(Minghui.org) The deaths of 54 Falun Gong practitioners as a result of being persecuted for practicing their faith were reported in the first half of 2026.
The deceased practitioners were from 18 provinces, autonomous regions, or municipalities. Liaoning reported the most cases at 12, followed by seven in Sichuan, five in Inner Mongolia, and four in Jilin. Four regions, including Beijing, Chongqing, Hebei, and Heilongjiang, had three cases each. Another four regions, including Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangxi, and Hubei, had two cases each. The remaining six regions, including Tianjin, Ningxia, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Henan, and Hunan, each had one case.
The 54 practitioners included 36 women. The youngest was 21 and the oldest was 92 at the time of their deaths. Of the remaining, six were in their 50s, 15 in their 60s, 21 in their 70s, and 8 in their 80s. The other four practitioners’ ages are unknown.
Some deaths occurred prior to 2026, but due to the strict information censorship of the communist regime, the reporting was delayed. For the same reason, the actual death toll is expected to be higher.
Below are details of selected death cases.
Deaths in Custody
63-Year-Old Woman Dies Less Than 24 Hours After Arrest
Ms. Hu Shangxiu, a 63-year-old woman in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, died in custody on June 11, 2026, less than 24 hours after she was arrested for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Hu, who worked at the Sandian Subdistrict Office in the Xinzhou District, was arrested at home around 2 p.m. on June 10, 2026, after officers from the Zhucheng Police Station broke in and ransacked her place. No one in her family was home when she was arrested.
Instead of taking Ms. Hu to a police station or a detention center, the police took her to a secret location to interrogate her. During that time, she drank water twice and used the restroom twice. At around 4 a.m., she suddenly fell ill. The police didn’t try to resuscitate her or take her to a hospital. She died shortly after.
Ms. Hu had been very healthy with no pre-existing conditions before her arrest. Her family condemned the authorities for causing her death. Her body is being held in a funeral home as her family seeks justice for her.
The police claimed that they arrested six other practitioners for “promoting” Falun Gong at the Zhanglin Wet Market, and one of them allegedly “identified” Ms. Hu as the organizer. However, the police didn’t provide any details about the other practitioners, and Minghui.org has not confirmed their arrests. No law in China has criminalized Falun Gong, so even if Ms. Hu did work with others to promote Falun Gong, she should not have been arrested.
Ms. Wang Xiulian’s heart rate hovered around 110-120 beats per minute (the normal range is 60-100), but the Jilin Province Women’s Prison authorities did not send her to a hospital until May 10, 2026. The 67-year-old woman died that day, less than three months after her prison admission.
Ms. Wang’s daughter said that she was still in good health during the last family visit in April 2026. The prison showed footage of Ms. Wang “being resuscitated at the hospital” and declared her cause of death as heart disease.
Ms. Wang, a retired worker in Jiaohe City, Jilin Province, was initially arrested on October 27, 2023. She was released on bail hours later due to her poor health. She went into hiding to avoid persecution, only to be arrested in July 2025 in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which is over 2,000 miles away from Jiaohe. She was sentenced to three and a half years in late November 2025 and admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on February 13, 2026.
The guards in the Eighth Division instructed head inmate Li Mingzhu to watch over Ms. Wang. Li ordered her to denounce Falun Gong every day and reprimanded her all the time for doing a “poor job.”
During this time, Ms. Wang developed a rapid heartbeat, and her body kept shaking. Li accused her of faking. The guards didn’t send her to the hospital until May 10, 2026. Her daughter suspects that she might have already died before she reached the hospital. The prison authorities hurriedly processed her medical parole paperwork on the same day. It is unclear whether the paperwork was done before or after her death.
Ms. Wang’s passing capped decades of persecution for her faith. Before her latest prison sentence, she served another 3.5-year sentence from December 2011 to June 2015. Her pension was suspended in 2020 and not reinstated until 2023.
55-Year-Old Ningxia Man Dies One Month Before 5-Year Prison Term Ends, Daughter Suspects Foul Play
Mr. You Haijun, from Zhongning County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, died on April 13, 2026, one month before his five-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong was set to end. He was 55.
The Shizuishan Prison cremated Mr. You’s body on April 19, after forcing his daughter to sign a consent form.
Mr. You Haijun and his daughter
The prison authorities claimed that Mr. You died after developing coronary heart disease and two other diseases. His daughter suspects foul play after watching the surveillance video, and given the prison’s notoriety for abusing Falun Gong practitioners.
On the day of his death, Mr. You was seen eating lunch with other inmates at around noon. One inmate took away his bowl and walked out of sight of the camera. About eight minutes later, the inmate returned and gave the bowl back to Mr. You. He then finished the food in the bowl. No one else had their bowls taken away during the lunch break. Mr. You died at around 3 that afternoon.
Mr. You’s daughter demanded to know the cause of her father’s death. The prison threatened to withhold the body if she didn’t agree to have it cremated as soon as possible. Having just given birth four months before, the young woman submitted to the pressure and signed the consent form. The prison then buried Mr. You’s ashes in Yinchuan City, not his hometown of Zhongning County.
Mr. You’s wife divorced him when their daughter was still an infant. The baby girl developed epilepsy when she was three. Mr. You sought many treatments for his daughter, but none had any effect on her.
In 2004, when his daughter was four, Mr. You heard about Falun Gong’s health benefits and showed her the exercises. Three days later, she stopped having seizures and recovered. Mr. You also started to practice Falun Gong himself and his asthma disappeared.
For upholding his faith, Mr. You was repeatedly targeted. He was sentenced to three and a half years in 2014, and was released on November 5, 2016. After another arrest on May 16, 2021, he was sentenced to five years on April 13, 2023. His appeal was denied on June 26, 2023, and he was admitted to the Shizuishan Prison on September 2, 2023. His family was never allowed to visit him in prison.
Mr. You’s daughter hasn’t told her paternal grandmother, who is nearly 80, about his passing yet. The older woman has lived in fear the past two decades with her son repeatedly targeted for his faith. Her granddaughter worries she might not be able to take the tragic news.
Belated News: Family Kept in the Dark About 77-Year-old Woman’s In-Prison Death in March 2023
Ms. Ye Wenxiu, 77, died in March 2023, while serving time at the Chongqing City Women’s Prison. The prison didn’t inform her family of her death or return her body. The family didn’t find out about her passing until the end of her term in April 2024. To this day, they have not been told the exact time or the cause of her death.
Ms. Ye was arrested on June 21, 2017, after she talked to Lu Anxiang, a local street committee staff member, about the persecution of Falun Gong. Lu grabbed her and called in two fellow staff members. The trio then took her to the Lijiatuo Police Station.
The police searched Ms. Ye before going to her home to ransack the place and confiscate her personal belongings. The next day, they announced that she would be subject to six months of house arrest, to be administered by the Tuqiao Police Station.
Ms. Ye was indicted by the Banan District Procuratorate on September 20, 2017, and appeared in Banan District Court on April 27, 2018. She didn’t have a lawyer and she testified in her own defense, but the presiding judge cut her off before she had a chance to finish talking.
Ms. Ye was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and fined 6,000 yuan on July 11, 2018. She was previously given three years on February 12, 2004, and one and a half years on December 12, 2011.
Due to Ms. Ye’s poor health, she had been out on bail not long after her arrest. In October 2018, the Banan District Court issued an order allowing her to serve time at home for a year due to her high blood pressure and other health issues.
On April 22, 2021, Ms. Ye was seized by the police while studying Falun Gong books with three other practitioners. She was released later that day, but was arrested again hours later and admitted to the Chongqing City Women’s Prison the next day (April 23) to serve the full three-year term.
Ms. Ye died in prison in March 2023.
Deaths Shortly After Release
Ms. Zhang Rongxiu was diagnosed with late-stage uterine cancer while serving a five-year term. The prison authorities, however, did not release her on medical parole until she was in critical condition. She died four days later, on April 11, 2026. The Tianjin resident was in her 60s.
Ms. Zhang took up Falun Gong in February 1999. After the communist regime launched a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong five months later, she held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted. Prior to her latest sentencing, she served three prison terms at the same Tianjin Women’s Prison for a total of nine and a half years, during which time she was subjected to torture, brainwashing, and drug administration. Her daughter suspects that Ms. Zhang likely suffered the same types of abuse during her fourth prison term.
Ms. Zhang’s last arrest was on February 12, 2020, for putting up information about Falun Gong. She was held in a metal cage at the local police station for a day. Her computer and several hundred yuan in paper bills printed with messages about Falun Gong (as a way to circumvent the strict information censorship in China) were confiscated. The police extorted 10,000 yuan from her family before releasing her on bail.
The police summoned Ms. Zhang on September 22, 2020 and ordered her to report to the police station on September 30. As she didn’t show up, they repeatedly harassed her over the phone. Lan Enliang, the village director, harassed her in person and ordered her to renounce Falun Gong. She refused.
Three officers harassed Ms. Zhang again in late December 2020 and ordered her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. They threatened to ruin her children’s futures if she didn’t sign it.
As Ms. Zhang remained firm in her faith, the village officials came to her home again on January 6, 2021, and threatened to take away her government sponsored housing. When she still refused to comply, she was notified to move out in three days.
The police harassed Ms. Zhang a few more times in June 2021 and threatened to take her back into custody if she didn’t sign the required statement.
On the evening of August 10, 2021, seven officers broke into Ms. Zhang’s home and carried her into a police car. The police threatened to arrest her daughter Ms. Yu Lan, when she tried to stop them from taking Ms. Zhang away. Ms. Yu’s son and daughter, both around 4, were terrified by the police violence.
Ms. Zhang was made to appear in the Nankai District Court on December 9, 2021, and was sentenced to five years. She was admitted to the Tianjin Women’s Prison on August 24, 2022. She was found to have uterine cancer around October 2024, but the prison authorities refused to release her. They said they’d give her treatments there. As her condition kept worsening, she was eventually released on parole on April 7, 2026. She died four days later.
Mr. Liu Wansheng was in critical condition on April 22, 2026, when he was released after six years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. He died seven days later, on April 29. He was 71.
Mr. Liu, of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, remained in a coma in his final days. There were only a few very brief moments when he appeared to hear his loved ones talking to him, but he was unable to move or utter a word. He had wounds on both his ankles and wrists, which may have been caused by being handcuffed and shackled to a bed in prison.
Mr. Liu Wansheng
Mr. Liu Wansheng, four days after he was released from six years in prison
Mr. Liu’s wife, also a Falun Gong practitioner, became ill after he was sentenced to six years in 2020. She was dealt another blow when Mr. Liu’s pension was suspended later on. She succumbed to the mental distress and died around 2024. The couple are survived by their only son, who struggles with depression and is unable to work after witnessing the persecution his parents endured over the years.
Mr. Liu was arrested on April 23, 2020, for talking to people about Falun Gong at a bus station. The police ransacked his home and confiscated his belongings.
On the second day of Mr. Liu’s arrest, his father, who is in his 80s, went to seek his release, but to no avail. Three days later, the elderly man went to the local police station again. The police said to him, “This is different from last time. This time, we are going to submit his case to the procuratorate.”
The “last time” referred to Mr. Liu’s earlier arrest in January 2019, also for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police released him soon after without seeking prosecution.
Mr. Liu’s arrest and subsequent prosecution dealt a heavy blow to his elderly father, who soon passed away.
After the police submitted Mr. Liu’s case, the Linghe District Procuratorate approved his arrest in late April 2020 and indicted him not long after. He was tried through a virtual hearing by the Linghai City Court inside the Jinzhou City Detention Center on September 4, before being sentenced to six years and fined 10,000 yuan on September 30, 2020. He appealed with the Jinzhou City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold his original verdict.
Mr. Liu was taken to the Panjin Prison in March 2021 and later transferred to the Jinzhou Prison. Due to the poor conditions and severe abuse in prison, his health gradually declined.
The Jinzhou Prison guards took Mr. Liu to the Jinzhou City Hospital on November 23, 2025. He was discharged at 3 p.m. on November 27, only to be rushed to the same hospital’s emergency room three hours later. He was returned to the prison late that night. His family was notified of his inpatient care and ER visit but they were not allowed to visit him.
Mr. Liu was rushed to the Jinzhou City Hospital again on December 12, 2025, after he fell into critical condition.
Liaoning Man Dies Two Months After Serving a 5-Year Term
Mr. Zhou Yonglin, from Linghai City, Liaoning Province, died around 1 a.m. on March 23, 2026. At the time of his death, he had lost the ability to speak. He was 75.
Mr. Zhou’s passing came only 62 days after he finished serving a five-year term for practicing Falun Gong. As he had already gone mute by the time he was released, his family had no way to find out what torture he suffered before he died.
Mr. Zhou Yonglin
Mr. Zhou and his wife, Ms. Sun Jiping, also a Falun Gong practitioner, were arrested on January 20, 2021. Two months later, they were secretly sentenced to five years in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine.
Mr. Zhou was admitted to the Panjin Prison on July 4, 2021, and his wife to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison at an unknown time. Their son learned three months later that Mr. Zhou had been transferred to Division 20 of the Jinzhou Prison. Their son visited the prison in early 2024 and noted that Mr. Zhou was emaciated. Mr. Zhou said that because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, he was put under strict management and was not allowed to purchase daily necessities.
A prison guard called Mr. Zhou’s son in July 2024, saying that his father was at the Jinzhou City Center Hospital for “a minor stroke.”
Mr. Zhou’s son was not sure if his father had actually suffered a stroke or was hospitalized due to torture-induced injuries. He then received another call in September 2024 and was notified that his father was in critical condition. He rushed to the Jinzhou City Center Hospital and saw his extremely emaciated father in the intensive care unit, with one tube inserted into his throat to assist with his breathing and another tube in his nose for nasal feeding.
A hospital worker said the elder Mr. Zhou had been given a tracheotomy. He shed tears but was unable to utter a word when his son asked if he still recognized him.
The prison authorities transferred Mr. Zhou to the Lingyuan Prison Hospital in early October 2025 and no longer allowed his family to visit him. His family’s request to have him released on parole was denied.
Mr. Zhou was released on January 20, 2026. He received treatment at the Linghai City Hospital for ten days and didn’t make any improvement. The doctors said that there wasn’t much they could do to help him and suggested the family take him home.
As his wife, Ms. Sun, was still recovering from declining health due to the abuses she herself suffered in prison, she struggled to take care of Mr. Zhou. He regained some mental clarity, but was still weak. A few days before he passed away, he could no longer keep down any liquids.
Mr. Zhou passed away on March 23, 2026.
Prior to their latest arrest and imprisonment in 2021, Mr. Zhou and Ms. Sun were repeatedly targeted since the onset of the persecution. They were both given two years of forced labor in 2000 when their son was in his first year of high school.
Deaths After Long Term Persecution
Shandong Woman in Her 60s Dies Before Scheduled Prison Transfer to Serve a 3-Year Term
Ms. Zhu Wenlan died on April 25, 2026, shortly before she was to be admitted to prison to serve a three-year term. She was in her 60s.
Ms. Zhu, a retired hospital worker in Cao County, Shandong Province, recovered from her decades-long illnesses after she took up Falun Gong. After the Chinese communist regime started the persecution in July 1999, she held firm to her faith, and was repeatedly targeted.
Her prison sentence stemmed from her arrest in early October 2025. The police and local community officials raided Ms. Zhu’s home and took her to the Heze City Detention Center. Heze oversees Cao County. The police said someone had photographed her distributing Falun Gong flyers.
While in detention, Ms. Zhu was subjected to physical and mental abuse. The Cao County Court sentenced her to a three-year prison term at an unknown time. While awaiting the prison transfer, her health kept worsening, and she eventually lost the ability to walk. Only when her family insisted, did the police take her to a hospital.
Shortly before she was to be admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison, Ms. Zhu died on April 25, 2026.
53-Year-Old Sichuan Man Dies After Decades of Persecution
Mr. Liu Yingxu, an engineer in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, died in May 2026 after suffering a stroke. His passing capped decades of persecution for practicing Falun Gong. He was 53.
Mr. Liu took up Falun Gong in November 1994, while attending Chongqing University of Technology. He soon recovered from nephritis, hepatitis, and sequelae of concussion. After graduation, he landed a job as an assistant engineer at the Dongfang Turbine Factory in Mianzhu City, Sichuan Province.
Three months after the persecution began, Mr. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for his right to freedom of belief. He was arrested and held in Beijing for nearly 40 days before being taken back to Mianzhu. He was given one year of forced labor on December 30, 1999, and transferred to the Xinhua Labor Camp in Mianzhu the next day.
Mr. Liu’s employer terminated him while he was serving the labor camp term. He found another job after he was released in October 2000, only to be arrested at work on June 4, 2001. He was admitted to the Xinhua Labor Camp in July 2001 to serve a two-year term, which was extended by ten days as he remained firm in his faith. The police attempted to send him straight to a brainwashing center after the term ended, but relented upon his parents’ strong objection.
Mr. Liu did odd jobs in Chengdu and was arrested on November 14, 2007. He was transferred to the Xinjin Brainwashing Center three days later. On May 31, 2008, he was moved to the Jinniu Brainwashing Center. He managed to escape on June 20, 2008.
After another arrest in late October 2008, Mr. Liu was punched and kicked by the police and given unknown IV injections. He went on a hunger strike and was released 21 days later.
Mr. Liu was not the only one in his family targeted for his faith. His parents were forced to stay with him at the brainwashing center on multiple occasions. The couple were ordered to watch videos slandering Falun Gong and to “transform” their son. His mother once knelt down in front of him begging him to give up his belief. Another time, she was forced to watch videos until 1 a.m. She could no longer cope and almost jumped out of a window. The brainwashing center guards still threatened to keep her and her husband there until their son renounced his faith.
Mr. Liu’s fiancee broke up with him under pressure. His relatives kept a distance from him for fear of being implicated by the CCP. During his final years, Mr. Liu also faced frequent harassment by the police. The police even pressured his employers to terminate him. When he traveled by train, he was interrogated many times after he was found to be a Falun Gong practitioner during security checks. When he checked into a hotel, the police followed him there to question him.
At one point, Mr. Liu did odd jobs in Qionglai City, Sichuan Province. The police there demanded to know his landlord’s phone number. They also cut the trees outside his apartment, leaving his unit completely exposed to surveillance cameras. The police pressured his then-employer to fire him, and had the security guard at his workplace secretly take pictures of him.
Mr. Liu later returned to Chengdu. His health kept declining due to the relentless persecution. He was hospitalized in April 2026 and had a stroke the next month. He died soon afterwards.
61-Year-Old Jilin Woman Dies While Living Displaced to Avoid Being Arrested
Ms. Guo Xiaoxia, from Songyuan City, Jilin Province, died on April 9, 2026, while living displaced, to avoid being arrested for her faith in Falun Gong. She was 61.
Ms. Guo credited Falun Gong, which she began practicing in 1998, for turning her into a calmer, kinder, and more considerate person. In October 1999, three months after the persecution started, she went to Beijing to appeal for her right to freedom of belief. She was arrested, brought back to Songyuan, and held at a local detention center for one month.
The local police pounded on Ms. Guo’s door in the middle of the night in December 2000. She escaped through her neighbor’s yard and lived in displacement. She was arrested on April 17, 2006. Political secretary Zhao of the Songyuan City Police Department ordered several officers to beat her severely at the police department. An officer slapped Ms. Guo in the face and burned her face with an open flame.
Ms. Guo was taken to the Songyuan City Detention Center at around 11 p.m. She went on a hunger strike in protest, and was restrained on a death-bed torture device (see image below) and force-fed.
Torture illustration: Death bed
Ms. Guo developed a severe heart condition eight days later but was nonetheless transferred to the Heizuizi Labor Camp in Changchun (the capital of Jilin Province) to serve a two-year term. She faced even more abuse there. The guards forced her to sit on a small stool for long hours every day, and ordered her to renounce Falun Gong.
Agents from the Ningjiang District Domestic Security Office arrested Ms. Guo again on December 14, 2020. Her systolic blood pressure registered at over 200 mmHg (when a normal range is 120 or lower) at the time, and the local detention center declined to admit her.
Ms. Guo was then taken to a hospital and held in an isolation room, where three officers watched her around the clock. They kept her handcuffed at night and only removed the cuffs during the day when she was given IV injections. She managed to escape from the hospital one day when the police were not paying attention.
The police put Ms. Guo on the wanted list, and she was forced into displacement once again. A male practitioner helped notify her daughter of her escape. Even though that practitioner borrowed a stranger’s phone to make the call, he was soon arrested, as the police had tapped Ms. Guo’s daughter’s phone. He was interrogated and detained for several days.
Ms. Guo moved from place to place during the next few years, but she was unable to land a job or take public transportation. She developed a fever and a lasting cough in January 2026, and the condition kept worsening. Her family took her to a hospital hundreds of miles away from Songyuan City, for fear of her being tracked down by the local police. She died on April 9, 2026.
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