The day before Zhang Wanxia’s wedding, her fiancé was taken into police custody and interrogated for hours on end because of his faith.
Suddenly, it became a real possibility to Zhang that this sort of harassment and abuse by the state would become her future. After all, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had just declared a ban on Falun Gong, a popular spiritual practice taken up by millions in China, and the regime was determined to eliminate it.
It would only get worse. Zhang would be one of untold numbers of Falun Gong practitioners who would face torture, forced labor, and brainwashing by Chinese authorities from July 20, 1999, onwards, in a persecution that has been documented for 26 years by human rights organizations and international media….