Chinese judge threatens New York residents to sue husband’s detention

While browsing online, New Yorkers made amazing discoveries. Her husband in China will be tried in a few days, simply refusing to abandon his faith.

45-year-old Ren Haifei is a Falun Gong practitioner in Dalian, a port city in northeastern China. Spiritual practice has been cruelly suppressed by the Communist regime for over 20 years. Millions of supporters have been detained or imprisoned.

Ren will be tried on July 29th.

His wife, Wang Jin, knows what this means. Show trials lead to almost certain heavy decisions. She said it was the same treatment given to most Falun Gong practitioners by the Communist regime.

“I want to save him now,” the former nurse King, who now lives in New York, told The Epoch Times in an interview.

The king wants to save her husband from another long stint in prison. Len previously spent seven and a half years in prison, during which he suffered from various forms of torture.

Ren could never have been in this position again. He was to escape the country with the king in 2018 after enduring decades of persecution and harassment in Beijing.

But when they were about to leave, Ren’s older parents became ill. He chose to stay in China to take care of them.

Fearing surveillance by Chinese authorities, the couple have limited communications to a few short long-distance calls over the past three years.

The king could only learn of Len’s trial by browsing Minghui.org, a US-based website that documented the persecution of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice consisting of meditation practice and a series of moral teachings centered on the principles of truth, compassion, and patience. Official estimates at the time showed a surge in attraction in the 1990s, with up to 100 million people practicing by the end of the decade.

Seeing this as a threat to totalitarian rule, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a thorough persecution campaign against Falun Gong practitioners in July 1999 with the aim of eliminating religious groups.

Ask for help

At a recent town hall meeting, the king turned to Congressman Shaun Maloney (DN.Y.) for help.

“We support human rights, Falun Gong, and others,” Maloney said at a meeting on July 18, promising to send a letter to the US embassy in China calling for Ren’s release.

After calling the Chinese authorities, Wang was recently able to contact Judge Jinhwa, who is handling Ren’s case at the Ganjingzi Court in Dalian.

The king told Jin that his husband was in poor health and asked the judge to release him immediately. She also mentioned a statement by Congressman Maloney.

“Do what you want to do,” Jin replied. “Going back to China, I’ll put you in jail too.”

The judge hung up and the king was unable to contact her again.

Arrested without a warrant

A year ago, police broke into Ren’s apartment, confiscated his savings and personal belongings, and arrested him without a warrant.

While in custody, Len was sent to the emergency room after a brutal beating by police that caused heart and kidney damage. He was hospitalized for 19 days.

Then Len was imprisoned in jail while still in very poor health, where guards continued to give him unknown medicine. He was not allowed to disclose the case to a lawyer until a few months later. Len’s lawyer then gave these details to the king.

Mr. Len has since been detained free of charge by the authorities, Mr. Wang said.

After Len was arrested, Wang called all relevant Chinese authorities in hopes of connecting with her husband. Everything prevented her from reaching him.

Life turned upside down

In the late 90’s, Wang and Len, in their twenties, met occasionally during a morning group meditation session in a local park in Dalian.

“Len was a warm, caring and kind person,” Wang said of her first impression. “He always wanted to help the people around him.”

But in July 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting the group, their morning routine was overturned. Since then, meditating outdoors has meant police arrests and beatings during patrols.

The king, along with thousands of other local practitioners, went to protest two days after the persecution began. They lined up and stood in a large field in front of Dalian City Hall.

“No one was planning a protest,” recalled the king. “We went because each of us felt we had to do something.

“Then the police appeared. The police dragged the practitioners out of our line one by one. Some practitioners lost consciousness and were then taken away. Some were bleeding.” Said the king.

“Many of the police were young people. They just dragged the practitioner and said nothing, just as they were completing their mission.”

The king remembered seeing the plainclothes police filming each practitioner in attendance. A few days later, police began to appear at their doors and workplaces, forcing them to sign a declaration to abandon their faith. Even my family was harassed and intimidated.

Len was arrested at home in 2001 and created a leaflet aimed at countering the administration’s customs and the promotion of hatred to its supporters. He was eventually imprisoned for seven and a half years.

The king lost his job as a nurse. Under pressure from authorities, the hospital where she worked reassigned her to wipe the floor. The king remembered that her previous patient was walking by looking at her with sadness and distrust.

“Pay for blood and tears”

Wang and Len revived their friendship after being released from prison in 2008.

At first, she said, the king couldn’t recognize Ren at all. The energetic young man she remembered is gone. Len often cried when talking about the brutal killings of practitioners around him in prison, she said.

A few years later, the two married and lived together until 2018.

Like others, Len was severely tortured. He wore bindings and handcuffs and was trapped alone in a 3 x 3 foot room for days. He had a hard time finding words that could explain everything he had experienced, even to his wife, the king said.

“My husband remained true to his beliefs and did his best to stand up to life positively,” she said. “But a dark shadow was embedded deep in his heart.”

A few days before Ren’s trial, the king wants a miracle.

“There are groups of good people in China who just want to keep their faith, but they pay the price of blood and tears,” she said.

“The Chinese Communist Party is destroying their lives and the lives of their families. I hope that the kind people of the international community will help and support justice.”