After a Decade of Displacement, Sichuan Man Arrested and Held Incommunicado

(Minghui.org) A Falun Gong practitioner who had been living away from home for over ten years to avoid persecution was arrested at the home of another practitioner who provided shelter to him. It’s not clear where Mr. Yang Kai is being detained right now.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

In the past decade, Mr. Yang, around 50, has been living in the home of Mr. Chen Xianju, a single father with a son, in Guanghan City, Sichuan Province. 

At 3 p.m. on April 7, 2021, officers from the Xiangyang Town Police Station broke into Mr. Chen’s home and arrested Mr. Yang. They claimed that Mr. Yang was recorded talking to people about Falun Gong at a market. They left without raiding Mr. Chen’s home.

Hours later, led by a village official, another group of officers found Mr. Chen at the factory where he worked and brought him home. Without showing a search warrant, the police forced Mr. Chen to open the door and confiscated over 100 Falun Gong books, Mr. Yang’s and Mr. Chen’s son’s computers, a tablet that Mr. Yang was fixing for a friend, several printers, some cash and other items. As the police didn’t provide a list of confiscated items, Mr. Chen said he didn’t know how many items were confiscated exactly.

Both Mr. Yang and Mr. Chen were first taken to the Hexing Detention Center and then transferred to the Mianzhu City Detention Center the next afternoon.

When both men were released on the afternoon of April 14, they were arrested again by several officers waiting outside of the detention center. The officers handcuffed them and put black hoods on their heads. Then the officers brought them to an undisclosed location, where the two practitioners went through an extensive physical examination that evening and the next day, still with their heads covered. 

Knowing that the Chinese communist regime has been harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, Mr. Chen became suspicious of the health examination. He pulled off the hood and shouted at the police, “Are you engaging in the organ harvesting crime?” The police held his arms and finished the physical examination. 

Both practitioners were then taken to the Mengyang Police Station. After the result of the examination came out on April 16, they were transferred to the Lichun Detention Center in Pengzhou City, about 30 miles from Guanghan.

After three weeks of detention, Mr. Chen was released on the afternoon of May 7. Officers from the Mengyang Police Station first took him to the Xiangyang Town Police Station, which then sent officers to bring him home.

The police brought Mr. Yang back to Mr. Chen’s home a few days later for him to identify items related to the case. Mr. Chen urged Mr. Yang to call for help from his brother working in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Mr. Yang said that his brother was intimidated by the authorities and dared not to get involved.

The police then took Mr. Yang to the home of another practitioner, Mr. Chen Zongguo, 69, in Guanghan and ordered Mr. Chen Zongguo to admit that the printers he had at home all belonged to Mr. Yang.

Mr. Chen Xianju said he couldn’t get in touch with Mr. Yang’s family, which has prevented him from hiring a lawyer for Mr. Yang. One officer revealed that they were planning to take Mr. Yang to the Xinjin District in Chengdu, where the notorious Xinjin Brainwashing Center is located. But Mr. Chen said it’s difficult for him to verify whether Mr. Yang is indeed detained there.