Heilongjiang Woman Dies in Custody Weeks After Arrest for Practicing Falun Gong

Ms. Wang Shuzhi was a 59-year-old resident of Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province. She died at the Jixi City Detention Center on July 19, 2025, less than two months after she was arrested for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline persecuted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999. Her death came after weeks of mistreatment, including force-feeding during a hunger strike, and being returned to custody from a hospital just two days before her death, according to Weiquanwang, a website which aggregates reports of persecution from grassroots activists and religious believers in China. 

Arbitrary arrest and mistreatment

Ms. Wang was arrested on May 22, amid an intensified crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners in the Hengshan District of Jixi City. The campaign, spearheaded by the city’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee and 610 Office, had designated the district as a pilot zone for enhanced surveillance and repression. Police offered rewards to locals for reporting practitioners, and more than 10 were harassed or had their homes searched.

Despite her poor health, Ms. Wang was taken to the Jixi City Detention Center, which initially declined to admit her. Police from the Hengshan District Police Department instead detained her at an undisclosed location and managed to force the detention center to accept her a week later.

In protest of the illegal detention, Ms. Wang began a hunger strike and was force-fed—a punitive measure—often reported by Falun Gong detainees. Her condition quickly deteriorated. On July 13, she was taken to the Jixi City People’s Hospital for emergency care, but was returned to custody just four days later, on July 17. At 3 a.m. on July 19, she died in the detention center.

Previous persecution

Since the start of the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Wang had been repeatedly targeted for her faith, according to Minghui.org.

In May 2008, she was arrested for using banknotes with messages about Falun Gong. Her home was ransacked, and she was sent to a labor camp in Harbin for a term of unknown duration.

On Nov. 9, 2018, Ms. Wang was detained while visiting her sister and was only released after a hunger strike eleven days later.

On Aug. 3, 2019, she was arrested again while mailing letters about Falun Gong and held in a local lockup. She went on another hunger strike and was released on Aug. 8.

In an effort to escape the constant harassment, Ms. Wang moved to Hengshan District. However, the intensified crackdown launched in 2025 led to her final arrest and eventual death in custody.

Wang’s family targeted

Ms. Wang was the youngest of three sisters. They all practiced Falun Gong and suffered ongoing persecution.

Ms. Wang Shuzhi’s elder sister, Wang Shugui, was arrested in 2018, had her home searched, and was later sentenced to 19 months in prison and fined 10,000 yuan in 2020. The middle sister, Wang Shuxiang, was arrested multiple times between 2019 and 2025 and lived in hiding for years to avoid further persecution. In February 2025, she was detained again and sentenced to two years in prison just two weeks before Ms. Wang Shuzhi’s death.

The family’s elderly mother, Ms. Teng Guilan, repeatedly petitioned authorities for her daughters’ releases, to no avail.

Ms. Wang’s death underscores the continuing risk faced by millions of Falun Gong practitioners across China after 26 years of persecution, especially as local authorities escalate efforts to meet CCP’s suppression targets.

According to statistics reported by Minghui.org, at least 15 Falun Gong practitioners were confirmed to have died as a result of persecution or wrongful treatment in July 2025 alone.