Zhao Mingzhi’s deserted former home

Fooled by Li Hongzhi’s fallacy of “eliminating karma to cure disease”, Zhao Mingzhi, a peasant in Daigu Town, Mengyin County, Shandong Province, died of minor ailments at only 45 years old.

I used to call Zhao Mingzhi uncle Zhao, who was one of my neighbors in my hometown. When I was young, he run a small grocery store in our village. At that time, he got three children, so besides working in the fields as a peasant, he also had to take care of both the business and all his three children with his wife. He was so busy all the time that he could hardly have his meals on a regular basis. That was the reason why he got stomach disorder later and often suffered from stomachache.

In 1997, in order to cure his stomach trouble, uncle Zhao learned how to practice Falun Gong from his cousin. It was said that uncle Zhao felt his stomachache relieved after practicing it for about three or four months. Uncle Zhao was just an ordinary peasant so that he, like many other Falun Gong practitioners, had no idea that Qigong could have a curative power on diseases, or that Falun Gong confused people by using many common moves recorded in Qigong. Therefore, uncle Zhao had a good impression of Falun Gong and was very grateful to Li Hongzhi, the founder of the Falun Gong cult.

Requested by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong practitioners can neither go to hospital nor have family ties, because of which uncle Zhao started to give the cold shoulder to his three once beloved children, especially to his eldest son who was forced by uncle Zhao to drop out of school even before graduating from junior high school and demanded to practice Falun Gong together. But his eldest son was so unwilling to do so that he left his hometown to work at a young age. As for his other two younger sons, uncle Zhao was totally indifferent to them. At the same time, his small business was getting worse and worse day by day. As a result, the prosperity of his small store was gone, and the laughter in his family was gone as well.

Not only did uncle Zhao refuse to work or take care of the family, but also he shuts himself in his room to sit in meditation and exercise, skipping his meals more often than before. In about two years, his stomach trouble relapsed. His wife asked him to go to hospital, but he turned down her proposal and insisted that the disease he was suffering was the sign that his master was eliminating karma for him. Sometimes, uncle Zhao coughed up blood, which worried his wife, so his wife, with the help of her own younger brother, took him to the hospital regardless his reluctance for medical examinations. It turned out that he was diagnosed with gastric cancer. Fortunately, it was found at the early stage, so the doctor assured that it wasn’t life-threating as long as it was removed in time. But uncle Zhao rejected any further medical treatment because he was so obsessed with Falun Gong and its deceptive idea that his master, Li Hongzhi, would cure him by helping him eliminate karma. So, he insisted on leaving hospital and going home, claiming that he would be totally fine if he kept practicing Falun Gong.

It was in July 1999 that uncle Zhao was taken to hospital as mentioned above. And in the same month, the state banned Falun Gong in accordance with the national law. Officials in both the village and town went to visit uncle Zhao, trying to talk him over to medical treatments instead of practicing Falun Gong so that he wouldn’t be blinded and harmed by lies of Falun Gong. But uncle Zhao was so fascinated by the Falun Gong that he wouldn’t listen to anyone. In the end, uncle Zhao died of gastric cancer at home in March 2000.

Not only did uncle Zhao become a victim of Falun Gong, but also his whole family was tragically broken because of the cult.