(Minghui.org) Another 69 cases of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to prison for their faith were reported in August 2025.

The newly-confirmed cases included 10 that took place in 2016, 4 in 2017, 3 in 2018 and 2019 each, 1 in 2020, 6 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 3 in 2024, 35 in 2025, and 2 cases that occurred at unknown times. With ever stricter information censorship under the Chinese Communist Party, many details about the practitioners’ indictments, trials, and sentences were difficult (if not impossible) to collect, which caused further delays in reporting.

The sentenced Falun Gong practitioners are from twenty provinces or centrally-controlled municipalities. Liaoning reported the most cases, 15, followed by 9 cases in Inner Mongolia and 7 cases in Shandong. The remaining seventeen regions had between 1 and 5 cases.

The sentenced practitioners were between 31 and 89 years old, with 14 in their 60s, 11 in their 70s, and 9 in their 80s. Their prison terms ranged from six months to eight years. The practitioners came from all walks of life, including retired teachers, veterans, bank employees, and aquaculture engineers.

The following are details of select sentencing cases.

Elderly Practitioners on Bail Put in Jail to Start Serving Prison Terms

In an earlier report, a disturbing new development was documented, when elderly practitioners were taken back into custody to serve time that they were previously allowed to postpone serving. More such cases were reported in August 2025.

Mr. Zhao Yungu, an 87-year-old retired small tractor factory worker in Bin County, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on July 31, 2023, and released on bail the next day. Mr. Zhao stood trial on August 16, 2024, and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and a 30,000 yuan fine. He remained free before and after his trial until July 11, 2025, when the police took him for a physical exam, as per a court order. They carried Mr. Zhao to an ambulance and drove him to the Heilongjiang Province Hospital. They took him to the Bin County Hospital for another physical exam on July 21 and admitted him to a newly-built prison in Harbin on August 8.

More than ten officers in four police cruisers descended on an 85-year-old woman’s home in Jinan City, Shandong Province on July 21, 2025, and seized her. She was put in the Shandong Province Women’s Prison the next day, and has been denied family visits. Ms. Liu Chunping was sentenced to one year on September 9, 2022, and was denied admission to the local detention center after she failed the required physical exam. After releasing Ms. Liu, the police frequently harassed her and urged her to have more physical exams to see if she was fit enough to report to prison. They eventually jailed her in July 2025.

An 83-year-old woman in Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province was taken to prison on July 31, 2025, to serve a 1.5-year term from late 2021. Ms. Liu Huiju was arrested on May 12, 2020, and convicted on November 30, 2021. Given her poor health, the court didn’t immediately order her to start serving the term. On June 12, 2025, eight officers seized Ms. Liu at home, strapped her on a gurney, and took her to the hospital in an ambulance. They claimed they were taking her to the hospital for a physical exam, but they took her to a detention center after the checkup, then transferred her to a new prison on July 31.

Ms. Zhao Guilian, 82, from Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, was sentenced to three years probation at an unknown time in 2023. Court workers suddenly showed up at her door in early 2025 and ordered her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Zhao refused. The police seized her at home in May 2025 and took her straight to the Inner Mongolia Women’s Prison.

More Cases of Elderly Practitioners Being Sentenced

Ms. Wu Qingzhi, 89, from Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, was initially arrested in August 2023, then released on bail after 32 days of detention. Staffers from the Nanming District Court suddenly took her to court on September 3, 2024, for a hearing. The judge didn’t announce a verdict and ordered Ms. Wu to wait at home for the verdict. A court staffer delivered the verdict to her in April 2025. Dated February 29, 2024, it stated that she was sentenced to one year with a 6,000-yuan fine.

Mr. Liu Shurong, an 81-year-old man in Chongqing, was arrested on June 23, 2024, and later sentenced to three years. He had previously spent more than 12 years behind bars, including serving two forced labor terms and three prison terms.

Mr. Chi Enhong, a 76-year-old man in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, was arrested at home on April 16, 2025, and admitted to the Fangjialan Detention Center the next day. The police later submitted his case to the Dadong District Procuratorate. He was sentenced to six months by the Dadong District Court on July 28 and is scheduled to be released on October 15.

Mr. Li Caihua, a 70-year-old farmer in Beijing, was arrested and had his home raided in November 2024. He was later sentenced to four years by a local court, but details about his indictment, trial, or sentencing aren’t clear. Prior to his latest persecution, he had been arrested at least ten other times, and incarcerated for a total of 15.5 years, including two forced labor terms (1-year and 2.5-year) and three prison sentences (3-year, 5-year, and 4-year).

Ms. Yuan Hongying spent her 70th birthday (February 6, 2025) in police custody because she practices Falun Gong. She was arrested the day before at a train station in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province while waiting to board a train to Fuyu County in the same province where she lives. The Harbin City Railway Transportation Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for her on March 13, 2025. She was sentenced to three years in prison in mid-July 2025 by the Harbin City Railway Transportation Court.

Mr. Yang Zonglin, 68, of Pingliang City, Gansu Province, was arrested on the afternoon of March 21, 2025, after a teacher accused him of talking to her students about Falun Gong. He stood trial at the Kongtong District Court on July 21 and was sentenced to a one-year term. He developed severe medical conditions due to torture while in custody, including heart disease and stomach pain. He is weak and emaciated with a hunchback.

Ms. Li Shulian, 67, of Yan’an City, Shaanxi Province, was yanked from her bed by several police officers on January 3, 2024. The incapacitated woman’s family was kept in the dark about her situation until mid-August 2025, when they received a notice saying that she had been admitted to prison on July 21, 2025, to serve a six-year term.

Middle-Aged Practitioners Also Targeted

Ms. Tong Jing, 59, from Fushun City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on August 9, 2023, when she went to the police department to submit her passport application to attend her son’s graduation ceremony in another country. She was released on bail on August 23, 2023, and taken back into custody on March 7, 2025. As she refused to attend the hearing on June 24, 2025, the bailiffs restrained her in a wheelchair and took her to a makeshift courtroom in the detention center. She remained silent in protest throughout the entire session. The judge later sentenced her to three and a half years.

Ms. Wang Ping, a 54-year-old resident in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, stood trial on July 25, 2025. Several of her family members attended the trial. The bailiffs took photos of their IDs and didn’t allow them to bring their cell phones into the courtroom. The presiding judge, Pu Li, and two other judges all wore masks during the trial. Her son represented her as a non-lawyer defender and entered a not guilty plea for her. The judges sentenced her at the end of the hearing to 2.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine.

Ms. Shi Cuiying, of Beijing, was arrested on August 19, 2020 with her daughter Ms. Guo Meng, when they were shopping in a supermarket. The police claimed that they had been following both women for three months and had taken many photos of them talking to people about Falun Gong. Ms. Shi was released on bail on August 21, 2020. Personnel from the Daxing Prison suddenly showed up at Ms. Shi’s home on July 25, 2025, and took her to prison to serve a three-year and nine-month term. It’s not clear when the trial (if there was one) was held.

Young Physician Convicted for Her Faith

Ms. Li Lixia, a 31-year-old physician in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, was arrested on the night of March 25, 2024. She appeared in the Qiaoxi District Court on November 20, 2024, April 1, 2025, and April 24, 2025, before being sentenced to a 1.5-year prison term.

Ms. Li filed an appeal with the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court, demanding an overturn of the wrongful conviction. She also called for the five police officers involved in her case, and prosecutor Zhang Shiyao from the Qiaoxi District Procuratorate, who indicted her without any legal basis, to be held responsible for their illegal actions.

In her appeal, Ms. Li reiterated the lack of legal basis for her prosecution. Prosecutor Zhang charged her with violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which states that anyone using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. China’s law-making body, the People’s Congress, however, has never enacted any law criminalizing Falun Gong, or labeled it a cult. As such, there was no legal grounds for the indictment and subsequent sentencing.

Zhang also cited as legal basis a statutory interpretation of Article 300 of the Criminal Law issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in November 1999. The interpretation required that anyone practicing or promoting Falun Gong be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible. Ms. Li pointed out that a new statutory interpretation that replaced the 1999 version took effect on February 1, 2017. The new interpretation made no mention of Falun Gong and emphasized that any indictment against anyone engaging in a cult must be based on solid legal grounds. Since no enacted law in China labels Falun Gong a cult, Ms. Li’s indictment and subsequent sentencing based on the statutory interpretation lacked legal basis.

The prosecution evidence used against Ms. Li included Falun Gong books and other materials confiscated from her home. She condemned prosecutor Zhang for recording every bi-fold Falun Gong flyer as two flyers so that he could reach the minimum pieces of evidence required to file charges against her. Additionally and more importantly, the National Press and Publication Administration had long repealed its ban on the publication of Falun Gong books in 2011. Therefore, all her Falun Gong materials were her lawful possessions.

Ms. Li suspects that Li Yong (no relation), former president of the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court, might have intervened in her sentencing. China’s appeals courts have been known to mete out prison sentences for Falun Gong practitioners for trial courts, sometimes even before the trials begin. When the practitioners later file appeals, they simply get denied by the appeals courts.

Related Reports:

Reported in July 2025: 74 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith

Reported in the First Half of 2025: 430 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith

Reported in May 2025: 79 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith

Reported in April 2025: 79 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith

Reported in March 2025: 61 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith

Reported in February 2025: 68 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith

Reported in January 2025: 97 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith