Practitioner Jin Chengquan Dies after Being Forced into Homelessness to Avoid Persecution in Changchun City, Jilin Province

On May 9th, 2007, the police arrested many practitioners during a conference at Changchun City's No. 2 Road in Yatai Garden District. After that, officers from the Changchun City Police Department and 610 Office¹ searched and arrested practitioners according to the list they obtained at the conference. In order to avoid persecution, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Jin Chengquan and his wife Ms. Li Jin were forced to leave their home. On January 14th, 2008, Mr. Jin Chengquan had a heart attack and passed away at the age of 56.

Mr. Jin Chengquan and his family started to practise Falun Gong in May 1997, and he started a learning site at his home. Before he practised Falun Gong, he had suffered a stroke. After he started practising, all his symptoms disappeared and he became a healthy man. But after Jiang Zemin [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, his family, like tens of thousands of other families, could barely be together and couldn't have a peaceful day again.

In September 1999, the couple were detained at the Balibao Detention Centre in Changchun. They were released because they formed a group of hunger strikers to protest the persecution. That October, his wife, Ms. Li Jin, was arrested on the charge of "persuading people to form a hunger strike" and she was put into Changchun City's Tiebe Detention Centre. In February 2000, the couple was arrested while practising with other practitioners in their neighbourhood and were jailed in the Rongguang Road Police Station in Erdao District, Changchun City. She was then sentenced to one year of forced labour. In January 2001, officer Zhang Yacai from the Rongguang Road Police Station deceived Mr. Jin Chengquan into going to the police station by telling him to get his ID there; he was subsequently arrested and sent to the Xinglongshan Brainwashing Centre.

In April 2004, Ms. Li Jin was arrested while on her way to a site producing Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution by two surveillance police officers. She was then persecuted at one of the city police departments. Her arm was injured, and she was sentenced to two years of forced labour. Police often ransacked their home, forcing them to open the front door by cutting off the electricity or through surveillance, as well. They couldn't maintain a normal family life, and the city police department even gave them troubles when their son was looking for a job.

On the morning of May 22nd, 2007, practitioner Mr. Xia Baohua, Mr. Jin Chengquan's neighbour, was arrested by surveillance police officer Zhang Jinlai from the Changchun No. 2 Road Borough Rongguang Road Police Station. They sneaked into his home after his wife opened the door to buy some breakfast and took him away.

Later on, the police used the same surveillance strategy to wait at the building where Mr. Jin Chengquan's family lives. At around 8 a.m., the family was ready to leave. When Ms. Li Jin opened the door, the police officers immediately held the door open and some other police officers rushed in from both upstairs and downstairs, trying to force their way into his home. Ms. Li rushed to their balcony edge on the fourth floor, opened the window, and screamed, "Police officers are trying to take us away! Police officers are trying to take us away!"

Ms. Li looked at them and said, "My family practises Falun Gong, and we are good people who follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. What's wrong with that? It's been eight years and you never let my family live a single peaceful day. If you dare to force your way into my home again, I will jump from here. All the neighbours are watching you guys, so if I die, they'll know I died because of you." One police officer quickly said, "We won't come in." Mr. Jin Chengquan seized this chance to shut the door. While the police tried to disperse the crowd, one police officer told her, "I am the head officer of Erdao District Police Department. Please get down immediately. I promise you, I won't arrest you and your family." The police who were in charge started to realize that the situation had got out of hand and difficult to handle, so they left, leaving a few plain-clothes police officers there at around 11 a.m.

Mr. Jin Chengquan and his family left their home that night, and they became homeless to avoid persecution. To this day, the police are hiring people to hang around their home to see if they return.

After May 2007, life became extremely difficult after they became homeless. They had nowhere to go and lived in fear every day. Because of that, Mr. Jin Chengquan relapsed into illness. In November 2007, he became paralysed from the neck down, but he recovered a little after that. Unfortunately, Mr. Jin Chengquan had a heart attack on January 14th, 2008, and he passed away at the age of 56.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/4/22/176978.html