(Minghui.org)
Name: Cui YufangChinese Name: 崔玉芳Gender: FemaleAge: 73City: AnshanProvince: LiaoningOccupation: N/ADate of Death: April 17, 2026Date of Most Recent Arrest: June 28, 2016Most Recent Place of Detention: Anshan City Women’s Detention Center
Ms. Cui Yufang, of Anshan City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on June 28, 2016, for her faith in Falun Gong. Her case was dismissed on November 27, 2017, due to a lack of evidence. Yet the Anshan City Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) ordered her case reopened and put her on the wanted list in March 2019 when she didn’t report to the police as ordered.
A new trial was scheduled to take place in August 2020, though it was unclear whether that ever happened. Ms. Cui, who had a stroke while in detention in 2017 but recovered through doing the Falun Gong exercises, suffered declining health as a result of the relentless persecution of her. She remained in a coma in recent years and died on April 17, 2026, at the age of 73.
The PLAC is an extra-judicial agency given the power to override the judicial system in the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution of Falun Gong.
Ms. Cui credited Falun Gong for helping her recover from high blood pressure. After the communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, she held firm to her faith and was targeted. She and her son were arrested on June 28, 2016, which caused her blood pressure to suddenly spike.
Instead of releasing Ms. Cui, officers Ji Liang and Wu Zhongfeng had her hospitalized for a few days before sending her to the Anshan City Women’s Detention Center. Her son was denied admission to the detention center and released.
The Tiexi District Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for Ms. Cui on August 4 and forwarded her case to the Tiexi District Court on September 28, 2016.
Ms. Cui’s lawyer, Mr. Li Zhongwei from Shandong Province, noticed she was in a delirious state when visiting her. She suspected the food had poison in it and felt like vomiting after eating. She also exhibited symptoms of a thought disorder.
Her family visited her around October 28, 2016. The detention center took the money they had for her, but declined to accept the winter clothes. The weather was below freezing at the time, and Ms. Cui shivered in the cold with only a thin layer of clothes.
Lawyer Li twice submitted applications to have the case dropped, but the Tiexi District Court still scheduled a hearing for February 27, 2017. Ms. Cui refused to attend the hearing, and the court rescheduled the hearing for May 19, 2017. She attended the new hearing, and the court returned the case to the procuratorate afterward.
The police, however, still kept Ms. Cui detained. She had brainstem embolisms (a type of stroke) on November 15, 2017, and was rushed to the Anshan Changda Hospital. The doctors twice issued a critical condition warning and said she’d remain a vegetable even if she regained consciousness.
The Tiexi District Court issued a six-month house arrest notice for Ms. Cui on November 16, 2017, and she was discharged from the hospital the next day.
The Tiexi District Court ruled on November 27, 2017, to dismiss the case against Ms. Cui. She was released on December 16 that year.
Ms. Cui’s family received a text message on November 22, 2018, saying that her case had been closed on November 19 that year. The Tiexi District Court and the Dalu Police Station called her sister in March 2019, saying they needed to talk to Ms. Cui. She did not go at the time but did report to the Tiexi District Police Department on December 31, 2019.
Officer Xu notified Ms. Cui that she had been put on the wanted list back in March 2019. He ordered her to sign the wanted list paperwork. He took her to the Anshan City Women’s Detention Center for a physical exam before driving her to the Anshan Changda Hospital for a brain CT scan.
Ms. Cui was allowed to go home after the physical exam. Deputy chief Xie Jiliang put her under house surveillance on January 1, 2020. Around April 22 that year, her sister received a call from vice director Zhao from the Tiexi District Procuratorate.
Zhao asked if Ms. Cui was still practicing Falun Gong. Deputy chief Xie soon called her sister too, reiterating that the case was not over yet.
Officer Xu called Ms. Cui’s nephew (her sister’s son) around April 25, 2020, saying that they needed his aunt to re-sign the wanted list paperwork, which had been lost.
Ms. Cui’s sister and nephew struggled to cope with the pressure and disowned her as their relative. They gave Ms. Cui's address to the police.
Officer Xu and another agent showed up at Ms. Cui’s home on April 29, 2020, and ordered her to re-sign the wanted list paperwork. He promised to close the case if she exhibited a “good attitude.”
Ms. Cui questioned why she was put on the wanted list when the Tiexi District Court had dismissed her case on November 27, 2017. Xue called deputy chief Xie, who said that the Anshan City PLAC was not satisfied with the court ruling and ordered the procuratorate to reopen the case.
Judge Gao Peng’an from the Tiexi District Court led a clerk to Ms. Cui’s home on May 19, 2020, to deliver the new indictment against her. She refused to sign the document. She told them that she recovered from her stroke by doing the Falun Gong exercises. She did nothing wrong in practicing her faith.
Gao returned on July 20, 2020, to say a court date had been set for August that year. Ms. Cui replied that she would not attend the trial as she broke no law. Gao threatened that he’d hold the hearing at her home then.
It is unclear whether the trial took place. The relentless persecution of Ms. Cui took a toll on her health. She fell into a coma and seldom regained consciousness before her passing on April 17, 2026.
Court Rules to Drop Case Against Falun Gong Practitioner
https://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2026/6/14/辽宁鞍山市崔玉芳在公检法人员的长期威胁中离世-511336.html4_Deaths_Due_To_Persecution