(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Zhang Yumin and his wife, Ms. Wang Shaojun, both from Zhaoqing City, had three children and ran a small business in Duanzhou District.
Before practicing Falun Gong, Mr. Zhang suffered from several diseases, including chronic nephritis, nasosinusitis, and pharyngolaryngitis. Due to the huge medical expenses he had incurred, his family barely made ends meet.
However, after he started practicing Falun Gong and conducting himself according to Dafa's standard of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, his diseases quickly disappeared. When his wife witnessed the miraculous results he achieved -- without taking any medicine -- she too began to practice. As a result, their whole family lived in peace and harmony.
On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong and fabricating lies to deceive the public. However, Ms. Wang insisted that Falun Gong was innocent and that there was nothing wrong with cultivating Truth-Compassion-Forbearance and being a good person. When she went to the Zhaoqing City's Sports Center to do her exercises, police from the Baihuayuan Local Police Station arrested her.
Two days after she was released, personnel from the Political Security Section of Duanzhou District tricked her into going to to the Duanzhou District Detention Center to talk with them. When she arrived, they detained her for fifteen days. During her detention, the guards did not permit her to sleep and forced her to work for long periods of time.
Soon after her release, the police deceived her into coming to talk with them, again. But when they tried to convince her to give up her practice, Ms. Wang firmly refused. As a result, the police took her to the Hubin Local Police Station. They also ransacked the family home, confiscated some Dafa books, and took Mr. Zhang to the police station, saying that he would be held in exchange for his wife, who would be released to take care of the family.
That night, Mr. Zhang was taken to the Duanzhou District Detention Center for fifteen days. When a family member came to pick him up after his scheduled release, the police would not let Mr. Zhang go, even though they had no reason to detain him. Instead, they loaded Mr. Zhang into a police car, drove him around for a while, then took him back to the detention center where they imprisoned him for an additional fifteen days.
In April 2000, when Ms. Wang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, the local police locked her up in a detention center. The guards there instigated inmates to hit her with shoes, pull her hair, and slam her against the wall. Fifteen days later, she was taken back to her hometown where she was further detained at the Chaoyang Drug Rehabilitation Center in Shantou City, for an additional fifteen days.
Because she refused to give up her belief, she was taken to the Chaoyang Detention Center and imprisoned there for twenty days.
During the time that Ms. Wang was imprisoned, the Duanzhou District police went to the Mr. Zhang's home and confiscated his family's property, including his Dafa books. They took Mr. Zhang to the Duanzhou District Detention Center, leaving his 3, 8, and 9-year-old children behind, with nobody to care for them.
One month later, the Duanzhou District Police Department, 610 Office, and the Political and Judiciary Committee sentenced Mr. Zhang to three years in the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp in Guangdong Province.
As a result, his family business was shut down and sold way below market value. In addition, his three children were forced to suspend their schooling and were taken to their grandmother's home in the countryside.
Not only was Mr. Zhang forced to do hard labor at the camp, he was also subjected to around-the-clock compulsory brainwashing, causing him to become seriously ill. Not wanting to take responsibility for his condition, the labor camp released him so he could seek medical treatment. While recovering, Mr. Zhang managed to run a small shop to earn enough money to keep his family going.
Despite his physical condition, the Duanzhou District Police Department and 610 Office tracked, monitored, and harassed him continuously. Mr. Zhang and his wife realized that this ongoing harassment was bound to have an adverse effect on their children's well-being. So they closed their shop and both found jobs.
In December 2006, someone reported Ms. Wang to the police for clarifying the truth about Dafa. As a result, she was imprisoned in the Gaoyao Municipal Detention Center.
Mr. Zhang was already finding it increasingly difficult to take care of himself, let alone take care of his three young children. So he went to the detention center where is wife was being held and strongly requested her release. However, the center refused to release Ms. Wang under any circumstances.
Due to the mental and physical stress Mr. Zhang was under, his condition rapidly deteriorated and he died on February 5, 2007, leaving his wife to care for the three children he left behind.