass killing of detainees to sell their organs.

Senator Speaks Out at 25th Anniversary Event

Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge also said there is “appalling evidence” of Falun Gong practitioners being executed and then having their organs removed by the “illegal medical regime in China.”

“It is time to reflect on just what a brutal two-and-a-half decades practitioners have had,” he said at a rally in Sydney commemorating the 25th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Dafa.

“And it is time to reflect on whether or not our government has done enough to strengthen our laws to ensure that nobody comes from China or any other regime, and engages in unethical organ harvesting.”

He said that one of the first things our government could do is be honest and frank about it in its exchanges with China and its public statements.

“Has our government done enough to make it clear in our bilateral exchanges with China?” he asked.

‘Good Always Prevails’

Sophie York. (Li Rui/The Epoch Times)

Sydney barrister, lecturer, and author, Sophie York, warned that “What the world ignores today, for commercial or political reasons, or for diplomatic convenience of any nature, will haunt the world tomorrow.”

“Governments are meant to protect the basic human rights of its citizenry,” Ms. York emphasised.

“This is the most important role of all governments. This role is the basis for the social contract—and the legitimacy of government. Whenever a government fails to protect its people from harm, it is a failure by that government.”

To the people of China, she conveyed a message of hope: “Please never give up! Good will prevail. Throughout history, it always does!”

Paul Folley at the commemoration of the 25th year of persecution of Falun Dafa in Martin. Place, Sydney, Australia, on July 18, 2024. (Tom Han/NTD)

Paul Folley, general manager of the Australian TFP (Tradition Family Property), a Christian non-profit organisation, also offered some words of comfort to those who the Communist regime has persecuted.

“I want to say to all of you who have family and friends still in China, that Australia is with you,” he said.

“This communist government is a giant with feet of clay, meaning that it’s a false giant.

“A time will come when China will be free again.”