A Hard Lesson from the Family Tragedy of a 610 Office Director in Jilin Province

(Minghui.org) According to insider information obtained by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) in early December 2024, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has planned new waves of campaigns to attack Falun Gong outside of China, to be carried out by the CCP special agents and individuals who oppose Falun Gong.

To Falun Gong practitioners who have peacefully resisted the persecution for 25 years, the CCP’s new disinformation campaigns seem to be its last gasp before its ultimate downfall. While it’s a welcome celebratory event should the CCP eventually collapse, I worry about the outcomes for those individuals who closely follow the CCP in implementing the persecution.

I’d like to give an example of the hard lesson of Sun Qinglin, the first 610 Office director in Fengman District, Jilin City, Jilin Province. I will talk about his involvement in the persecution and the tragic fate of his family.

Persecution Cases During Sun’s Tenure as the 610 Office Director

As the first director of the 610 Office in the region, Sun promoted an all-out persecution campaign to target the practitioners.

Brainwashing Centers

Under the direction of 610 Offices in Fengman District and Chuanying District, several brainwashing sessions were held in the suburbs of Jilin City. In September 2009, several practitioners were taken there for mental “transformation.” The practitioners were held in separate rooms and watched by two community workers around the clock.

Arbitrary Detention and Financial Persecution

Ms. Kong Xianfang, then 62, went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in December 2000. She was arrested and escorted back to Jilin. After 76 days of detention, she was transferred to a brainwashing center for 6 days. She was released on April 11, 2001 after being extorted 3,000 yuan by Sun.

Brutal Torture

Mr. Fu Chunsheng was arrested on the evening of December 28, 2001. His home was ransacked and his Falun Gong books and materials confiscated. The police took him to the Jilin City Police Department the next day for interrogation and transferred him to the Jilin City Third Detention Center on December 30. As he remained silent when the police asked him where he got the Falun Gong materials, the officers savagely beat him. He was beaten to death on January 1, 2002, yet the police didn’t break the news of his death to his family until January 3.

According to his family who saw his body, his head was swollen, his ear and face were bruised, his nose and mouth had blood inside, and his chest, abdomen, back and legs were covered with injuries, yet the police claimed that he died from a heart attack.

Prison Sentences

Mr. Chang Shi, a former engineer at the Jilin Telecommunications Bureau, was arrested on August 9, 2012 along with his wife Ms. Zhang Jingdong and daughter Ms. Chang Huiying. Ms. Chang, then 19, was held at the Shahezi Brainwashing Center for over 20 days and subjected to cruel torture. Ms. Zhang fell into serious condition after only ten days at the lockup, yet the police still took her to the labor camp, when she had to wear an oxygen bag. She was released after the guards refused to admit her. Mr. Chang was later sentenced to 3.5 years. He served time at the Jilin Province Prison and was released on December 17, 2015.

Sun’s Family Tragedy

In Chinese culture, the principle of karmic retribution, that is, being held ultimately accountable for one’s own actions, is widely accepted. Just like many other CCP officials who have received karmic retribution for beating and torturing Falun Gong practitioners, Sun not only met his own fate but also brought misfortune upon his family members.

The tragedy first hit Sun’s only son, Sun Yingjie. Shortly after his son got married and found a job as a driver around 2011, he was admitted to the hospital due to some discomfort. He died a week later, before the lab report of his diagnosis came out. He was only 26.

Sun Qinglin was dealt a heavy blow with his son’s death. In fact, before the tragedy took place, some of his relatives had urged him to stop persecuting Falun Gong, or it would bring karma onto himself or his family members. He refused to listen.

A few years later, in November 2013, Sun and his wife, Liu Xianglian, went to Hainan Province for vacation. They were dancing on a public plaza when Sun suddenly fell and died.

Liu practiced Falun Gong before the persecution started. Many of her ailments were improved back then. But fearing the persecution, she gave up the practice and didn’t try to stop her husband from persecuting the practitioners. She suffered a mental collapse and relapse of many of her diseases after the deaths of her son and husband. She remained bedridden for a few years, spent all the money her husband earned from persecuting the practitioners and then passed away.

International Sanctions

While no evildoers can escape being brought to justice by the divine, the law on earth is also holding the perpetrators accountable for the crimes they committed.

After the U.S. passed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in 2016, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Canada, and other countries have also passed their own Magnitsky acts, which aim to impose financial sanctions or travel bans on human rights violators.

In May 2019, Falun Gong practitioners in the U.S. were informed by the Department of State that they are tightening visa vetting and may deny visas to human rights violators and those who persecute religious beliefs. This applies to both immigration visas and non-immigration visas such as tourism and business visas. Visa holders, including those already granted permanent residence (green card), may be denied entry. The same official also urged Falun Gong practitioners to submit a list of perpetrators involved in the persecution of Falun Gong.

On June 25, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, which aims to “avoid any cooperation with the People’s Republic of China in the organ transplantation field while the Chinese Communist Party remains in power” and “take appropriate measures, including using relevant sanctions authorities, to coerce the Chinese Communist Party to end any state-sponsored organ harvesting campaign.”

In addition to the sanctions, several individuals who persecuted Falun Gong in the U.S. have already been arrested and prosecuted.

On November 25, 2024, a CCP agent, Li Ping, was sentenced four years in prison, fined $250,000, and given three years of supervised release. Li has acted as an agent of the Chinese government for many years, providing information about Falun Gong practitioners, Chinese dissidents, and democracy advocates to Chinese intelligence officials.

A month later on December 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of a 64-year-old suspect of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government. Yaoning (Mike) Sun allegedly conspired with Jun (John) Chen to influence a politician in the U.S. on behalf of the Chinese government and carry out operations on U.S. soil in support of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

John Chen was arrested in the U.S. in May 2023 and convicted in federal court on November 19 this year for bribing a public official to revoke the tax-exempt status of a U.S. nonprofit organization run by Falun Gong practitioners. Chen was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

No matter what devious or brutal acts the CCP takes against Falun Gong, the suppression of true faith will never succeed. The true victims of the persecution campaign are the CCP’s followers. For their own safety and future, I urge them to think twice whether to continue participate in the persecution.