(Minghui.org) In July 2026, Minghui.org learned of 485 cases of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted for their faith, including 58 sentencing cases, 204 arrest cases, and 223 harassment incidents. Two deaths in custody were also confirmed, including one practitioner who died 20 days after her arrest in April 2026, and another 84-year-old woman who died in prison, nine months after her admission despite her poor health. It is unclear whether the death cases were part of the 485 cases.

Due to strict censorship in China, information collection and reporting is often delayed. Some of the newly-reported cases took place in 2026, while others are likely from earlier years.

Below are select persecution cases.

Deaths in Custody

65-Year-Old Yunnan Woman Arrested on Train Back Home from Vacation, Dies in Detention 23 Days Later

Ms. Yang Jinhui, 65, and of Gejiu City, Yunnan Province, was arrested on April 10, 2026, while on a train heading home from a family vacation. The arresting officers from the Kaiyuan City Railway said they received an order from higher-ups to closely monitor her because she was a Falun Gong practitioner.

Ms. Yang was put in the Honghe Prefecture Detention Center located in the prefectural capital of Mengzi City. Honghe Prefecture oversees both Gejiu City and Kaiyuan City.

Ms. Yang’s family was notified on May 3 that she had just died. The family rushed to the detention center and was told that Ms. Yang “had a heart attack, and the resuscitation was unsuccessful.”

The family asked to see the surveillance videos. In the footage shown to them, Ms. Yang was seen washing her clothes when she suddenly collapsed.

The family requested an autopsy, but it is unclear whether the detention center agreed to it. Other details of the case also remain to be investigated.

84-Year-Old Woman Dies in Prison, Nine Months After Being Admitted Despite Poor Health

Despite her poor health, the authorities took Ms. Liu Huiju into custody in July 2025 to serve a 1.5-year prison term that she was sentenced to in late 2021 for practicing Falun Gong.

Ms. Liu was resuscitated four times over the next nine months. When her family visited her, she no longer recognized them. She died in prison on May 7, 2026, just weeks after her 84th birthday.

Ms. Liu, of Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on May 12, 2020. She was later released on bail and put under residential surveillance. In August 2021, the police submitted her case to the Shuangyashan City Procuratorate, which indicted her and transferred her case to the Shuangyashan City Court.

The mental pressure from the persecution took a toll on Ms. Liu’s health. She developed persistent high blood pressure, and her prior heart condition returned. Because she wasn’t able to travel, the judge and prosecutor tried her at home on November 30, 2021, and sentenced her to one and a half years with a 1,000-yuan fine at the end of the hearing. Given her poor health, the court didn’t immediately order her to start serving time.

Eight police officers seized Ms. Liu at her home on June 12, 2025. She was denied admission to the detention center and taken home later that day. Officers from the Fuan Police Station called her repeatedly to ask if she had recovered.

The police returned to Ms. Liu’s home in early July 2025. They strapped her to a stretcher and took her to the hospital in an ambulance. They claimed they were only taking her to the hospital for a physical exam, but after the exam, they got her admitted to the detention center. She was transferred to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on July 31, 2025, and died there on May 7, 2026.

Sentencing Cases

Married Couple Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong

A married couple in Linyi City, Shandong Province were sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong. Mr. Xiao Yujun was sentenced to five and a half years, with a 50,000-yuan fine. His wife, Ms. Zhang Aimei, was given four and a half years, with a 40,000-yuan fine.

The couple was arrested at home on July 22, 2025. Three plainclothes officers broke in without knocking. They flashed a piece of paper in front of Mr. Xiao, claiming it was a search warrant. They then took him away.

Not long after, the police returned to arrest Ms. Zhang. They searched the property and didn’t produce a list of confiscated items for her to sign.

Mr. Xiao was admitted to the Mengyin County Detention Center, while Ms. Zhang was taken to the Linyi City Detention Center. They were soon indicted by prosecutor Meng Qingxiu from the Yinan County Procuratorate.

The couple appeared in the Yinan County Court on January 13 and May 13, 2026. Their two lawyers entered not guilty pleas for them.

The lawyers pointed out that their clients have the constitutional right to practice their faith, and that they didn’t beak the law by doing so. When the couple began practicing Falun Gong in 1997, the government encouraged the public to do so because of its significant health benefits.

The prosecutor claimed that the couple “committed serious crimes,” but provided no supporting evidence. Some of the confiscated Falun Gong materials used as prosecution evidence were outdated. The police also didn’t verify the amount of confiscated materials with the couple.

The prosecutor listed Gong Maofu and Zhang Yuzhi as two witnesses who reported the couple for distributing Falun Gong materials. However, neither appeared in court for cross-examination.

Mr. Xiao also testified in his own defense. He argued that no Chinese law has ever criminalized Falun Gong, and that the Chinese Press and Publication Administration lifted the ban on Falun Gong books in 2011. He demanded an acquittal for himself and his wife.

The judges convicted the couple on June 22, 2026. They have appealed the verdicts.

Tianshui City, Gansu Province: Four Falun Gong Practitioners and One Family Member Sentenced to Prison

Four Falun Gong practitioners in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, and one of their family members were sentenced to prison in July 2026.

Ms. Liu Qiye was given three years and two months. Her husband, who does not practice Falun Gong, was given one and a half years. Mr. Wang Shilie and Mr. Yang Tanguo were each sentenced to two years. Ms. Ma Xiaojuan received one year and eight months. All five were also issued unknown amounts of court fines.

Ms. Liu and her husband were arrested at home on the afternoon of December 23, 2024. Officers from the Qinzhou District Police Department confiscated their valuables and put them in the Qinzhou District Detention Center the next night.

The other three practitioners were arrested at their respective homes days later, and were also taken to the Qinzhou District Detention Center. Mr. Wang’s computer, cell phone, and Falun Gong books were confiscated. Mr. Yang’s computer and Falun Gong books were seized.

All five were given criminal detention and issued formal arrest warrants. Their families were not allowed to visit them.

The Qinzhou District Procuratorate twice returned the case to the Qinzhou District Police Department due to insufficient evidence. The police however fabricated additional evidence and eventually got them indicted. Their families were not notified of their trial and only learned of their wrongful convictions in July 2026.

65-Year-Old Liaoning Woman Given Second 4-Year Sentence

Ms. Yu Chunxiang, a 65-year-old resident in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, was sentenced to a four-year prison term on July 23, 2026. This is the second time that Ms. Yu was wrongly convicted for her faith. She was previously sentenced to four years in prison following an arrest in April 2018.

Ms. Yu was at home on March 4, 2026, when a group of plainclothes officers broke in. They threatened to handcuff her when she refused to cooperate with the home raid. They also asked if her daughter submitted an article to Minghui.org exposing their earlier persecution of her.

Due to her high blood pressure, Ms. Yu was denied admission to the detention center. The police forced her to take hypertension medications, and gave her three bottles of IV drips. She was made to sit on a wooden board in the police department for an entire night before being taken to the detention center again after 8 a.m. on March 5. The detention center admitted her.

After Ms. Yu’s case was forwarded to the Ganjingzi District Procuratorate on April 23, prosecutor Hu Tongjun repeatedly rejected the defense lawyer’s request to review the case file, and later referred the lawyer to the case management section of the procuratorate. The staffer there said the lawyer needed to produce his certificate of legal professional qualification, his law license, and his law firm’s license before he could be allowed to review the electronic version of the case file.

The lawyer did not have all three required documents with him and asked if he could instead review the printed version of the case file. He was told to seek permission from prosecutor Hu, who still said no.

Ms. Yu’s son, who agreed to serve as her family defender, also requested to review the printed version of the case file. Prosecutor Hu rejected the request on the grounds that he may “collude with potential witnesses.” He asked to see what policy barred him from reviewing the case file. Hu produced a document allegedly issued by higher-ups, and ordered him to sign. He refused to comply and was not allowed to review the case file.

The Xigang District Police Department kept declining the lawyer’s requests to meet with Ms. Yu at the detention center, which registered her as a “classified case” that required police permission for lawyer visits. Her family called the police department numerous times requesting that the “classified case” restriction be lifted, but was rejected each time. In the end, no one in the police department even picked up the phone when the family called again.

Ms. Yu was indicted on May 12 and her case was forwarded to the Ganjingzi District Court. Her son went to the court on May 22 to submit his application to serve as her non-lawyer defender. He was asked to submit a certificate of no criminal record and a certificate of unrestricted personal freedom by May 27. His local government service center and police station said they had never heard of such a thing as a certificate of unrestricted personal freedom.

Ms. Yu’s son called judge Duan Li to inquire as to what exactly was a certificate of unrestricted personal freedom. Duan yelled at him, “Get the certificate if you know what it is and forget about it if you have no clue at all!” She then hang up the phone. He called four more times but she didn’t answer.

Ms. Yu’s son received a notice on June 4 saying that his mother was scheduled to stand trial at 10 a.m. on June 10. Details of the hearing are unknown. Ms. Yu was sentenced to a four-year prison term on July 23.

Two Shanghai Residents Sentenced to Prison in Jiangsu Province

Mr. Huang Jiayuan, 53, and Mr. Chen Chen, 52, were sentenced to prison by a court in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

The two Shanghai residents were arrested at their homes on July 29, 2025, by officers from the Wujin Police Station in Changzhou. The police confiscated several computers from Mr. Huang’s home. Both men were detained in the Wujin District Detention Center in Changzhou.

Minghui.org confirmed in July 2026 that Mr. Huang had been sentenced to three years, and Mr. Chen was sentenced to three and a half years. Details about their prosecutions are unclear.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Huang and Mr. Chen have been targeted for their faith. They were arrested on May 14, 2006, and held in the Jinshan Detention Center in Shanghai. At the time, Mr. Huang’s wife was three months pregnant, and his widowed father relied on him for care. Mr. Chen’s computer repair shop was forced to shut down.

After being detained for more than a year, both men were sentenced to four years of forced labor in mid-April 2007.

Arrest and Harassment Cases

Hebei Man Detained in Hubei Province for More Than Two Months

Mr. Li Ruichao, 51, from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, traveled to Yichang City, Hubei Province in May 2026, and was recorded by a surveillance camera when he wrote “Falun Dafa is good” with chalk in public areas. The Yichang police identified him through a large data system and informed their counterparts in Shijiazhuang.

Mr. Li was arrested at his apartment in Shijiazhuang on the evening of May 21, and detained overnight in the Xinhua Police Station. The police returned to his home the next day and confiscated four Falun Gong books, a laptop computer, and two cell phones. They also searched his other residence in the countryside in Wuji County (which is under the administration of Shijiazhuang) but did not find any items related to Falun Gong. Mr. Li was then extradited to Hubei Province and turned over to officers from the Xiling District Police Department in Yichang City. He was soon admitted to the Yichang City Third Detention Center.

Mr. Li’s mother received a letter from the Xiling District Police Department on June 12. It indicated that the Xiling District Procuratorate had issued a formal arrest warrant for her son on June 6, with the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners in China.

According to Mr. Li’s lawyer who had visited him, Mr. Li was eating very little in the detention center and had lost a significant amount of weight.

Hubei Woman Repeatedly Harassed Because She Practices Falun Gong

Ms. Zhou Yuxi, who lives in Yingcheng City, Hubei Province, has been harassed multiple times in 2026 because she practices Falun Gong.

Most of the officers didn’t produce their IDs or a search warrant. They confiscated Ms. Zhou’s computer in January and have not returned it. No official document was provided listing the confiscated items.

Below are details of the harassment episodes.

Ms. Zhou ran into a Falun Gong practitioner after taking her grandson to school on January 2, 2026. That practitioner was later reported to the police for distributing Falun Gong materials, which prompted the police to track down Ms. Zhou.

Officer Yu Xingyan and deputy chief Liu Xin from the Yanghe Police Station came to Ms. Zhou’s home at around 7 p.m. on January 5. She reminded them that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, and she urged them not to participate in the persecution. They didn’t listen, and left.

Six officers broke into Ms. Zhou’s home again at 10:30 a.m. on January 8, shortly after she returned from grocery shopping. She recognized two of them as Yu and Liu. The other four officers refused to reveal their names, but just said they were the police. One officer showed Ms. Zhou the materials distributed by the practitioner she met on January 2, and they asked her for that practitioner’s personal information. She refused to answer.

The officers ordered Ms. Zhou to hand over all the Falun Gong materials she had, but she refused to comply. They searched her rooms and confiscated her computer. One officer reprimanded her.

Ms. Zhou went to the Yanghe Police Station on January 12, and demanded that the police return her computer. An officer said her computer was taken by agents from the Yingcheng City Domestic Security Office. She went there, but they refused to return it.

Yu and another officer harassed Ms. Zhou again on June 13 and took photos of her and her home without her permission.