Religious Freedom Hearing Spotlights Falun Gong Persecution, 52-year-old Woman Dies in Custody Days after Arrest

Dear Reader,

On Oct. 16, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) held a virtual hearing on religious persecution in China. Experts condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaign to eradicate any group that doesn’t adhere to CCP ideology and politicization, including Falun Gong. Witnesses, including USCIRF Vice Chair Asif Mahmood, Congressman John Moolenaar, and Robert Destro described the mass detentions, torture, and forced organ harvesting of practitioners, while Freedom House noted that Falun Gong faces some of the harshest repression in China.

In a written statement submitted to the hearing, the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) detailed how Falun Gong adherents re-emerge as a top priority of China’s security apparatus, facing arrests, propaganda, and global smear campaigns. The FDIC urged the U.S. Senate to pass the Falun Gong Protection Act, impose sanctions on responsible CCP officials, and intensify countermeasures against transnational repression.

Also in this issue:

• A woman in Heilongjiang Province died in custody seven days after being arrested for practicing Falun Gong.

• Falun Gong practitioners, their organizations, and supporters faced a coordinated wave of death threats, physical intimidation, and cyberattacks in October.

• Over 4,500 students, teachers, and staff in India welcomed and learned Falun Dafa this past summer.

In conclusion, we’re pleased to share a short video featuring our senior researcher’s speech at the “Faith Under Siege: Confronting Religious Persecution and Oppression in China” forum, which was hosted by the International Republican Institute on Sept. 30.

FEATURE STORY

What’s new?

At an Oct. 16 hearing by USCIRF, elected officials and experts condemned the CCP’s intensified control over religion and its campaign to eradicate independent faiths, including Falun Gong. USCIRF Vice Chair Asif Mahmood said the CCP ruthlessly persecutes unregistered groups such as Falun Gong. Congressman John Moolenaar, also chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, called the regime “the world’s leading persecutor of religion,” citing torture and forced organ harvesting. And Dr. Robert Destro, former Assistant Secretary of State, testified,“[T]he Falun Gong have been used for organ harvesting for quite some time.”

Annie Wilcox Boyajian, co-president of Freedom House, noted that Falun Gong practitioners “have faced decades of arbitrary detention, forced disappearance, and reports of torture and organ harvesting. Authorities surveil their movements, interfere in their media and cultural organizations abroad, and harass anyone who dares expose these abuses.” The FDIC also submitted a written statement that was published on the hearing page.

Why does it matter? 

The CCP is indeed one of the worst abusers of religious freedom in the world. Having a hearing on this topic by USCIRF highlights this reality and including Falun Gong among the victim groups noted ensures that those most harshly suppressed by the regime are not silenced.

The FDIC’s submitted testimony documents mass arrests, surveillance, and deaths in custody of Falun Gong practitioners, describing the persecution as a central case study in the CCP’s model of religious repression. The testimony revealed that between 2022 and 2025, over 10,000 practitioners were detained or harassed and more than 2,000 sentenced—many for peaceful expression. It also cited mounting evidence of the CCP’s forced organ harvesting and noted the CCP’s use of high-tech tools like facial recognition to track and arrest believers.

The FDIC emphasized that the CCP’s tactics against Falun Gong—surveillance, propaganda, and extrajudicial punishment—have later been replicated against other religious and ethnic communities.

What else do you need to know?

Freedom House’s Boyajian and the FDIC warned that Beijing’s campaign now extends beyond China, targeting diaspora religious communities with transnational repression. This includes efforts to silence cultural groups such as Shen Yun Performing Arts through threats, lawsuits, and bribery attempts in the U.S.

The FDIC urged policymakers to pass the Falun Gong Protection Act, expand sanctions on responsible officials, and establish an FBI-led initiative to counter transnational repression. USCIRF reaffirmed its recommendation that China be designated a Country of Particular Concern for severe violations of religious freedom.

PERSECUTION IN CHINA

Ms. Zhang Fengxia (張鳳霞), a 52-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, died on Aug. 17, just seven days after being arrested for her faith. According to Minghui and Weiquanwang, police cut her home electricity and detained her at the Daqing City Second Detention Center on the charge of “undermining law enforcement.” A week later, officials called her family to the hospital, where she was found unconscious and declared dead soon after, allegedly from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm.

Authorities pressured her family to sign release forms to absolve them of any responsibility and later cremated her body. Ms. Zhang had previously been arrested in 2022 and repeatedly harassed for practicing Falun Gong. She was known for her kindess and courage. Her sudden death underscores the immediate risk facing all Falun Gong practitioners in China, especially those in custody.

TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION

Between Oct. 1 and 16, Falun Gong practitioners, their organizations, and supportive U.S. institutions faced a coordinated wave of death threats, physical intimidation, and a cyberattack spanning North America and Asia. Anonymous online messages—often using forged identities of Shen Yun performers, Falun Gong practitioners, and media editors—issued bomb and shooting threats against Falun Gong events and media offices in Taipei and New York. One message targeted the screening of the documentary State Organs, which exposes the CCP’s forced organ harvesting of prisoners of conscience. 

On Oct. 2, a man waving a CCP flag vandalized Falun Gong displays and attempted to assault practitioners outside the Chinese Consulate in Toronto, before being stopped by security and bystanders.

While no actual violence occurred, the threats reflect ongoing efforts to intimidate and discredit Falun Gong. All incidents have been reported to law enforcement and are under investigation.

On Sept. 30, at the “Faith Under Siege: Confronting Religious Persecution and Oppression in China” forum hosted by the International Republican Institute (IRI), Cynthia Sun, senior researcher from the FDIC delivered an in-depth analysis of the CCP’s campaign against religious believers. Speaking during a panel on understanding the scope of China’s crackdown, Sun outlined the CCP’s persecution toolkit—surveillance, detention, propaganda, and transnational repression—and examined how these methods have impacted Falun Gong, highlighting individual cases and photographic evidence that the FDIC had collected. The presentation also explored misconceptions surrounding the persecution, evidence of deaths in custody, and the broader implications for global human rights and U.S. policy.

Moderated by Johanna Kao, IRI’s senior director for Asia–Pacific, the session concluded with a Q&A and a discussion on practical steps for lawmakers, media, and civil society to respond.

Over the years, a growing body of research has begun to shed light on the profound health and wellness benefits associated with Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), a traditional Chinese mind-body practice centered on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.

On this page, the FDIC introduces several groundbreaking academic studies and books that document Falun Gong’s potential to enhance health and well-being—ranging from clinical observations in cancer survivors to genomic insights and psychological research in mind-body health.

One of them, “Genomic Profiling of Neutrophil Transcripts in Asian Qigong Practitioners” (The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2005) offered a pioneering glimpse into Falun Gong’s effects at the molecular level. The study found unique patterns of gene expression among practitioners, suggesting enhanced immunity, balanced metabolism, and a genomic regulation that favors anti-inflammatory processes.