(Clearwisdom.net) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persecuted Falun Gong practitioners for seven years. Many families have been broken up and cannot reunite with loved ones at the Mid-Autumn Festival, as is customary. Following is the story of one of these families.

Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Cao Dong and his wife, Ms. Yang Xiaojing

It was recently heard from the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp that Ms. Yang Xiaojing has finally been released. Ms. Yang is the wife of Mr. Cao Dong, who met with European Union Vice President The Honorable Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott. After two-and-a-half years of incarceration, Ms. Yang was to be reunited with her husband. Unfortunately, however, Beijing National Security Bureau agents secretly and unconstitutionally arrested Mr. Cao Dong after he met with Mr. McMillan-Scott.

Following their marriage, Mr. Cao and Ms. Yang lived together for a mere few weeks. Mr. Cao Dong was arrested eight days after their wedding, on the evening of November 20, 2000. He has been held at many different detention centers in Beijing, including seven different locations for death row inmates and felons. A court in Beijing illegally tried him in March 2001 and sentenced him to four-and-a-half years in prison. Mr. Cao was sent to a prison in his hometown province of Gansu, where he was savagely tortured and almost died.

Ms. Yang Xiaojing was arrested on May 20, 2001, when she arrived home from work. Local officer Wu Liya from the Jianguomen Police Station carried out the arrest. Wu Liya took Ms. Yang to a "Legal Training Center," which is, in fact, a brainwashing center organized by the Dongcheng District CCP Committee, because she refused to give up her belief in Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. Ms. Yang refused to cooperate with the officials. The police sent her to the Dongcheng District Detention Center four days later and held her there for a month. They sentenced her to 18 months of forced labor. She was savagely tortured at the Tuanhe Forced Labor Dispatch Division in Beijing and also at the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

Chaoyang District Police Department officials arrested her again in April 2004 and sentenced her to two-and-a-half years of forced labor. She was again sent to the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp where "no measure is too excessive" in dealing with Falun Gong practitioners. The labor camp policies state that all practitioners held at the camp must be individually "reformed." The practitioners’ families and supervisors from work are also compelled to pressure the practitioners.

Physical tortures include sleep deprivation and sitting on small stools and tiny kids' plastic chairs for extended periods of time. Sitting on this small stools causes invisible muscle injuries to the lower back, pelvis, spine, and neck. The labor camp authorities also lock individual practitioners in small dark rooms and force them to sit on a small stool while the guards pour cold water on them. They never give the practitioners enough food. The guards order the other inmates to beat and verbally abuse the practitioners and force them to do slave labor for long periods of time. They also make the practitioners watch slanderous videos and read books that attack Dafa, after which they are forced to write their "understanding" of the libelous materials. They repeatedly brainwash the practitioners. The guards also restrict practitioners' toilet privileges so that practitioners end up soiling themselves. They refuse to provide the practitioners any hygiene products during their menses. Ms. Yang Xiaojing and many other practitioners endured this inhumane detention and abuse on a daily basis.

When Mr. Cao Dong returned home after four-and-a-half years of mistreatment, his wife was no longer home. His wife's parents were struggling to live with their daughter’s absence. Mr. Cao Dong comforted the couple and visited his wife at the labor camp while he looked for a job. Mr. Cao and his wife could only meet once a month.

Mr. Cao is a French translator, and Ms. Yang is a computer engineer. They should be living a happy life together, but the CCP persecutes them, along with many other Falun Gong practitioners, because of its enmity toward Truth-Compassion-Tolerance.

Mr. Cao Dong and his wife persevered in their belief in the Fa of the universe and they resisted the evil with righteous belief amid the evil persecution.

Mr. Cao Dong, Mr. Niu Jinping, and Mr. Niu’s two-year-old daughter met with Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, the Vice President of the European Union, on May 21 to expose the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and their families, including arrests, detentions, torture, murder, and the harvesting of organs from living practitioners. The CCP retaliated against Mr. Cao Dong by secretly arresting him. His current whereabouts are still unknown.

Mr. Niu Jinping and his young daughter have received constant threats. Agents from the 610 Office, as well as individuals from the street committee and the police, monitor them. Mr. Niu’s wife, Ms. Zhang Lianying, is still being tortured at the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Yang Xiaojing has finally returned home, but she is still separated from her husband.

Many other Falun Gong practitioners and their families have suffered tribulations similar to Ms. Yang Xiaojing and her husband. The persecution of Falun Gong is a terrible disaster for mankind.