Zheng Kunchang, male, was born on September 19, 1983 and from Lufeng City in Guangdong Province. He joined The Church of Almighty God in 2008. Prior to his death he worked in motorcycle assembly; he had a son and a daughter and a kind, dutiful wife. Villagers from his hometown saw him as a hardworking, honest young man. In 2014, Zheng Kunchang was arrested by the police of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because of his faith in Almighty God and was then given a three-year sentence. While serving his time he started to suffer from serious intestinal obstructions, but the prison kept his condition a secret, ultimately leading to a deterioration in his condition. He passed away from illness in April 2018 at less than 35 years of age.
On August 22, 2014, plainclothes officers with the Lufeng Nantang Police Station and the National Security Brigade of Lufeng Public Security Bureau arrested Zheng Kunchang and two other Christians at a gathering site in Nantang Town. On September 4, the Lufeng Public Security Bureau put the three of them into criminal detention on suspicious of “using a xie jiao organization to undermine the enforcement of the law” and detained them in the Lufeng Detention Center.
On May 29, 2015 the Guangdong Lufeng People’s Court sentenced Zheng Kunchang to three years on the charge of “using a xie jiao organization to undermine the enforcement of the law,” and on October 26 of the same year they interned him in the Guangdong Sihui Prison to serve out his sentence.
While serving his time, Zheng Kunchang developed severe intestinal obstruction, but the prison authorities concealed his illness from his family. They didn’t notify his family members until late March 2017 that he had been suffering abdominal pain for the past two months and he had not had a bowel movement in two weeks; his condition was serious and on April 11, the hospital was told by the prison authorities to perform an unauthorized colostomy on him. In late April, his family members saw that he was at his last gasp and had become a bag of bones. He could just lie in bed with a look of great pain on his face; he couldn’t talk, but just blink his eyes. His hands were constantly twitching and his legs were atrophied to the point that he couldn’t walk. His family wanted to transfer him to a better hospital for treatment, but the prison authorities refused to handle the procedures for treatment on parole on the grounds that he believed in Almighty God and was a “special prisoner.” He was diagnosed with late stage colon cancer on May 2, and the prison authorities didn’t process his treatment on parole until May 8.
Zheng Kunchang, in critical condition, was taken to a number of hospitals in Guangdong Province by his family in the hopes of getting him treatment. Doctors’ diagnoses stated that he had sigmoid colon cancer with abdominal metastasis, complete intestinal obstruction, as well as water-electrolyte and acid-base balance disorders. Every doctor said that his condition was too serious and he had missed the optimal treatment period, so they refused to accept him. His family had no choice but to take him back home.
Zheng Kunchang’s condition continued to deteriorate. He was barely clinging to life by consuming small amounts of liquid food, he lacked mental clarity, and could not hold a normal conversation.
On April 20, 2018, Zheng Kunchang died before he even turned 35 years old due to multiple organ failure. His wife has also been on the run ever since his arrest by the CCP as they have been in pursuit of her to perform an arrest, so their two kids at home have become orphans. A once-happy family has been torn apart because of the CCP’s persecution.
