(Minghui.org) A total of 518 incidents of Falun Gong practitioners being arrested or harassed for their faith were reported in January and February 2025.

The 518 cases included 244 arrests (which broke down to 108 arrests that took place in 2024 and 136 in 2025) and 274 harassment cases (which comprised 85 incidents in 2024 and 189 in the first two months of 2025).

The delay in reporting is mostly due to information censorship in China under the communist regime, which makes it difficult for Minghui correspondents to collect, verify, and send the data to the website. Practitioners who have suffered persecution also face the danger of being retaliated against when reporting the persecution accounts with their real names.

The 518 targeted practitioners hailed from 20 provinces and 4 centrally-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Tianjin). Hebei reported the most combined arrest and harassment cases (125), followed by 56 in Heilongjiang and 54 in Jilin. Ten other regions also had double-digit cases between 10 and 46. The remaining eleven regions had single-digit cases between 1 and 9.

At least 58 practitioners were 60 or older at the time of their arrests or harassment, including 24 in their 60s, 26 in their 70s, 7 in their 80s, and 1 in their 90s.

In Pucheng County, Fujian Province, the police arrested Mr. Zhang Zhaoli on August 30, 2024, with the excuse that he was ““running around [without permission],” after he returned from a trip to Dalian City, Liaoning Province. An insider later revealed that the communist regime issued an order in late 2024 to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong. Every region was also given a quota of arrested practitioners. Mr. Zhang’s arrest was to fill that quota.

Harassment Before the Chinese New Year and “Two Sessions”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is known to intensify the harassment against Falun Gong practitioners ahead of major political meetings or anniversaries related to Falun Gong as a way to threaten them not to take the events as opportunities to raise awareness about the persecution. The 2025 Chinese New Year (January 29) and the regime’s annual national political meetings in March 2025 were no exceptions.

Ms. Yuan Hongying’s family, of Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, went to Harbin City in the same province on a Chinese New Year holiday vacation. As they were waiting for their return train in Harbin on February 5, 2025, two officers demanded to search Ms. Yuan’s luggage. When she explained that her family had already passed the security checks, the officers said they had to search her bag because she practiced Falun Gong.

Ms. Yuan, 65, refused to cooperate. The police called in five more officers, who took both Ms. Yuan and her daughter to the police station and searched their bags. After finding Ms. Yuan in possession of a few currency bills with “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” written on them, the police said this was evidence that Ms. Yuan had violated the law and began to interrogate her.

The police seized Ms. Yuan’s and her daughter’s keys, went to Qiqihar (about 200 miles away), and raided their respective homes when no other family members were present. They released Ms. Yuan’s daughter when they didn’t find any Falun Gong items in her home. They found Falun Gong materials in Ms. Yuan’s home, so they interrogated her late into the evening. She had a severe headache and high blood pressure due to lack of sleep. She was taken to the Harbin City Second Detention Center around 3 a.m. on February 6 and has been held there ever since.

In Chongqing, Ms. Li Yunhui found herself being followed on January 15, 2025, when she went to the grocery market to buy some sausages for the upcoming Chinese New Year (January 29, 2025). The same person followed her again for the next two days when she went to visit her family. One of the followers, named Hu Zhonghui, said that she just wanted to earn some money by doing this “monitoring” job. The police later installed surveillance cameras facing Ms. Li’s home shared with her daughter, Ms. Zhao Li, as well as Ms. Zhao’s tailor shop.

In addition to being targeted around the Chinese New Year, more practitioners were harassed prior to the “Two sessions,” the annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

In Xishui County, Hubei Province; Shouguang City, Shandong Province; Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province; and Qianguo County, Jilin Province, the police called the practitioners or went to their homes in February 2025, saying that they were given the task to check on the practitioners prior to the “Two sessions.” Some police demanded to take the practitioners’ photos as evidence that they were home.

On the evening of February 14, 2025, a group of officers from the Shisanling Police Station showed up at Mr. Wang Yu’s home in Beijing. As Mr. Wang wasn’t in, the police talked to his 93-year-old grandmother, also a Falun Gong practitioner who was living with him. The police returned on February 17 and talked to Mr. Wang and his wife Ms. Guo Xiaoqing.

Ms. Cong Peixi of Shanghai reported that she was monitored around the clock between January 13 and 18, 2025. Only weeks later, her local police received another order to monitor her between February 5 and 14, 2025, while the 2025 Asian Winter Games was taking place in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province (nearly 1,500 miles from Shanghai). The authorities began to monitor her again shortly before the “Two sessions” commenced on March 5.

Violent Arrest of 73-Year-Old Widow Who Lost Right Foot Due to Toxic Injections in Detention

Ms. Song Huilan, a 73-year-old Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, resident, was sitting in bed and reading books when more than ten officers broke into her home with a master key on January 16, 2025. None of them produced their IDs or a search warrant. Without allowing the disabled woman to put on her prosthesis, jacket, or shoes, the police dragged her downstairs. Her shirt and bra were pulled up during the process, exposing her chest and back. Her pants were also pulled down to her thighs.

The police threw Ms. Song into the car without allowing her to adjust her clothing. Due to the freezing weather, she kept shivering, and the female officer in the car refused to help her pull her top down and pants up. Upon arriving at the police station, she requested to use the restroom, but the police refused to help her, despite the fact that she was unable to walk on her own. She wet her pants as a result, yet the police still turned a blind eye to her.

After taking Ms. Song to the hospital for a physical examination, she was found to have dangerously high blood pressure, and an injection couldn’t bring it down. After the local detention center rejected her admission, the police took her back to the hospital and injected her with another kind of medicine. She felt tightness in her chest and was very weak. She was released around 7 p.m. The next day, after being forced to sign a three-month bail release notice. When she returned home, her family noticed many bruises on her body.

Ms. Song was previously arrested multiple times and held at a labor camp for three years. She was injected with unknown drugs at the Tangyuan County Detention Center on February 23, 2011. Her right foot suffered severe tissue necrosis as a result. It blackened and fell off on May 25, 2011.

Ms. Song was arrested again on September 29, 2021, and later indicted. To avoid the prison sentence, she was forced to live away from home in March 2024. Her husband worried about her so much that his health declined. He later developed cancer and passed away soon after.

Ms. Song Huilan in her younger years

Ms. Song, after losing her right foot

Additional Persecution Cases of Elderly Practitioners

Ms. Zhou Shumin, an 84-year-old farmer in Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, was arrested on January 18, 2025, while she was talking to people about Falun Gong at a local fair. The police found her home address from their database of Falun Gong practitioners. Four officers raided her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books, informational materials, music player, DVDs, and other valuables. They also forced her children to sign some paperwork on her behalf by threatening to jeopardize their jobs. This is the 12th time that Ms. Zhou has been arrested since the CCP ordered the persecution of Falun Gong.

Ms. Jiang Biyin, 83, of Jieyang City, Guangdong Province, was arrested on January 21, 2025, while studying at a local practitioner’s home. Her arrest came about one year after she finished serving a six-month prison term, also for studying Falun Gong books with other practitioners.

After Ms. Gao Bizhen, a 78-year-old retired Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was arrested on October 9, 2024, the Luojiashan Police Station didn’t notify her family of her detention location. Her loved ones still do not know her whereabouts.

Having served 18 years behind bars, including a three-year forced labor term (January 2001 – January 2004) and three five-year prison terms (July 2003 – July 2008, January 2010 – January 2015, and April 2017 – April 2022), Mr. He Jingru, a 68-year-old resident of Huidong County, Guangdong Province, was arrested in 2024 (exact date unknown) and held in the Huizhou City Psychiatric Hospital.

In the persecution of Falun Gong, mentally healthy practitioners are often taken to psychiatric hospitals and subjected to the involuntary administration of psychiatric drugs, which can result in long-lasting damage.

In an extreme case, a 78-year-old widowed mother in Rushan City, Shandong Province, was held in a secret location by her two sons and had her communication with the outside world cut off. Ms. Xun Peiying’s sons did so because they worried her practicing of Falun Gong would affect one of their own sons’ application to the police academy. They also destroyed Ms. Xun’s Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong.

Families Arrested or Harassed Together

Arrested Together, Mother Forced to Take Blood Pressure Pills, and Daughter Fired by Her Workplace

A group of eight officers broke into Ms. Liu Ying’s home in Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province, on January 20, 2025. As she wasn’t home, they went to her daughter’s workplace and arrested the younger woman, Ms. Wang Jing. Then they forced Ms. Wang to take them to a relative’s home, where they arrested Ms. Liu.

The police then took the mother and daughter to the Mishan City Lockup. After Ms. Liu was found to have a systolic blood pressure reading over 180 mmHg (a normal level is 120 mmHg or lower) and a heart condition, the lockup refused to admit her. The police took Ms. Liu to a hospital and forced her to take a high blood pressure pill. When they took her blood pressure 30 minutes later, the reading for her systolic blood pressure went up to 190 mmHg. The police forced her to take another kind of medicine, and her blood pressure continued to rise (systolic blood pressure over 200 mmHg).

The police handcuffed Ms. Liu to a wheelchair and ordered the doctor to give her injections or IV drips. She told the doctor that she had had two different kinds of drugs and she couldn’t receive more medicine. The doctor said to the police, “If she doesn’t agree to receive the injection, we can’t force her. She isn’t a criminal. Why do you treat her like that?” The police stayed silent.

Ms. Liu later found out that the reason why the police were so eager to get her detained was because their supervisor threatened to reject all of their reimbursement requests of work-related expenses if they failed to detain her. The police later forced the hospital to admit her and took her blood pressure frequently. As soon as her systolic blood pressure dropped to 176 mmHg, the police managed to have the lockup admit her.

Both Ms. Liu and Ms. Wang were detained for ten days. Upon returning home, Ms. Wang was shocked to hear that her employer had fired her.

Mother Forced to Go Into Hiding; Police Arrest Her Daughter Instead

Similar to Ms. Liu’s situation, the police also failed to arrest Ms. Zhao Xihua when they went to the home of the Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, resident on December 23, 2024, as she wasn’t in. Yet the police didn’t leave but raided Ms. Zhao’s home and confiscated her cell phone, Falun Gong books, and her daughter’s broken computer.

The police later found out Ms. Zhao was staying at her daughter’s rental place and went there to arrest her. Her daughter, Ms. Xuan Shaojing, stood in front of the door and refused to allow the police inside. The police then forced Ms. Zhao’s husband, who had been held at the police station for six hours, to talk to his daughter via the phone. She still refused to budge, even after one of the officers pointed a gun at her forehead. The police later relented and left.

Five days later, the police arrested Ms. Xuan at her workplace and detained her at the Harbin City Second Detention Center, with the excuse that she “obstructed enforcement of the law.” Ms. Zhao, who escaped arrest again, was forced to live away from home.

Father and Daughter Held at Airport for Eight Hours; Forced to Cancel Vacation Trip to Southeast Asia

Since the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Xu Xudong, of Shiyan City, Hubei Province, has served two five-year prison terms for his faith. His first term came shortly after his daughter was born. He was arrested again in 2013 when his daughter was 13. When he was released, his daughter was already 18. To improve his relationship with his daughter, he booked a trip to visit Southeast Asia in February 2025.

While passing the border inspection at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai around 11:30 p.m. on February 2, 2025, Mr. Xu and his daughter were stopped and taken to a small room. They were held there until 7:42 a.m. the next day, watched by two officers all the time, and not allowed to talk to each other. The officers also asked them in detail why they were leaving China and how they booked the flight tickets. His daughter was starving and freezing during the eight-hour detention. She said this allowed her to have some idea of the ordeals her father had gone through all these years.

In addition, the police took away the father and daughter’s cell phones and called their families from their phones without their permission. As the flight and hotels were non-refundable, Mr. Xu lost several thousand yuan as a result. He later called an officer with the Yunyang District Domestic Security Division in Shiyan to complain about it. The officer, surnamed Zhu, responded that he was a key target on their list and not allowed to leave China under any circumstances.

Financial Persecution

Other than arrests, detention, and torture, the practitioners also faced financial persecution in the forms of confiscation, extortion, fines, or suspension of their pension.

The police in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, raided Ms. Zhou Lina’s home on April 14, 2024, and arrested her roommate, Ms. Meng Chunying, also a Falun Gong practitioner. While Ms. Zhou escaped arrest as she wasn’t in, her 115,000 yuan in cash and two Certificates of Deposit, of 50,000 yuan and 30,000 yuan, were seized by the police.

The police followed and arrested Ms. Zhou on August 21, 2024. They questioned her as to what the money was to be used for. She said it was her life-long savings from selling clothes, running a hair salon, and doing odd jobs. She was planning to buy a house with the money. The police haven’t returned the money to date.

Ms. Zhou was taken to the local detention center hours after her arrest. Although she was found to have a low platelet count and deemed unfit for detention, the guards nonetheless admitted her. She has been detained since and is now facing prosecution after the police submitted her case to the Linghai City Procuratorate.

On January 6, 2025, Ms. He Yan, a music teacher in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, received a warning from the school leadership that she probably wouldn’t receive any bonus for the last quarter in 2024, because of her practicing Falun Gong, as well as her filing complaints against the police for arresting her and raiding her home in March 2023. She refused to withdraw her complaint despite pressure from the police, school leadership, and the Dongxihu District Education Bureau. In retaliation, the school did withhold her 20,000 yuan quarterly bonus on the payout day, January 9, 2025.

Related Report:

5,692 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested or Harassed in 2024 for Their Faith