Belated News: Retired Factory Worker Dies at 75 after Decades of Persecution for Her Faith
(Minghui.org)
Chinese Name: 蔡桂芹English Name: Cai GuiqinGender: FemaleAge: 75City: JiamusiProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: Retired factory workerDate of Death: August 9, 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 19, 2008Most Recent Place of Detention: Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison
A 75-year-old woman in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, passed away on August 9, 2022, after suffering years of persecution for upholding her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that is based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Ms. Cai Guiqin
Ms. Cai, who was retired from the Jiamusi City No. 1 Plastic Factory, used to suffer from a precancerous condition of the stomach. She was emaciated and felt tired all the time. Her stomach problems disappeared and she was able to eat well again after she took up Falun Gong. She also became a better person by following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
After the Chinese Communist Party launched a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Cai became a target because she refused to give up her faith. Officers from the local Jiadong Police Station raided her home numerous times. Terrified, her family covered their windows with blankets and avoided turning on the lights after dusk for fear of attracting police attention. They also didn’t dare to open the door whenever they heard a knock.
Ms. Cai was once held in a detention center for 16 days in the early years of the persecution.
Ms. Cai and several other practitioners went to Songjiang Township in Jiamusi City to distribute Falun Gong informational materials on January 18, 2008. They were reported to the police, and Songjiang Police Station officers soon arrived to seize them. Ms. Cai was given one year of forced labor,but her family used connections to get her released 18 days after she was taken to the Xigemu Forced Labor Camp.
On July 19, 2008, Ms. Cai and five other practitioners (including her two sisters) were arrested at Jiangchuan Farm in Jiamusi City after being reported for hanging up “Falun Dafa Is Good” banners. All six of them were sentenced to prison on December 4, 2008. Ms. Cai was given four years and served time in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison (located in Harbin, the capital of the province), where her two sisters were also held and brutally tortured.
Three Sisters in Same Prison, Their Brother Dies En Route to Visit Them
Ms. Cai was the oldest of five siblings. Her two sisters were also repeatedly persecuted for sharing the same faith in Falun Gong. All three were sentenced to prison following their group arrest on July 19, 2008.
Ms. Cai Guifang, around 73, a retired laboratory technician from Jiamusi Motor Factory, was sentenced to three and a half years, as was Ms. Cai Guirong, around 70, a former nurse at Jiamusi Paper Mill Kindergarten.
The Cai sisters’ younger brother, who had heart disease, was so devastated by their arrests that his condition worsened and he almost died on several occasions. He bought a train ticket in September 2009 to visit his sisters in the prison but died on the way to the train station after suffering a heart attack. At the time of his death, he had the train ticket in one hand and the visitor’s pass to the prison in another. He was 52.
After Ms. Cai Guirong’s arrest, her husband went to another city on September 10, 2008, to visit their son. The bus he was in an accident. He suffered a neck injury that left him paralyzed from the waist up. His son rushed back to take care of him in the hospital. At that time, the younger man’s wife was expecting a baby. Without sufficient care, the newborn died shortly after his birth in November 2008. His great-grandmother (Ms. Cai’s mother-in-law) was grief-stricken by everything that had happened and died just a year later.
While Ms. Cai Guifang was imprisoned, her husband Dong Guoqing filed for divorce. Judge Guo Jingrong and clerk Li Jing with the Xiangyang District Court delivered the divorce papers to her in prison. She objected to the divorce. Due to torture, she suffered dangerously blood pressure and heart problems. Her family managed to have her released a few months early for medical care. Right before she left the prison, the guards handed her a divorce decree, which had been approved without her consent.