(Minghui.org) A total of 430 cases of law-abiding Chinese citizens sentenced for their faith in Falun Gong were reported in the first half of 2025.
The newly-confirmed cases included 3 that from 2020, three from 2021, six from 2022, 14 from 2023, 151 from 2024, 249 from 2025, and four cases with unknown sentencing years. The delay in reporting was caused by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) strict information censorship, which aims to keep the persecution of Falun Gong underground to avoid international scrutiny.
I. Overview
a. Major Persecution Tactic to Target the Practitioner
After the forced labor camp system was abolished in 2013, sentencing Falun Gong practitioners became one of the major ways to ways to persecute them, in addition to harassment, brainwashing centers, and psychiatric hospital detention. While in custody, the practitioners are subjected to brutal torture and intense brainwashing if they refuse to renounce Falun Gong.
To expedite the sentencing process, some regions designated specific procuratorates and courts to handle Falun Gong cases. The practitioners can be convicted days or weeks after their arrests.
On January 9, 2025, Ms. Zhang Shuqin, a 65-year-old resident of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison to serve a two-year term. She was the 24th Falun Gong practitioner sentenced in 2024 by the Linghai City Court, which is under the administration of Jinzhou and has been designated to handle Falun Gong cases in the greater Jinzhou area. At least 48 other practitioners in Jinzhou and its subordinate cities/counties were sentenced by the Linghai City Court between 2022 and 2023.
b. Sentencing Cases All Across China
China has 22 provinces, 4 centrally controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and 5 autonomous regions (Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Ningxia). Except for Shanghai, Tibet, Guangxi, Qinghai, and Hainan, all other 26 jurisdictions reported sentencing cases. Jilin Province topped the list with 69 sentencing cases, followed by 60 in Shandong and 57 in Liaoning. Ten other jurisdictions also reported double-digit cases, and the remaining eleven had single-digit cases.
In Kunming City, Yunnan Province, thirteen practitioners arrested in a police sweep on June 6, 2024, were sentenced to up to 4.5 years in prison. The Kunming City Police Department instructed its subordinate agencies to monitor the targeted practitioners and collect evidence against them for at least six months before arresting them.
c. Heavy Terms Up to Ten Years
The Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced in February 2024 that in recent years, 85% of convicted criminals received three years or less, compared to 55% in 1999. Yet for the 430 sentencing cases of Falun Gong practitioners reported in the first half of 2025, their terms ranged from several months to ten years, with 249 (57.9%) receiving three years or more. This signifies a more severe sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners, when they violated no laws in exercising their constitutional right to freedom of belief in the first place.
In addition, a total of 153 practitioners were fined a total of 2,102,500 yuan, averaging 13,742 yuan per person.
A married couple in Luohe City, Henan Province, Mr. Yang Juncheng and Ms. Ding Xiangqin, in their 60s, both received a ten-year term at an unknown time following their arrests in September 2023. The police confiscated 300,000 yuan in cash and other personal items while raiding their home. Mr. Yang’s father, who is in his 90s and relied on him for care, is now left in a dire situation.
Ms. Meng Qingjie, a 72-year-old retired elementary school teacher in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on July 12, 2024, and sentenced to eight years with a 50,000-yuan fine on March 26, 2025. Prior to her latest sentencing, she was incarcerated for a total of nine years for her faith and her pension suspended since 2018.
d. Decades of Persecution
Similar to Ms. Meng, some of the practitioners have suffered decades-long persecution before being sentenced again. Ms. Wang Jinxian, 69 and of Yiliang County, Yunnan Province, was given her fifth prison term, 4.5 years, following her latest arrest in June 2024. She previously spent 14 years behind bars, and her third term came only 44 days after she finished the second term.
Mr. Yang Jiangwei, 55 and a former employee of Liangjin Dayang Electric Power Installation Company in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province, was arrested on April 19, 2024, for putting up a self-adhesive sticker reading “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” on a utility pole. He was sentenced to a 14-month term in February 2025. Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, Mr. Yang has served three forced labor terms and a ten-year prison term, totaling 17.5 years. He was only able to spend a bit over seven years with his family during the past 26 years.
Ms. Yang Xiuhua, of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on November 10, 2024, as she was about to board a train to go out of town to attend a wedding. She was sentenced to three years in March 2025.
This is not the first time that Ms. Yang has been targeted for her faith. While serving time from 2002 to 2005, she was injected with a nerve-damaging drug that led her to feel extremely sick and uncomfortable. Her skin became so loose that it could be pinched and lifted. She also experienced strange sensations, with everyone looking like a skeleton to her. In another incident, she was stripped to her undergarments and tossed into snow piles. The guards also beat her hands with bamboo sticks, cuffed her to a bed frame, and force-fed her when she was on a hunger strike.
II. Profiles of the Victims
Among the 430 sentenced practitioners, at least 202 of them were 60 or older, including 93 in their 60s, 92 in their 70s, 16 in their 80s, and 1 in their 90s. The practitioners came from all walks of life, including teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers, and factory workers.
a. Younger Practitioners Sentenced
1) 36-Year-Old Beijing Woman Sentenced to 5 Years, Mother Arrested for Seeking Justice
Ms. Sun Shuang, 36, was arrested at her home in Beijing on November 22, 2023, after she was reported for distributing calendars earlier that day. The police promised to release her if she agreed to sign the detention notice and the interrogation records. She believed them and signed the documents, only to be taken to the detention center and subjected to prosecution. She was sentenced to five years with a 5,000-yuan fine on March 20, 2025.
Ms. Sun’s mother, Ms. Wang Shuhui, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested in mid-May 2025 for trying to seek justice for Ms. Sun.
2) 47-Year-Old Chongqing Man Sentenced to 2.5 Years in Prison
Mr. Zou Bin, a 47-year-old Chongqing resident, was arrested on May 22, 2024, and sentenced to 2.5 years in February 2025.
Mr. Zou’s parents have both passed away. His older brother’s legs are disabled, and he is unable to care for himself. Mr. Zou wrote to the police several times, demanding to be released to take care of his brother, but to no avail.
Mr. Zou had a decent job after graduating from college, but was fired for upholding his faith after the persecution started. He was given a forced labor term in May 2001 and sentenced to three years with four years' probation in 2011.
b. Court Orders Allowing Elderly Practitioners to Serve Time at Home Reversed
In a new disturbing development, many elderly practitioners, mostly in their 80s, were taken back into custody to serve time that they weren’t required to previously. Most of them were denied admission to detention centers or prisons due to various ailments. The new order to enforce their prison terms, or even re-serve the prison terms that had already expired, despite their physical conditions, poses tremendous risks to their health and lives.
In Heilongjiang Province, the Central Leading Group for Inspection Work of the Chinese Communist Party went to Daqing City and ordered the local authorities to ramp up the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and put them in jail.
In Weifang City, Shandong Province, the police took 84-year-old Mr. Wang Zhigeng into prison to serve a three-year term and said that they were given orders to imprison all Falun Gong practitioners who were sentenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of their age or health.
When arresting 84-year-old Ms. Liu Faqun, the police in Gulin County, Sichuan Province, said to her, “Even if we have to call an ambulance, we are carrying out the court order to take you into custody!”
1) Blind Man, 82, and His Wife, 85, Imprisoned for Practicing Falun Gong
Mr. Wei Jiuxiang, 82, and his wife, Ms. Zhang Yanmiao, 85, of Mengyin County, Shandong Province, were arrested on August 26, 2022, while reading Falun Gong books at home with other practitioners. The police raided their place and interrogated them at the police station. They were released on bail at dusk.
Mr. Wei, who became blind and incapacitated a few years before he was arrested, and Ms. Zhang were both sentenced to four years in 2024. They were not immediately ordered to serve time, but the police seized them in May 2025 and took them to prison.
2) Sentenced in 2022, an 85-Year-Old Woman and Her 90-Year-Old Husband Start Serving Time in June 2025
Another married couple in Shandong Province was arrested in October 2020, and both were sentenced to six months in prison in March 2022. They didn’t immediately start to serve time, as they kept failing the required physical examinations.
Three years later, the 85-year-old wife, Ms. Li Ping, and her 90-year-old husband, Mr. Liu Xuese, were taken into custody on June 18 and June 23, 2025, respectively, to start their prison terms.
Ms. Liu Faqun, 84, from Gulin County, Sichuan Province, was arrested on November 24, 2022, for passing out information about Falun Gong. The Gulin County Court sentenced her to four years and fined her 30,000 yuan on December 25, 2024. She was initially allowed to serve time outside of prison, but the local justice bureau issued an opinion around March 2025 alleging that she “posed harm to society” and must be imprisoned, even though she suffered from high blood pressure and other serious medical conditions.
The police went to Ms. Liu’s home on May 9, 2025, and told her, “Even if we have to call an ambulance, we are carrying out the court order to take you into custody!” They put her in the Luzhou City Detention Center that day and transferred her to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison on May 13. Her medical parole has been denied.
4) 77-Year-Old Woman Admitted to Prison to Serve a Prison Term Given in 2019
Ms. Wu Zhiqin, 77, of Jilin City, Jilin Province, was admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on May 15, 2025, to serve a prison term she was given in 2019 for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Wu was arrested in 2019 and later sentenced to two years and eight months. As she was found to have persistently high blood pressure, she was released on medical parole. On April 15, 2025, several court employees showed up at Ms. Wu’s home and took her to the Jilin City Detention Center over her family’s strong objection. The authorities transferred her to prison on May 15, without informing her family.
III. Violation of Law at Every Step of the Prosecution Process
a. Violent Arrests, Detention, and Unlawful Search of Practitioners’ Homes
Mr. Kong Fanwei, a 60-year-old Tianjin resident, was arrested at a community fair on July 3, 2024, for exchanging paper currency printed with information about Falun Gong. Due to strict information censorship in China, Falun Gong practitioners are using grassroots channels and creative ways, such as printing information on paper currency, to counteract the persecution.
The police broke into Mr. Kong’s home at around 9 a.m. While most of the officers were searching his place, two officers stood outside and forbade Mr. Kong’s family members, who shared the residence with him, from going inside. The police didn’t leave until 3 p.m. Mr. Kong’s computer, printer, and Falun Gong informational materials were confiscated. He was taken to the detention center in the evening.
The Wuqing District Court held a virtual hearing of Mr. Kong’s case on November 8, 2024, without informing his family, and sentenced him to 7.5 years. He was admitted to prison the next day.
Ms. Yao Yan, a Jilin City, Jilin Province, resident, was arrested on April 25, 2023, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in a residential area. She was released on bail shortly after. To avoid further persecution, she went into hiding and was put on the wanted list.
The police broke into Ms. Yao’s home after 7 p.m. on April 17, 2024, by hiring a locksmith. They demanded to know Ms. Yao’s whereabouts. Her husband replied that she had not returned home for a month. The police then searched Ms. Yao’s son’s personal cell phone before demanding to see his business phone as well.
The three officers searched every inch of the home, including under the bed and the shoe cabinet. One officer threatened to take Ms. Yao to jail if her son refused to reveal her whereabouts. He showed Ms. Yao’s son the information about her on their online wanted list and said she could be arrested anywhere.
When the police attempted to stay there to wait for Ms. Yao to come back, her husband complained about the harassment. One officer replied, “You have a Falun Gong [practitioner] in your family, and you still complain about us staying at your home?”
Ms. Yao was arrested on September 8, 2024, and taken to the Jilin City Detention Center the next day. Her family learned of her 1.5-year prison sentence in May 2025.
3) Police Forced Detention Center to Take Retired Teacher Despite Her High Blood Pressure
Ms. Ma Xiuqin, a 73-year-old retired teacher in Heze City, Shandong Province, was arrested at 7 a.m. on July 11, 2024, during a police sweep of local Falun Gong practitioners. The police interrogated her during the day and then took her to the local detention center in the early evening. Although the guards initially refused to admit her due to her high blood pressure, the police forced them to take her, saying, “We have been working so hard since 4 a.m., just to arrest these Falun Gong practitioners.”
Ms. Ma’s blood pressure remained high. She was unable to walk on her own or even get up after using the toilet. Upon hearing about her situation, her family went to the police station and asked that she be released on bail, but their request was denied.
In order to sentence Ms. Ma, the police reopened her case from 2020, when she was arrested for giving out a Falun Gong pamphlet. She was detained for a few days back then and released on house arrest. When submitting her latest case to the procuratorate in 2024, the police accused her of “trying to escape” and fabricated witness accounts to frame her.
Ms. Ma was tried on November 28, 2024, and sentenced to 16 months on December 5, 2024. She was ordered to serve time after losing her appeal, despite the fact that she was already incapacitated and relied on others for care.
4) Practitioners Being Roughed Up During Arrests
Ms. Zhang Xiuqun, in her 70s and a retired employee of the Shengli Oilfield in Dongying City, Shandong Province, was buying groceries at a farmers’ market on April 24, 2024, when two plainclothes officers suddenly showed up. They pushed her down and stepped on her, snatching her purse and ordering her to turn in her cell phone. Four other plainclothes officers then joined them and took Ms. Zhang to the police station. The police threatened her family not to seek justice for her, and they also kept the family in the dark as to her case status. The police submitted her case to the procuratorate around August 2024, and she was later sentenced to one year.
Similar to Ms. Zhang, Ms. Yuan Qiongxiu, 72, a former employee of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Suining City, Sichuan Province, was arrested outside a farmers’ market on April 28, 2024. The police held her hands behind her back, fastened her wrists together, photographed her, and shoved her into a black car with no license plate. Her home was ransacked shortly afterward. The police did not tell her family where she was. It took them over two months to find out her whereabouts. She was later sentenced to four years in prison.
Following Ms. Li Shoulan’s arrest on February 22, 2023, in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, the 73-year-old retired railroad employee had her eyes forcibly examined. The police brought in an eye exam instrument to shine a bright light in her eyes as one person pried open her upper eyelids and another pulled down her lower ones. They apparently did not know how to operate the instrument and spent several hours on it until it broke. Ms. Li was released 12 days later. Her eyes still hurt more than two months after the incident. She was arrested again months later and secretly sentenced to five years in prison.
Ms. Gao Ying of Beizhen City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on May 24, 2022. Because she refused to answer the police’s questions, the officer slapped her in the face, hit her in the ribs, and stabbed her ribs with a pen. The left side of her face, as well as multiple places on her body and arms, were covered with bruises. For the next few days, she was repeatedly denied admission by the local detention center due to her elevated temperature. While she was released soon after, the police took her back into custody in April 2024 and submitted her case to the procuratorate. She was sentenced to 4.5 years in mid-January 2025.
b. Fabricated Prosecution Evidence
1) Staged Photo Led to a 5-Year Prison Sentence
Mr. Xu Weidong’s family learned on April 21, 2025, that he had been sentenced to five years for practicing Falun Gong. They called the trial court handling the case and were told that the ruling was issued weeks earlier, on March 25. The court refused to give the family a copy of the verdict. Mr. Xu, a 62-year-old resident of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, and a former metallurgical engineer, was admitted to prison in the last week of April 2025.
Mr. Xu was arrested at home together with his wife, Ms. Sun Fenghua, on November 26, 2023. The police targeted the couple because they talked to people about Falun Gong. Ms. Sun was released on December 7, 2023, but Mr. Xu was put on administrative detention. Hours later, the police escalated his detention to criminal detention on the grounds that he was a “repeat offender.” Mr. Xu previously served a ten-year prison term (May 2002 – May 2012) for intercepting TV signals to broadcast programs debunking the hate propaganda against Falun Gong.
An officer came to the couple’s home on the night of December 23, 2023, and drove away Mr. Xu’s electric four-wheeler. The officer claimed that the four-wheeler was “evidence” and must be confiscated.
Several officers took Mr. Xu out of the detention center and back to the police station on December 25, 2023. They forced him to stand by his four-wheeler and have his pictures taken. They then submitted the “new evidence” to the procuratorate on February 21, 2024.
Prosecutor Liu indicted Mr. Xu in November 2024 and threatened to give him a heavy sentence if he refused to admit his “guilt.” Mr. Xu reiterated his innocence and refused to sign the indictment. He was later secretly sentenced to five years in prison.
Ms. Sun went to the detention center on April 23, 2025, but was denied visits with her husband on the grounds that his case was “classified.”
2) 83-Year-Old Man with Brain Atrophy Tricked into Signing Statement to Incriminate His Daughter-in-Law
Two residents of Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province, were wrongfully convicted on February 11, 2025. Ms. Gao Jing, 60, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan. Ms. Fu Guiqin, 74, received two years and ten months with a 100,000-yuan fine.
The two women were both arrested on February 8, 2024. During the required physical examination for detention, Ms. Fu was found to have a systolic blood pressure reading of 180 mmHg (normal range is 120 or lower). She was also struggling to walk on her own. In an attempt to persuade the detention center to accept her, the police used an old surveillance video showing Ms Fu walking briskly. Ms. Fu’s health further deteriorated while in detention, and she was released on bail in late April 2024.
The procuratorate twice returned the cases against Ms. Fu and Ms. Gao, citing insufficient evidence. The police tricked Ms. Gao’s father-in-law, Mr. Wang Fuyou, into signing statements incriminating her. Mr. Wang, 83, had been diagnosed with brain atrophy, and once went missing, as he didn’t remember the way home. The police also coerced Ms. Gao’s husband, son, and 83-year-old mother-in-law to provide “testimonies” against her. Liu further fabricated some evidence in the name of Ms. Gao’s family members. With the “additional” evidence, he got the procuratorate to accept the cases the third time.
Ms. Fu and Ms. Gao appeared in the Yilan County Court on December 17, 2024. Ms. Fu suddenly fainted and was rushed to the hospital. After she came to, she was returned to the courtroom. During the trial, she was sometimes lucid and sometimes confused. As she couldn’t answer the judge’s questions, he had to halt the hearing.
Ms. Gao’s family noted that she was emaciated, her hair had all turned gray, and she had lost most of her teeth. She was handcuffed and shackled throughout the hearing.
During the second hearing, the judge read aloud Ms. Gao’s husband’s “testimony” against her. When he swore that he had never said anything like that, the judge instructed the bailiffs to remove him from the courtroom. Only then did he and the rest of his family realize that they had been tricked by captain Liu into providing “testimonies” against Ms. Gao without their knowledge.
Ms. Gao and Ms. Fu were convicted on February 11, 2025.
3) Non-existent Witness Included in Prosecution Evidence Against Liaoning Engineer
Mr. Zhang Huiqiang, a 58-year-old former engineer at the Fushun City Ethylene Chemical Factory in Liaoning Province, was sentenced to 4.5 years over shaky evidence fabricated by the police.
During Mr. Zhang’s court hearing on March 6, 2025, prosecutor Yang Yuqiu alleged that he broke the law by “distributing calendars with Falun Gong messages at a cell phone repair shop and a coffee shop, as well as spending paper currency with Falun Gong messages printed on the bills.”
Mr. Zhang argued that since no law in China deems Falun Gong a crime, he did not violate any law. Presiding judge Zhu Lina interrupted him repeatedly.
Prosecutor Yang claimed that a man named Su Bin “witnessed” the police raid Mr. Zhang’s home. His lawyer replied that he watched the police cam video in its entirety and did not see anyone named Su Bin in it. By law, police raids must be witnessed by an independent third party. If it is not, the items confiscated cannot be used as evidence to charge the suspect.
Judge Zhu, however, insisted that there was a Su Bin in the police video and that she saw a photo of Su Bin in the police-supplied evidence.
Mr. Zhang’s daughter, who served as his non-lawyer defender, testified against the police for extorting confessions from her mother. On the day of Mr. Zhang’s arrest, October 21, 2024, his wife noticed that the police had ripped off every page of a calendar with information about Falun Gong and claimed that each page was a separate piece of “evidence.” When she condemned them for fabricating evidence against her husband, they threatened to arrest her. They also seized several blank flash drives and ripped off an old decoration with the word “Fu” (“good fortune” in Chinese) on it.
The police didn’t allow Mr. Zhang’s wife to verify the confiscated items, nor did they issue her a list of the items as required by law. They took her to the police station, where officer Yu Bing asked where she and her husband got the calendar. She said she didn’t know because she did not bring it home. Yu responded, “If it wasn’t you, then it was your husband.” Before she realized they were trying to get her to incriminate her husband, Yu and another officer ordered her to sign the interrogation record. When they did not let her read it, she hesitated until they threatened to target her daughter. Under pressure, she signed her name.
Mr. Zhang’s daughter argued that the “testimonies” provided by her mother against her father were thus inadmissible, especially given that her mother had written to prosecutor Yang and judge Zhu two days before the trial to nullify what she was forced to say during her interrogation.
Mr. Zhang’s daughter also pointed out that the cell phone repair shop did not identify her father from the store’s surveillance videos until December 9, 2024, yet the police had already spelled out Mr. Zhang’s name in their case receipt, dated December 7, 2024. Although she demanded her father’s acquittal, he was sentenced to a four-and-a-half-year prison term.
Three Dongying City, Shandong Province residents were convicted on May 26, 2025. Ms. Wang Fan, 50, was sentenced to four years. Her husband, Mr. Du Jianxin, 51, and Mr. Fu Jian, around 47, both received three and a half years.
The three practitioners were arrested on November 29, 2023, during a police sweep of local Falun Gong practitioners. Prior to the arrests, the police monitored practitioners for a month, including installing tracking devices on their cars and arranging agents to follow and photograph them.
Mr. Du’s mother was so distraught by her son’s and daughter-in-law’s arrests that she passed away in May 2024. The couple’s family hired a lawyer to represent them. The detention center barred the lawyer from visiting his clients and told him he had to get approval from the police first. The police claimed that they could not grant any meetings because they were in the process of interrogating the couple and gathering prosecution evidence. In fact, the police never went to the detention center to question the couple. Ms. Wang went on a hunger strike in protest and was force-fed.
The Dongying District Court held the first hearing of the three practitioners’ cases on July 3, 2024. Presiding judge Liu Nan did not allow the practitioners or their lawyers to present defense statements. During the second and third hearings on October 16 and 21, she allowed the defense statements to be presented. The lawyers entered not guilty pleas for their clients.
One key piece of prosecution evidence presented by prosecutor Wang Shasha were the interrogation records concerning another local Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Liu Chunrong, a retired water company employee. Ms. Liu was also arrested on November 29, 2023. Although she was released later that night, she was arrested again one week later, on December 7, and taken to the brainwashing center, where she was abused to the point of developing a mental disorder in five days. The police then had her sign many documents, including blank pieces of paper.
Prosecutor Wang alleged that these interrogation records stated that Ms. Liu implicated Mr. Fu, Mr. Du, and his wife and that what Ms. Liu “confessed” was sufficient to prove that the three practitioners on trial broke the law.
The three practitioners and their lawyers, who learned about Ms. Liu’s abuse from an insider, challenged the prosecutor to show videos of Ms. Liu being abused and that she was coerced into signing the documents when she had no mental clarity. The prosecutor did not play any videos or address the question of how such illegally-gathered “evidence” against the three practitioners could be admissible in the trial.
Judge Liu held a fourth hearing on May 19, 2025. The three practitioners and their lawyers again demanded their acquittal, but they were all sentenced one week later.
c. Chinese Judge and Prosecutor: “Don’t Talk to Us about the Law!”
Three residents of Huaihua City, Hunan Province, appeared in the Zhijiang County Court separately on December 16 and 17, 2024. The judge who presided over the three trials and the prosecutor who charged all three both yelled, “Don’t talk to me about the law” during the proceedings.
Ms. Wu Fangming, 60; Ms. Jiang Changxian, 59; and Ms. Yin Qiuyang, 75, were arrested between September and October 2023 and indicted at an unknown time. Presiding Judge Chen Qingzhen heard Ms. Wu’s and Ms. Yin’s cases in two back-to-back hearings on December 16, 2024, and Ms. Jiang’s the next day.
On the morning of December 16, 2024, several police cruisers and a SWAT vehicle were seen parked in front of the courthouse. A large number of community workers were also dispatched to prevent local Falun Gong practitioners from entering the courthouse. A few practitioners who managed to get close were chased away and shadowed by plainclothes officers. Some practitioners reported receiving threatening phone calls while on their way to the courthouse.
Ms. Wu’s hearing began at 10 a.m. Only two of her family members were allowed inside. The rest of the gallery seats were filled with people arranged by the court, including agencies overseeing the defense lawyers’ law firms.
Prosecutor Zhou stated that Ms. Wu was arrested on September 28, 2023, after the police, who had been following her intercepted a letter she had dropped off at a post office and found that it contained information about Falun Gong. Her lawyers, Mr. Li Chunfu and Mr. Dong Qianyong, both pointed out that the police violated the law by intercepting private letters. They argued that the letter could not be used as admissible evidence against their client.
Judge Chen instructed the prosecutor to gather more evidence and adjourned the session, only to resume it 30 minutes later when the two defense lawyers were out for lunch.
At 4 p.m., judge Chen convened Ms. Yin’s trial. Her non-lawyer defender, Mr. Xie Yanyi, was hoarse, and she could not hear him clearly. Her son then entrusted the aforementioned lawyer, Dong, to represent his mother.
When judge Chen denied the request, Mr. Dong cited relevant laws that allowed for such last-minute requests for additional legal representation in court. Chen and prosecutor Zhou Yulan both yelled, “Don’t talk to us about the law!” Mr. Dong refused to budge, and Chen relented.
As the hearing went on, Mr. Xie’s voice got better, and he joined Mr. Dong in defending Ms. Yin. Judge Chen adjourned the hearing at 7 p.m.
Ms. Jiang appeared in court at 2:30 p.m. on December 17, 2024. Mr. Dong served as her defense lawyer, too. He testified that the arresting officers had punched his client in the head after arresting her on October 15, 2023. He also pointed out that eight male officers stripped off her top when she refused to submit to a physical exam; they then held her down so the lab technicians could draw her blood, take an X-ray, and do other tests. The police also deceived her husband into giving statements incriminating her.
Mr. Dong argued that the police-supplied prosecution evidence should be inadmissible. Judge Chen and prosecutor Zhou claimed that he was not welcome in their court and ordered Ms. Jiang to hire a new lawyer within three days. Chen then adjourned the session.
All three practitioners were convicted on February 13, 2025. Ms. Wu was given four years; Ms. Yin, three and a half years; and Ms. Jiang, three years.
d. “How Can This Be Used as Evidence [to Show Their Innocence]?”
Two Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, residents were sentenced to prison on March 31, 2025. Mr. Jin Xiaofeng, 65, was sentenced to three years and fined 10,000 yuan. Ms. Zhao Guiping, 71, received five years and a 30,000-yuan fine.
Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao were talking outside on July 13, 2024, when five plainclothes officers swarmed the pair and said they had been following Mr. Jin for three months. Without producing any IDs or a search warrant, they searched Mr. Jin’s car and confiscated over 500 Falun Gong flyers. The police also raided Mr. Jin’s home later that day and seized a computer and a printer.
On the way to raid Mr. Jin’s home, an officer said to him, “People like you often die in custody, and your children are implicated.”
During the practitioners’ hearing on February 20, 2025, their lawyers and Mr. Jin’s family defender (his daughter, alias Mei) demanded their acquittal during their hearing. The two practitioners also testified in their own defense. Presiding judge Zhang and prosecutor Wang Yu kept interrupting them.
Wang accused Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used by the communist regime to frame Falun Gong practitioners. The defense pointed out that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it a cult. Mei also presented a joint notice issued by the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, the General Office of the State Council, and the Ministry of Public Security on April 9, 2000, titled, “Notice of the Ministry of Public Security on Certain Issues Concerning the Identification and Suppression of Cult Organizations.” The notice listed 14 cult organizations, but Falun Gong was not on it.
Judge Zhang declined to accept the notice as evidence to support the defendants’ innocence and yelled, “How can this be used as evidence?”
Judge Zhang adjourned the hearing after four hours. He sentenced both practitioners on March 31, 2025. Both Mr. Jin and Ms. Zhao are in declining health due to the mental pressure from the persecution.
e. Prosecutor: It’s Illegal to Read Falun Gong Books or Distribute Informational Materials
During the joint trial of six Falun Gong practitioners of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, on January 31 and May 22, 2024, the prosecutor Guo alleged that it was illegal for the practitioners to read the Falun Gong teachings together, to produce and distribute Falun Gong informational materials, to register for Minghui.org mailboxes, to hire lawyers to defend other previously arrested practitioners, and to take Falun Gong books from the homes of deceased practitioners whose families decided to give the books away.
The practitioners and their lawyers argued that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong and that all of the things they’d done listed above were within their constitutional rights.
The practitioners’ lawyers further pointed out that the use of the Suzhou City Domestic Security Division (under the police department) to verify and authenticate prosecution evidence was a violation of legal procedures, as only an independent third party can check prosecution evidence and issue formal opinions. As such, all the prosecution's evidence should be inadmissible.
Three practitioners testified against the police for torturing them during interrogations and coercing them into making false “confessions.” Hence, the interrogation records should also be tossed out of the trial. They added that the location where they were held in criminal detention was not a legally recognized detention facility.
Throughout the trial, both the presiding judge and prosecutor failed to specify which law the practitioners broke while they were engaged in the activities listed above. The judge sentenced them on March 20, 2025, with prison terms ranging from four years to seven years.
IV. Impact of Persecution on the Practitioners
a. Physical Health Jeopardized
1) Heilongjiang Man Given Second Prison Term, Force-Fed in Custody
Mr. Tong Mingyu, 43, from Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was subjected to daily force-feeding while being held at the Shuangcheng District Detention Center.
Mr. Tong started a hunger strike the day of his arrest on November 20, 2024, when he paid a visit to another Falun Gong practitioner. An officer called Mr. Tong’s mother and claimed to be a delivery worker and that he needed to confirm the address of the home she shared with her son. The elderly woman believed the officer and gave him the information. The police soon arrived and raided the home.
Mr. Tong was tried by the Daoli District Court on February 13, 2025, and sentenced to five years and three months on February 27.
2) 51-Year-Old Man in Critical Condition Serving a One-Year Term
Just days after Mr. Lei Yangfan’s family finally confirmed his prison sentence after he went missing for ten months, they were devastated to learn that he is now in critical condition.
Mr. Lei Yangfan
Mr. Lei, a 51-year-old Changsha City, Hunan Province resident, didn’t return home on May 14, 2024. His wife, Ms. Tang Min, knew right away that he must have been arrested again for their shared faith in Falun Gong. She approached various government agencies, but no one told her what happened to her husband. It wasn’t until early March 2025 that she confirmed his one-year prison sentence on September 25, 2024.
A prison guard from the Wangling Prison called Ms. Lei’s family on the evening of March 23, 2025, and said that Mr. Lei had fluid accumulation in his lungs and brain. He had been taken to the hospital earlier that day and issued a critical condition notice while being treated in the intensive care unit.
The family rushed to the hospital the next afternoon, where they found Mr. Lei in a coma. He had no response when they called his name. He was emaciated and disfigured. Many officers, some in police uniform and some in plainclothes, were present in the room. The family wasn’t allowed to bring their cellphones into the room, nor were they allowed to touch Mr. Lei.
After only a few minutes, the police ordered the family to leave. They said that they were also giving them special permission to visit him. When the family asked Mr. Lei’s doctor about his condition before leaving, the doctor said he was already doing much better.
Mr. Lei’s family demanded that the police release him. The police asked them to wait until further notice.
Prior to his latest sentencing, Mr. Lei had been repeatedly arrested, harassed, and detained in brainwashing centers over the years of persecution. He served two labor camp terms for a total of four years, during which time he was almost tortured to death. When he was incarcerated, Mr. Lei’s elderly parents struggled to take care of his daughter and mentally disabled sister.
3) Hebei Woman Made to Stand Trial Despite Serious Health Conditions, Sentenced to Two Years
Ms. Shi Rui, of Cangzhou City, Hebei Province, was arrested as soon as she arrived at work on April 17, 2024. The police shut off the power to her company before the arrest to disable the surveillance system.
After raiding Ms. Shi’s home, the police took her to the local detention center. Twice a day, she was forced to remove all her clothes and be searched naked. She began to suffer a persistent high fever in late January 2025, and her arms and legs swelled up. The skin on her legs turned dark after she stood for a little while.
Ms. Shi was notified on February 22, 2025, that she was scheduled to appear in court in three days. She said that, given her current health condition, she was unfit to stand trial. The judge told her, “We’ve determined the date and we must hold the hearing on that day. You have to come even if you arrive in an ambulance.”
The judge held the hearing as scheduled and sentenced Ms. Shi to two years with a 10,000-yuan fine on March 25, 2025.
Ms. Zhao Ying, an 81-year-old Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, resident, lost the appeal she filed contesting a 3.5-year prison sentence on December 30, 2024. The appeals judges claimed that they must rule against her because she “tried to escape” and “was harmful to society.”
The ordeal of Ms. Zhao, a retired bank manager, stemmed from her arrest on April 26, 2021, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. After she was released on May 11, 2021, due to high blood pressure, the police kept harassing her at home.
The mental pressure of the persecution took a toll on Ms. Zhao’s health. She fainted at home on December 12, 2021, and was diagnosed with bladder cancer. She was operated on twice and had several rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Ms. Zhao’s family received a call from the procuratorate on December 8, 2022, saying that she had been indicted. She was arrested again on August 1, 2024, and taken to the detention center. She stood trial on September 5 and was sentenced to 3.5 years with a 5,000-yuan fine on October 29, 2024.
Ms. Zhao is still held at the local detention center and struggling with a number of serious illnesses, including bladder cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
5) Jilin Man Sentenced to 4 Years, Sent to Prison Hospital Due to Frail Health
Mr. Zhu Yujun from Shulan City, Jilin Province, was arrested on June 5, 2024, during a police sweep. When he was detained at the Shulan City Detention Center, an insider reported seeing him being beaten by two guards. One of the guards said, “This guy refused to answer questions and deserves to be beaten.”
Mr. Zhu was later found to have some heart conditions and was hospitalized for a while. The detention center filed a request to have him released on bail, but a higher authority turned it down. He was sentenced to four years at an unknown time and admitted to the Gongzhuling Prison on December 18, 2024. Given his frail health, he was put in the prison hospital. His family was not told about his health or where he was.
b. Financial Persecution After Serving Prison Terms
1) Mother and Daughter Complete Wrongful Prison Terms to Find Themselves in Dire Financial Situation
Ms. Wang Rongjun, a 74-year-old retired store sales associate, and her daughter, Ms. Na Yan, a nurse in her 40s, from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, were arrested at their shared residence on July 13, 2021. The mother and daughter were both convicted in February 2022, each receiving three-year and two-month prison terms with 10,000 yuan fines.
Upon being released from prison on August 9, 2024, Ms. Na learned that she had been fired by her employer, the Shenyang City Sixth Hospital, during her prison term, without her knowledge. She requested a reinstatement of her job, but the hospital insisted that a “convicted felon” must be terminated.
Ms. Wang was issued her retirement benefits for an unknown portion of her prison term, but the local social security bureau later stopped the payments. After she was released in August 2024, the Social Security Bureau still did not reinstate her pension and ordered her to return the benefits paid during her prison term first; otherwise, they would continue her pension payment suspension.
2) Shanxi Man Sentenced to Probation, Fired by His Workplace
Mr. Liu Jinsheng, 50, of Anze County, Shanxi Province, was arrested on July 4, 2023, and released on bail that evening. The police deceived him into going to the police department on October 25, 2023, by telling him they were going to close his case. Because he still refused to cooperate with the police, they gave him a two-week administrative detention the next day. Two weeks later, they took him to a brainwashing center, where more than ten staffers worked on him specifically. He was released on bail a month later.
The police submitted Mr. Liu’s case to the procuratorate on January 17, 2024. He was indicted on April 18, 2024, and tried in September 2024. Only the court staffers and his lawyer attended the hearing. He was sentenced to three years with a four-year probation and a 5,000-yuan fine on December 25, 2024. The appeals court rejected his appeal on February 26, 2025, without holding a hearing.
Mr. Liu’s employer, the Anze County Power Company, was forced to fire him in April 2025. He is now being closely monitored by the local police and the Justice Bureau, and is not allowed to go out of town.
Related Reports:
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
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