Fox World reports: EXCLUSIVE: Wang Chunyan held a photograph toward the camera, her hands trembling slightly as she pointed to each of the 21 smiling faces: a husband and wife, a university lecturer, a young engineer, friends she met in prison.Some died in detention, she said. Others after years of abuse. Others disappeared into China’s vast security system and never returned the same.
"More than 25 of my friends have died in this persecution. I only have photos of 21 of them," Chunyan said, her voice breaking.For more than two decades, the 70-year-old Falun Gong practitioner said, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) systematically dismantled her life, stripping away the business she had built, the home she once shared with her family and, eventually, seven years of her life in prison.But the hardest thing for her, is that she believes it took her husband too. "My beloved husband died due to the persecution," Chunyan claimed during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.REPORT DETAILS RISING PRESSURE ON UNDERGROUND CATHOLICS AS CHINA DENIES CRACKDOWNHer account comes as President Donald Trump prepares to travel to China next week for meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with trade, security and regional tensions expected to dominate the agenda.
Background
Yet behind the geopolitical rivalry lies another conflict: Beijing’s decades-long campaign against religious and spiritual groups the Communist Party views as threats to its authority.Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback believes Wang’s story reflects a much broader struggle unfolding inside China. "Either the world changes China or China will change the world," Brownback told Fox News Digital.Brownback recently chronicled Chunyan’s story and the experiences of other survivors in his book China’s War on Faith, arguing that personal testimony can often reveal the reality of persecution more powerfully than statistics alone.
Key facts
- Others disappeared into China’s vast security system and never returned the same.
- "More than 25 of my friends have died in this persecution.
- Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback believes Wang’s story reflects a much broader struggle unfolding inside China.
- He argues the Chinese Communist Party views independent faith communities as a direct threat to its authority."They fear religious freedom more than anything else.
What this means
"Stories are more powerful than data," he said.The book examines what Brownback describes as an increasingly sophisticated system of surveillance and repression targeting Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners. He argues the Chinese Communist Party views independent faith communities as a direct threat to its authority."They fear religious freedom more than anything else. More than our aircraft carriers, more than our nuclear weapons, more than anything else because they think it is the biggest threat to the regime."CRUZ LEADS SENATE PUSH TO HOLD CHINA ACCOUNTABLE FOR BEIJING CHURCH CRACKDOWNChunyan story started in the late 1990s, when she suffered from severe insomnia, sometimes sleeping only two or three hours a night.
Then her older sister introduced her to Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice ,she says, is centered on meditation exercises and teachings rooted in "truthfulness, compassion and tolerance."The movement spread rapidly across China during the 1990s, attracting tens of millions of followers before Beijing banned it in 1999, portraying it as a threat to Communist Party control.Chunyan says Falun Gong helped improve her "physical condition." She said, "My business was booming. My life was perfect."Chunyan became convinced the practice had saved her life. She owned a successful company selling chemical production equipment and had become wealthy by Chinese standards, but after the crackdown began she felt compelled to publicly defend Falun Gong against what she believed were government lies.She bought a printing press and began distributing leaflets.
Originally reported by Fox World. This story has been edited and re-presented by BRIC Team.
