Persecution of Falun Gong Softening, Says Chinese Lawyer

Falun Gong practitioners meditate as they enter the fourth day of a hunger strike in front of the Chinese Embassy, on Aug. 20, 2001, in Washington. The hunger strike was in support of 130 Falun Gong practitioners who were on hunger strike in Masanjia Labor Camp, protesting their unjust detention and brutal treatment inside the labor camp. Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty Images

A recent trial in Ha'erbin City in Heilongjiang Province may be a sign that things are changing in China, with law enforcement officials losing their appetite for continuing the more than 12-year-long persecution of Falun Gong.

The far northeastern province of Heilongjiang has long been the strictest enforcer of the persecution of Falun Gong, if mortality rates are any guide. According to incomplete statistics compiled by the Falun Gong website Minghui, as of 2009, 459 practitioners are confirmed to have died from torture or abuse in Heilongjiang, the most of any province in China.