Halloween Marks Two Years of U.S. Citizen’s Sister Detention
Mr. Hou Lijun (L) with his late mother, Kang Shuqin, and father.
Karen Kang, a U.S. citizen in California, has not heard from her younger sister in two years. On October 31, 2022, Karen’s sister, Kang Shumei, and nephew, Zhang Gu, were arrested for distributing flyers exposing the CCP’s religious persecution. Since then, they have been denied family visits and were secretly sentenced without notifying their family.
Their current detention location and sentencing length remains unknown.
Kang Shumei and her son were last seen at the Gujiao No. 4 Detention Center and the Yingze District No. 3 Detention Center, respectively, according to Minghui.
Advocacy in America
In September 2023, Karen’s representative, Linda Sánchez, wrote to Secretary Antony Blinken, urging him to contact Shanxi authorities to “release Ms. Kang’s relatives immediately.” Following the letter, Karen Kang joined hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners at the APEC meetings in San Francisco to call for the release of imprisoned adherents in China.
This July, Piero Tozzi from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, spoke at a Capitol Hill rally against the CCP’s 25-year persecution of Falun Gong, highlighting Karen Kang’s nephew and calling for his release.
Grief-fueled Advocacy
The eldest Kang sister, Shuqin, died in 2020 after enduring 11 years of imprisonment and torture. Her death was devastating for the Kang family, who have since made it their mission to advocate for other families and work to end the persecution in her honor.
However, their grassroots advocacy was abruptly halted in 2022, when Taiyuan police arrested Shumei and her son. On April 25, 2023, even the late Shuqin’s son was arrested. Hou Lijun, a former security guard at a branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, was sentenced without trial to ten years, and his appeal was denied.
With each passing day and each new update, Karen’s pain deepens. This year, Taiyuan’s 109 Hospital twice issued a “critical illness notice” for her nephew Hou, reporting severe arrhythmia, severe anemia, and edema in both lower limbs.
She can’t tell which is worse: bad news or no news at all. There are still no updates on her sister’s health.
Also reported by The Epoch Times and Minghui.
