Reported in November 2024: 17 Falun Gong Practitioners Die as a Result of Persecution
(Minghui.org) Seventeen cases of Falun Gong practitioners who lost their lives to the persecution of their faith were reported in November 2024.
The 17 newly-reported deaths included one that took place in 2010, two in 2023, twelve between March and November 2024, and two cases with unknown dates of death. Due to strict information censorship, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners can’t always be reported on time, nor is all information readily available.
The deceased eleven women and six men came from eight provinces and one centrally-controlled municipality. Liaoning registered the most cases of six, followed by three and two cases in Jilin and Heilongjiang, respectively. The remaining six regions, including Anhui, Hebei, Hubei, Shandong, Shanghai and Sichuan, each had one case.
Except for three practitioners whose ages at the time of their deaths weren’t known, the other fourteen practitioners were between 54 and 78 years old when they died, including one in her 50s, six in their 60s, and seven in their 70s.
Two practitioners, both 66, died while still serving time in prison. A 78-year-old man died seven months after being released in critical condition. A 73-year-old woman died amidst attempts to put her in jail to serve a three-year term.
As the persecution of Falun Gong entered its 25th year in 2024, some practitioners had endured over two decades of constant harassment and terror. The tremendous mental pressure has taken a toll on the health of many, and eventually claimed the lives of some practitioners.
Below are details of select death cases. The full list of the deceased practitioners can be downloaded here (PDF).
Death in Custody
66-Year-Old Man Dies While Serving 11 Years for Suing Former Communist Regime Dictator
Mr. Yan Xuguang, of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, died on October 16, 2024, while serving an 11-year term for suing Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. He was 66 years old.
Back in May 2015, the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Supreme People’s Court announced that they would accept all cases filed with them. This triggered a tidal wave of criminal lawsuits from Falun Gong practitioners around the world against Jiang Zemin’s instrumental role in initiating the persecution.
A task force was established in Chaoyang City to prosecute Falun Gong practitioners who sued Jiang. Over 300 practitioners were arrested in Chaoyang on November 9, 2015. Mr. Yan was seized by the police while riding a motorcycle on the street. The police located him by tracking his cell phone.
Li Chao, director of the Chaoyang Municipal Public Security Bureau, ordered the local procuratorates and courts to expedite the prosecution process of the practitioners. Mr. Yan, who was a volunteer coordinator of local practitioners, was deemed a key target. Because of his previous involvement in exposing the persecution policy of “beating practitioners without talking about it,” issued by Wang Mingyu, the former Party secretary of Chaoyang Municipal Committee, Li set up surveillance of Mr. Yan’s cellphone not long after he took office in May 2013.
At the Chaoyang City Detention Center, Mr. Yan contracted an infectious disease. Despite his serious condition, the police refused to release him, and transferred him to the Liaoning Provincial Detention Center Medical Division. They strictly controlled information regarding Mr. Yan’s medical condition and his whereabouts. When his family managed to find out about his situation and questioned the police about it, the police didn’t answer them directly, but asked how they knew about the information.
Mr. Yan, while being held at the Liaoning Provincial Detention Center Medical Division
The Shuangta District Court held a hearing of Mr. Yan’s case on August 19, 2016. His lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for him. Although prosecutor Bao Lei of the Shuangta District Procuratorate failed to present any evidence to show how Mr. Yan had violated the law, the presiding judge Zhang Xiaohua still sentenced him to 11 years in prison. He was later transferred to the division for the elderly and infirm in the Shenyang First Prison.
When Mr. Yan’s family visited him in October 2023, he was still in good spirits. They didn’t visit him for a year after that. (It’s not clear whether they were unable to visit him themselves, or the prison denied his family visit.) On October 12, 2024, they suddenly received a call from the prison, saying that Mr. Yan was in critical condition. When they rushed to the Shenyang Tenth Hospital, he was already unconscious.
The prison approved Mr. Yan’s medical parole two days later. He was taken back to Chaoyang City in an ambulance and admitted to the Chaoyang Tuberculosis Hospital. He passed away two days later on October 16. Because his mother is in her 90s, his family hasn’t broken the news of his death to her, fearing that she might have difficulty coping.
Death Shortly After Prison Release
78-Year-Old Man Released from Prison in Critical Condition, Dies Seven Months Later
Mr. Wang Zhongsheng, a former senior lecturer in Xinbin County, Liaoning Province, fell into critical condition while serving a four-year term for practicing Falun Gong. He was released six months ahead of time, on April 30, 2024, only to die seven months later on November 16. He was 78 years old.
Mr. Wang was arrested and had his home ransacked on November 1, 2020. He was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 4,000 yuan on April 26, 2021.
After Mr. Wang was taken to the third division of Dongling Prison, he was forced to sit on a small stool for long hours without moving, causing his buttocks to develop sores and a severe infection. As Mr. Wang’s condition continued to deteriorate, he was taken to the prison hospital for treatment. The prison released him on April 30, 2024, six months before his scheduled release date.
Due to the mental pressure from the persecution, Mr. Wang struggled to recover upon returning home. He took a fall in October 2024 and broke his femur (thigh bone). He died weeks later on November 16.
His wife, Ms. Wang Guilan, was also repeatedly targeted for practicing Falun Gong. She died as a result of the persecution in December 2019.
Deaths After Two Decades of Persecution
77-Year-Old Woman Dies After Enduring Nine Years of Wrongful Jail Time and Pension Suspension
After Ms. Li Shuzhen barely survived a nine-year hellish prison term for her faith in Falun Gong, the Shenyang City, Liaoning Province resident continued to face non-stop police harassment. She was dealt another blow when the local social security bureau suspended her pension in 2020, a year after her husband’s cancer diagnosis. She became bedridden following her husband’s death in 2022, and passed away two years later on October 13, 2024. She was 77 years old.
Ms. Li Shuzhen
Ms. Li, who used to work for the Shenyang Fertilizer Plant, took an early retirement in 1996 at the age of 49 due to her poor health, including conditions with her heart, liver, stomach, and duodenum. A few months after her retirement, she began practicing Falun Gong, and soon regained her health.
After the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in 1999, Ms. Li was repeatedly arrested and detained for not giving up her faith.
Ms. Li was sentenced to a nine-year prison term on May 27, 2004. While serving time at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison, she was tortured, deprived of sleep, and forced to work more than ten hours a day without pay. She became so weak that she couldn’t walk on her own and needed support from others.
When she was finally released on January 16, 2013, she still couldn’t live a normal life, as the police and community workers kept harassing her at home.
Ms. Li’s husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2019. He had surgery and remained bedridden. With only 2,500 yuan (346 USD) monthly income to cover his medical costs and their living cost, she was dealt a heavy blow when the local social security bureau suspended her pension in August 2020, claiming that according to a new policy, she shouldn’t have been issued pension payments during her nine-year prison term, and the suspension of future benefits was to claw back the funds. She contacted several government agencies to seek justice, but to no avail.
Ms. Li was arrested again in late 2021, after she was reported for distributing Falun Gong materials. While the arresting officers from the Shaling Police Station released her on bail soon afterwards, they kept harassing her, and submitted her case to the local procuratorate six months later. They also deceived her into signing multiple documents about her case, claiming that this was the only way for the prosecutor to dismiss her case.
For the next few months, the local police and community workers continued to harass Ms. Li, including forcing her to remove the satellite dish she used to receive uncensored TV programs from overseas media. She also found herself being followed when she went out. By then, she had already been struggling with failing health and had difficulty walking.
Her husband’s death in 2022 was the last straw. She subsequently suffered from severe medical conditions and became bedridden. She passed away two years later on October 13, 2024.
Harassed and Bank Account Frozen, Shandong Woman Dies Two Years After Serving a Wrongful Prison Term
Ms. Wang Range lived in fear while facing constant police harassment after serving a three-month term for her faith in Falun Gong. She developed severe medical conditions in late 2023, and died on October 5, 2024. She was 78 years old.
Ms. Wang, a retired employee of the Tai’an City Railway 14th Bureau in Shandong Province, was waiting for a bus after grocery shopping on the morning of December 18, 2020, when two police cars stopped in front of her. Several officers dragged her into the car and took her to the police station.
The police spent three hours interrogating Ms. Wang before taking her home at around noon. They raided her place without producing the proper documents. Her personal shopping cart and 60 desktop calendars bearing information about Falun Gong were confiscated.
After this incident, the police harassed Ms. Wang and her children’s families multiple times, both in person or over the phone. Her family members were under tremendous pressure, unable to eat or sleep well.
Two plainclothes officers searched Ms. Wang’s home again on October 25, 2021, without showing their IDs.
The Feicheng City Procuratorate indicted Ms. Wang in early December 2021 and moved her case to the Feicheng City Court. She stood trial on December 10, 2021, and was sentenced to three months. She was first detained at a facility in Xintai City, which is under the jurisdiction of Tai’an, and then transferred to a detention center in Tai’an.
She was ordered by the court to pay a 1,000 yuan fine shortly before her release on March 9, 2022. The court also froze 100,000 yuan from her bank account as a guarantee bond. The judge claimed that if she was found distributing Falun Gong materials or talking to people about Falun Gong again in the next five years, the 100,000 yuan would be forfeited. But if she “behaved,” they would unfreeze the money after five years.
Ms. Wang was continually subjected to police harassment after being released, and the resulting mental pressure took a toll on her health. She developed severe conditions in late 2023 and died in October 2024.
73-Year-Old Woman Dies Amidst Attempts to Put Her in Jail to Serve a 3-Year Term Given in Late 2022
Ms. Kong Fanqin, a Shulan City, Jilin Province resident, suffered declining health after she was sentenced to three years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. She passed away on October 10, 2024, at age 73.
Ms. Kong was arrested at home on February 24, 2022. When the police took her to the local lockup in the evening, she was denied admission due to her high blood pressure. The police released her on bail after extorting 2,000 yuan from her son.
The Shulan City Court held a hearing of Ms. Kong’s case in mid-November 2022 and sentenced her to three years with a 4,000-yuan fine on December 30. The court didn’t order her to start serving time immediately after her conviction, but sent her a letter in February 2023, urging her to pay the fine.
Six officers from the Shuiquliu Police Station arrested Ms. Kong at home on May 15, 2024, and took her to the hospital for a physical examination, in preparation for her prison admission. She was found to have a heart condition, but the police nonetheless took her to the Jilin City Detention Center, which refused to admit her. It was too late to return to Shulan (which is under the jurisdiction of Jilin City and about 50 miles away), so the police booked a hotel in Jilin City that night and took Ms. Kong home the next day.
Three other officers came again a day later on May 17 and still attempted to detain Ms. Kong in Jilin. As no detention center agreed to admit her, the officers drove her back home.
Ms. Kong had already suffered from declining health with reduced vision following her sentencing. The police harassment and their attempts to put her in jail further terrified her and rendered her unable to live a normal life. She lost most of her vision after June 2024 and was unable to live on her own. Her children sent her to an assisted living center. She took a fall in September and had two of her toes amputated. She passed away on October 10, 2024. She was 73 years old.
Cancer-stricken Woman on Probation for Her Faith Dies After Repeated Harassment
While on probation for her faith in Falun Gong, Ms. Zhao Huifen, of Suixi County, Anhui Province, faced continued harassment and surveillance by the authorities, even after she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. She passed away on April 21, 2024. She was 71 years old.
Ms. Zhao Huifen
Ms. Zhao took up Falun Gong in June 1997. Many of her severe ailments sometimes left her bedridden, including problems with her stomach, neck, and back, which disappeared one after another. Her irritable and competitive temper, which resulted from the physical suffering, was also gone, replaced by a kind and considerate demeanor. After witnessing her changes, her husband and daughter also began to practice Falun Gong.
After the persecution started in 1999, the police kept harassing Ms. Zhao and her family for their faith. Both she and her husband were summoned to the local police station in December 2000 and ordered to sign statements renouncing Falun Gong. The police also took their photos and fined each of them 50 yuan. As they didn’t have money with them, the police forced one of them to go home to get the money, while the other stayed in the police station.
The police arrested Ms. Zhao again around March 2002 and forced her to watch videos smearing Falun Gong.
Fearing further persecution, Ms. Zhao stopped practicing Falun Gong. Due to health issues, she resumed practicing in 2008.
Several plainclothes officers from the Suixi County Police Department broke into Ms. Zhao’s home one day in the fall of 2020 and claimed that someone had reported her for printing Falun Gong materials at home. Her computer, printer, and Falun Gong books were confiscated.
The police held a marathon interrogation of Ms. Zhao and threatened to arrest her daughter if she didn’t answer the questions. She fainted several times during the interrogation.
After Ms. Zhao was secretly sentenced to five years of probation and fined 2,400 yuan a year later, the police and staffers from the justice bureau and procuratorate frequently harassed her at home. She was also ordered to turn in “thought reports” to the justice bureau every month. Her cellphone was monitored with surveillance software.
The mental pressure took a toll on Ms. Zhao’s health. She was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in late 2022. Staffers from the procuratorate even harassed her at the hospital when she was receiving treatments. The harassment and surveillance continued after she had surgery in early 2023. Her cancer metastasized in March 2024, and she died a month later on April 21, 2024.
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