Reported in April 2025: 16 Falun Gong Practitioners Die as a Result of Persecution
(Minghui.org) The deaths of 16 more Falun Gong practitioners as a result of the persecution of their faith were confirmed in April 2025.
One death took place in 2013, one in 2016, and one in 2023; four deaths occurred in 2024; and nine more were recorded between February and April 2025. Due to the Chinese Communist Party’s strict information censorship, the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners cannot always be reported on time, nor is all the information readily available.
The 16 practitioners, 11 of them female, were between 53 and 87 at the time of their passing. Two of them were in their 50s, four in their 60s, seven in their 70s, and three in their 80s.
The deceased hailed from seven provinces, municipalities, or autonomous regions, with Hebei reporting the most cases at five. Heilongjiang ranked the second with four cases. Jilin and Ningxia each had two cases. The remaining three regions, including Beijing, Jiangsu, and Sichuan, each had one case.
A 76-year-old man died in a prison hospital while serving an unknown term. Two practitioners were predeceased by their spouses, who died years earlier also due to the persecution. The death of a 75-year-old mother came only two months after that of her daughter, who died shortly after the latest police harassment. Most of the other practitioners died as a result of long term incarceration, torture, harassment, and/or financial persecution.
Below are selected cases. The complete list of the deceased practitioners can be downloaded here (PDF).
Death in Custody
Couple Jailed for Practicing Falun Gong, Husband Dies in Prison
Mr. Wang Ligong of Changchun City, Jilin Province, died around November 2024 while serving an unknown prison term for his faith in Falun Gong. It is unclear when Mr. Wang, who once worked at a research institute, was admitted to Gongzhuling Prison. An insider revealed that he had severe constipation in November 2024 and was given enemas several times in the prison hospital. He was then moved to the division for the elderly and infirm, where he had a brain hemorrhage and died in the prison hospital.
Mr. Wang’s ordeal began on May 18, 2023, when he was seized by plainclothes officers as he left his apartment building. They snatched his key and raided his home. They confiscated dozens of Falun Gong books, three computers, three printers, and Falun Gong informational materials.
During the raid, the police didn’t produce a search warrant, and they kept Mr. Wang and his 74-year-old wife, Ms. Gong Shuying, in separate rooms. They asked which items belonged to each one of them. The couple refused to answer, so the police ended up counting things seized from Ms. Gong’s room as hers and Mr. Wang’s room as his.
The two were taken to the Nanhu Police Station and held for two days, during which time they were taken to Jilin Province First Hospital and Changchun City Hospital for physical exams. Both hospitals deemed the couple to be in poor health and unfit for detention.
The police were going to try a third hospital on May 20, 2023, but changed their minds. They released Mr. Wang on bail that day after forcing him to first pay 3,000 yuan and then another 2,000 yuan (without issuing any receipts) to cover the costs of his and his wife’s medical exams and detention. Meanwhile, they admitted Ms. Gong to the Changchun City Detention Center.
Mr. Wang later went to the Nanhu Police Station to ask about the status of his wife’s case. It took him a few trips to get hold of the officer in charge, who informed him that the police had submitted his wife’s case to the Chaoyang District Procuratorate on May 26, 2023. While he had been put on bail, he wasn’t given any formal notice to that effect.
Mr. Wang hired a lawyer to represent his wife. When the lawyer went to the detention center on July 3, 2023, to visit her, the guards demanded to see notices from his local justice bureau and the Nanhu Police Station authorizing him to represent a Falun Gong practitioner.
The lawyer argued that there was no law requiring such notices. The guards replied that it was a policy from the Changchun City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, an extra-judicial agency tasked with overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong. They, however, could not produce a document verifying that.
The lawyer went to the Changchun City Procuratorate to file a complaint against the detention center. The procuratorate sided with the detention center. Mr. Wang called the mayor’s hotline on July 4 and 5, 2023, and was told that the lawyer had to meet the detention center’s requirements before being granted any meetings with his client.
Four men seized Mr. Wang from his home at around 10 a.m. on August 26, 2023. He and his wife were later both sentenced to prison. Details of their indictments, trials, and prison terms are unknown. Mr. Wang was admitted to Gongzhuling Prison, where he died around November 2024. It is unclear where his wife was taken to serve time.
Family Tragedies
Ms. Zhang Fengling, 75, of Daan City, Jilin Province, died on March 27, 2025, less than two months after the death of her daughter, both as a result of the persecution of their faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhang Fengling
Ms. Zhang was last arrested on July 15, 2022, and sentenced to ten months around January 15, 2023. Her family was never allowed to visit her or given any updates about her case. It wasn’t until January 18, 2023, that they managed to find out that she had been admitted to prison. Even today, they still do not know where Ms. Zhang served time.
By the time Ms. Zhang was released in May 2023, she had become extremely weak due to abuse in custody. She often fainted at home. The social security office suspended her pension during her ten-month imprisonment (totaling nearly 28,000 yuan). A widow, she struggled to make ends meet. The police officers kept harassing her at home and taking pictures of her against her will. They also ordered her to sign paperwork, asserting that all Falun Gong practitioners jailed for their faith had to be under strict surveillance for three years following their release.
In addition to Ms. Zhang’s own ordeal, her daughter, Ms. Wang Hongyan, was also targeted for her shared faith. Ms. Wang struggled with poor health and a severe liver condition after she finished serving a four-year term for practicing Falun Gong in 2021. She passed away on February 9, 2025, weeks after she was harassed again. She was 52.
Ms. Wang’s passing devastated Ms. Zhang. She fell into a coma on March 27, 2025, and died later that day.
Husband and Wife Die in 2009 and 2025 in the Persecution of Their Shared Faith in Falun Gong
A couple in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was subjected to decades of brutal persecution after the Chinese communist regime initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999. Mr. Guan Zhaoqi died on July 26, 2009, merely ten months after he finished serving a six-year term. While mourning his passing, his wife, Ms. Yu Guixiang, continued to face constant arrests and harassment for their shared faith. She died on February 19, 2025.
When Mr. Guan was still serving time, his father, in his 80s, worried about him and became distressed. He died in September 2005, without seeing his son for the last time. After Mr. Guan also died years later, his mother suffered a mental breakdown and often wandered off from her home. She died several years later.
While it was because of the persecution that the couple was unable to care for their parents and families, the communist regime authorities spread propaganda about them, saying that it was because they practiced Falun Gong that they didn’t care for their parents.
Deaths After Prison Torture, Long Term Incarceration, and Harassment
74-Year-Old Woman Dies After 13 Years of Incarceration and Torture
Ms. Chen Jinfeng of Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, died on March 27, 2025, after serving one labor camp term and two prison terms totaling 13 years. She was 74.
Ms. Chen Jinfeng
In addition to the incarceration and torture she endured over the years, her employer, the Forestry Radio and Television University in Mudanjiang, fired her and withheld her pension beginning in August 2000, which was in line with the persecution policy stating “ruin Falun Gong practitioners financially” set forth by former communist Party leader Jiang Zemin.
While Ms. Chen was imprisoned, her then college-age son struggled to finance his education and became malnourished. Although his school suggested he take medical leave, he continued to take classes and did odd jobs to support himself. But due to the lack of financial support, he eventually dropped out and never finished college.
Following an arrest on April 29, 2003, Ms. Chen was restrained in a metal chair and force-fed mustard oil. The police also wrapped her head in a plastic bag and she almost suffocated. They repeated the torture several times. She suffered from intense pain afterwards.
When she refused to give information on other Falun Gong practitioners, the police director shouted, “Beat her to death! No one has to bear any responsibility if she dies.”
Several officers tied her to a chair and pulled her limbs in different directions. One officer shocked her hands with an electric baton at the same time. She lost consciousness. After she came to, the torture continued. One officer struck her arms until they were black and blue and she could not lift them. They also covered her head and pressed her shins against the edge of a table.
She was later sentenced to five years in prison and released on April 29, 2008, in serious condition.
After another arrest on April 29, 2009, the detention center guards handcuffed her, kicked her in the head until she lost consciousness, stabbed her fingers with needles, and elbowed her in the chest. She had intense chest pain for days and had difficulty breathing and walking. She was sentenced to six years and released from the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on April 29, 2015.
The police continued to harass Ms. Chen and her son after she returned home. After years of incarceration and torture, Ms. Chen was unable to stand or walk on her own. Due to injuries to her internal organs, she had excessive phlegm. She constantly felt weak and kept sweating. All her teeth fell out. She also had chronic oral ulcers. In her final years, her memory began to decline and she often vomited after eating. She eventually died on March 27, 2025, at the age of 74.
Heilongjiang Woman Dies One Year After Completing 12-Year Prison Term
Ms. Zhang Huijuan, 63, from Yilan County, Heilongjiang Province, was diagnosed with cancer while serving a 12-year term for practicing Falun Gong, but the prison authorities still refused to release her on medical parole. The police continued to harass her when she was finally released at the end of her term. Her health kept deteriorating, and she died a year later on February 5, 2025. She was 63.
Ms. Zhang Huijuan
Ms. Zhang was arrested on the evening of March 29, 2013, after the police suspected her of putting up banners with information about Falun Gong along the highway. She was later sentenced to 12 years by the Yilan County Court.
While serving time in the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison, Ms. Zhang was tortured and forced to work for long hours without pay. She was not allowed to sleep or eat when she failed to finish the daily quota. Due to the heavy workload and the meager amount of food she was given, she fainted while carrying a heavy bag of goods. The other inmates stepped on her in order to get their own work done quickly.
One product Ms. Zhang was forced to make was paper containers. Without any personal protective equipment, her body always swelled up, including her eyes, every time she came into contact with the glue or other toxic substances.
Other products Ms. Zhang worked on included artificial eyelashes, toothpicks, and coffee stirrers. Many practitioners experienced significant decline in their vision while making the eyelashes. One practitioner became blind in her right eye.
Ms. Zhang later developed an oozing lump on her arm. Although the lump was confirmed to be cancer, the prison denied her family’s application to release her on medical parole. Ms. Zhang’s health quickly deteriorated after she was released in 2024. Yet the police never stopped harassing her. She died on February 5, 2025.
Financial Persecution
Mr. Feng Xiaoqi, 74, in Chengde City, Hebei Province, had a stroke on September 12, 2024, the day before he was to appear at a hearing regarding the illegal suspension of his pension by the Social Security Bureau. He died on February 23, 2025, and the appeals court ruled nine days later, on March 4, to deny his appeal.
Mr. Feng was arrested on August 31, 2003, for producing materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong and sentenced to 14 years after a hearing on June 11, 2004. It is unclear whether he was released ahead of his scheduled release date in August 2017.
Mr. Feng reached retirement age in 2012 and began receiving his pension in September of that year. The Chengde City Social Security Bureau suspended his pension in August 2020 and ordered him to return the payments that had been issued to him from September 2012 to July 2020 (95 months in total).
According to China’s social security law, Mr. Feng met the pension contribution requirements in 2007 and was entitled to full benefits after he reached retirement age in 2012. The Social Security Bureau cited his prison sentence as the reason for the pension suspension, but, by law, no government agency can forfeit retirees’ retirement benefits. He thus submitted a request to seek a reinstatement of his pension, but the social security bureau never responded. He then filed a lawsuit against the bureau with the Shuangqiao District Court.
The court ruled in favor of the social security bureau. Mr. Feng proceeded to file an administrative reconsideration with the Chengde City Intermediate Court. While the case was pending, the social security bureau threatened to seize his house to repay his “debt” of the 95 months of pension payments.
The intermediate court scheduled a court date for September 13, 2024, but Mr. Feng had a stroke the night before. He became unconscious and was rushed to the hospital, where he remained for more than a month. After he returned home, he struggled to recover and died on February 23, 2025. The intermediate court ruled on March 4, 2025, to uphold the lower court’s decision to order Mr. Feng to repay the social security bureau the 95 months of pension benefits issued to him between 2012 and 2020. It’s not clear if the social security bureau would still seize his house to repay his “debt.”
Related Reports:
Reported in March 2025: Thirteen Falun Gong Practitioners Die as a Result of Persecution
Reported in February 2025: Eight Falun Gong Practitioners Die as a Result of Persecution
Reported in January 2025: 13 Falun Gong Practitioners Die as a Result of Persecution
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