Chinese New Year Is Here, But These Innocent Elderly Are Still Suffering

(Minghui.org) Inside China, the Chinese New Year is the most important time of the year, as it represents family reunion, happiness, and prosperity. However, for Falun Gong practitioners, the ongoing 27-year-long persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has caused endless suffering and pain for people of all ages, and the elderly is no exception.

According to statistics from Minghui, among 751 practitioners sentenced in 2025 for practicing Falun Gong, 370 are over 60 years old, including 33 between the ages of 80 and 90, and one practitioner is in their nineties.

Violating Social Ethics

Ms. Ji Huiying, 75, from Weifang City, Shandong Province, was arrested in 2017 and sent to Shandong Women’s Prison with a three-year term. Her crime? Simply telling others about the beauty of Falun Gong. As a result of physical and mental torture, her health deteriorated and she was later released on medical probation. After suffering from two cerebral thromboses in 2023, she could no longer take care of herself and became completely dependent on her family.

In the spring of 2025, police again attempted to imprison Ms. Ji. Officials took her to hospital in an emergency vehicle, but after many failed tests, they were forced to send her back home. On September 20, 2025, she was then again arrested at home and taken directly to Shandong Women’s Prison.

Ms. Ji was not alone. Ms. Wei Lanying, who was arrested together with Ms. Ji back in 2017, was also sent to Shandong Women’s Prison with a two-year term. Due to mistreatment, she suffered a cerebral thrombosis and her family had to care for her. However, local police continued to repeatedly harass her, leading to her death in June 2023.

Wu Shaoping, a Chinese human rights lawyer currently living in the United States, condemned the CCP’s imprisonment and mistreatment of the elderly as ruthless. “This shows the brutality of the CCP, which will end only after the regime dissolves,” he said.

Deprived of Basic Needs

The Chinese Constitution guarantees freedom of belief, and Falun Gong practitioners have not violated any laws. Consequently, the suppression of Falun Gong has no legal basis from the outset.

Ms. Tang Xuzhen, a retired professor from Southwest Medical University, used to suffer from over 10 illnesses—including fungal gastritis, hepatitis, and cholecystitis. To make things worse, she was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in 1996, making eating almost impossible.

Remarkably, all her illnesses disappeared after Ms. Tang began to practice Falun Gong in 1996. The principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, which are taught in the practice, improved her moral character, making her more considerate of her patients. She often worked overtime and refused to accept red envelopes (gray income) from patients like other doctors did.

However, for informing others about Falun Gong and opposing the persecution, Ms. Tang was detained ten times in total at a detention center, brainwashing center, labor camp, and prison. Her son, daughter, and son-in-law were also affected, causing them to be demoted at their workplace.

To make matters worse, Ms. Tang’s employer withheld her pension from October 2011. Furthermore, officials stopped her medical insurance in 2015. For more than 10 years, Ms. Tang approached various government agencies to appeal for her basic human rights. However, no officials dared to accept her case. Ultimately, she passed away in December 2025, at the age of 88, having suffered greatly for decades.

These realities are inconceivable for people living in the free world. Yet they occur on a daily basis in China, and their voices are largely silenced or ignored.

Physical Torture and Mental Abuse

Mr. Luo Wenbin, 50, a teacher from Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, once suffered from poor health due to chronic a stomach problem. However after he began to practice Falun Gong in late 1998, his illness disappeared.

After his arrest in March 2020, Mr. Luo was transferred to Nanchang City Prison in August 2023. According to an insider, as of June 2025, Mr. Luo has been placed in solitary confinement five times—each time for several months—because he held firm to his faith, and also refused to do free labor.

It was also revealed by the insider that between March and mid-April 2024, the prison guards instructed inmates to restrain Mr. Luo in a metal chair and tape headphones to his ears, forcing him to listen to recordings slandering Falun Gong. These daily brainwashing sessions ran from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. without any breaks.

In addition to the mental abuse, Mr. Luo was also given very little food to eat and he has become extremely thin and weak. He needs to wear heavy jackets even in the hot summer because he is always cold.

While under strict surveillance, Mr. Luo was forced to use the water from the toilet bowl for drinking and washing himself. One inmate doubted if Mr. Luo’s family knew about the abuse he has endured, as the prison has been trying to cover up the persecution against him. The inmate said if Mr. Luo were to die, it would be a direct result of the ongoing abuse.

These stories offer a window into the CCP’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Unfortunately, such tragedies still continue to this day.