More than 25 years after China outlawed Falun Gong, the regime’s persecution of the spiritual movement continues unabated, with thousands of Falun Gong adherents arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for their beliefs.
Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website documenting the persecution of Falun Gong, reported on Nov. 7 that almost 5,000 adherents were detained and tortured by the regime in the first ten months of this year. Of those, almost a thousand were jailed, and 117 died as a result of their treatment.
In a Nov. 5 report, Bitter Winter—a human rights publication based in Italy—raised concerns about the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in Chinese prisons. The report detailed the sentencing of two Falun Gong practitioners from Inner Mongolia. Sun Wentian and Guo Changsuo were sentenced to seven and seven-and-a-half years in jail, simply for having Falun Gong literature in their homes.
Human rights magazine Bitter Winter said that this type of verdict is “now so frequent that the world scarcely pays attention.”
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that combines meditative exercises with the tenets of truth, compassion, and forbearance. Introduced in 1992, Falun Gong became widely popular in China during the late 1990s.
However, by 1999, Jiang Zemin—then leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—came to view Falun Gong’s moral teachings and growing popularity as a threat to the CCP’s authoritarian, atheist rule, and launched a campaign of persecution to eradicate the practice.
Former Middle School Teacher Arrested
Minghui reported on the case of Ma Zufu, 60, a former middle school teacher from Jingtai County, in China’s northwestern Gansu Province. He has practiced Falun Gong since 1998.
On July 13, Ma was arrested for his beliefs. On Aug. 6, he was subjected to a closed-door trial and sentenced to 18 months in prison, Mingui reported on Nov. 5.
On Nov. 4, Ma was transferred to Lanzhou Prison, a notorious high-security prison. As he begins his sentence, he is already suffering from physical and mental health problems—difficulty walking, growing depression, anxiety, and confusion—as a result of police torture during his detention.
Ma’s latest prison term is just the latest for him. Since 2000 he has been arrested multiple times and has served two labor camp sentences.
Elderly Woman Sentenced
Eighty-year-old Zhao Ying is a Falun Gong practitioner from the industrial mega-city of Guangzhou, in China’s southern Guangdong Province.
The elderly woman was arrested on Aug. 1 for the crime of “distributing Falun Gong pamphlets” in Guangzhou neighborhoods in April of 2021.
On Sept. 5, Zhao was tried in Haizhu District Court. A human rights lawyer defended Zhao and argued for her acquittal.
However, on Oct. 29, she was sentenced to 42 months in jail and fined 5000 yuan (about $700), according to a Mingui report.
Since her arrest and detainment, Zhao’s health has deteriorated severely. She requires eight different medications each day for conditions ranging from heart disease to bladder cancer. “Her life is in danger,” Mingui reports.
Doctor Endured Decades of Torture
Perhaps the most heart-rending case reported by Mingui is that of a former obstetrician, Fan Wenfang. Now 70, Fan has endured decades of torture, arbitrary detention, and imprisonment for refusing to renounce her beliefs.
Minghui reported the brutal persecution that Fan has experienced in four separate articles over twenty years: from December 2003 to October 2024.
Fan, who once practiced at Wenfeng Community Hospital in Fuyang City, in China’s central Anhui Province, has been arrested seven times, held in brainwashing centers twice, served three sentences in labor camps, and jailed on three separate occasions. She was imprisoned once again in 2022, after serving a seven-year term and a five-year term in the same prison.
Re-enactment of force-feeding Mingui.org
Over the years, she has been beaten, tied to “death beds,” hung by her wrists, force-fed while stripped and humiliated, and dragged across the floor, leaving her with serious injuries. She is now unable to walk and survives on liquid food, Minghui reports.
Over 100 methods of torture in Chinese detention facilities and prisons targeting Falun Gong practitioners have been reported by Minghui, including beating, electric shock, sexual abuse, deprivation of sleep and food, forced feeding, and the forced injection of nerve-damaging drugs.
Torture in Detention Centers and Labor Camps
Minghui documented Fan’s persecution in a 2023 report.
Fan, who had been practicing Falun Gong for years and had experienced improvement in her health, refused to renounce her faith when it was outlawed in 1999. This refusal marked the beginning of her relentless persecution by the Chinese communist authorities.
In March 2000, Fan was sent to Hefei Women’s Labor Camp for her faith. She went on a hunger strike to protest her illegal detention. Camp police ordered six or seven inmates to brutally force-feed her, leaving her mouth, tongue, and throat severely injured. Near death, she was sent home from the labor camp in March 2001.
However, just as she began to recover, Fan was re-detained in 2001 and was sent back to the labor camp for over half a year. She was tortured again until she was close to death. Authorities sent her home and extorted money from her husband, labeling it as medical expenses.
In early 2002, after some improvement in her health through Falun Gong practice, Fan was again detained. She was bound to a bed with ropes, a torture method known as “death bed,” given intravenous drips, and denied restroom access. Once more, Fan was tortured until nearly dead and eventually sent home.
Death bed torture Minghui.org
Fan’s ordeal continued in September 2002, when she was sent to Funan Detention Center, where forced feedings and other abuses left her malnourished, hypoglycemic, and emaciated. Chinese authorities finally released her when it was clear that her life was at risk.
However, just one day after her release, Fan was taken again to the Ying Shang Detention Center, where she endured over a month of torture, returning home barely alive.
Within months of her returning home in May 2003, Fan was taken away by local police again, and this time, she was detained in Linquan Detention Center for over six months, where she was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture. Her hair was torn out in clumps, her ears and nose severely injured, while her lips, mouth, and tongue were left bloody and mangled. Her teeth were pulled. At times she fainted from the pain.
Extreme Abuse in Prison
The former doctor’s imprisonment continued over the years, with three separate stints in Anhui Province Women’s Prison. She has been in prison for a total of 17 years, according to Minghui.
Relentless torture left her bedridden and paralyzed for years. Upon returning home, however, she regained some health through her Falun Gong practice.
In 2013, Fan was arrested again and sentenced to five more years for possessing Falun Gong pamphlets. She was subjected to more torture and abuse.
Her latest imprisonment began in July 2022. She was sentenced later to five years in prison and was sent to Anhui Province Women’s Prison, where her suffering has only worsened.
Fan’s refusal to denounce her faith or sing CCP propaganda songs led to further beatings, denial of food, water, and restroom access. She was forced to sit or stand in uncomfortable positions for long hours. The CCP authorities often use long-term inmates convicted of serious crimes as tools to torture Falun Gong practitioners, offering rewards such as sentence reductions in exchange for their compliance. These abuses have left Fan unable to walk, toothless, and dependent on liquid food to survive.
Today, Fan remains imprisoned, and her health continues to deteriorate.
According to Minghui, the persecution of Fan in Anhui Province Women’s Prison is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the brutal treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in what the website calls a “hell on earth.” Many other Falun Gong practitioners are also held there, suffering relentless abuse and cruelty at the hands of prison guards and violent inmates, facing torment both physically and mentally.
‘Beacon of Integrity’
Former Chinese human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping, who now lives in the United States, condemns the CCP for its persecution of Fan.
Speaking with The Epoch Times on Nov. 5, Wu said that faith or religious belief is protected even in CCP’s constitution, and, on paper at least, is a right enjoyed by all Chinese citizens.
“Falun Gong ... has been teaching people to be kind and do good deeds. Not only are they innocent, but they’ve actually done something commendable,” Wu said.
He said Falun Gong is “a beacon of integrity” in China.
“Chinese society today is in a state of collapse. Yet, in such a challenging environment, Falun Gong practitioners continue to uphold their faith, do good deeds, and spread the truth. Despite the societal decay under the Chinese Communist Party’s rule, they have not succumbed to the surrounding moral breakdown,” he said.
Luo Ya contributed to this report.
Sophia Lam
Author
Sophia Lam joined The Epoch Times in 2021 and covers China-related topics.
