Zhao Jiyuan, 71-Year-Old Liaoning Resident Persecuted to Death in Prison for His Faith

According to Weiquanwang, a website which aggregates reports of persecution from grassroots activists and religious believers in China, a resident of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, passed away in Jinzhou City Prison on July 4, 2025 while serving a seven-and-a-half-year term for his faith in Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has persecuted the spiritual discipline since 1999. 

Fatal prison term

Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Jiyuan, a retired employee of the Shenyang Fourth Construction Company, was arrested on July 10, 2019, for distributing information about the banned spiritual discipline. At trial the CCP’s judge at the Heping District Court in Shenyang urged his son to make Zhao “admit guilt,” promising a three‑year term if he complied and threatening seven years if he refused. Zhao maintained that practicing Falun Gong violated no law and was handed a seven-and-a-half‑year sentence, to be served in Jinzhou City Prison.

Family visits were blocked because he refused to renounce his faith, reported by Minghui.org. Years of abuse left him with heart problems and other illnesses. His condition became critical in December 2022. He suffered two heart attacks early in 2025 and Zhao died on July 4, 2025, at the age of 71. When relatives viewed his body, they saw that he had become extremely emaciated, had ankle scars from shackles, bruises on his thigh, and an enlarged nostril—signs consistent with force‑feeding. After viewing Mr. Zhao’s body, the family decided not to request an independent autopsy and agreed to an immediate cremation.

On June 25, Minghui.org reported that the confirmed deaths of Falun Gong practitioners due to the CCP’s persecution had reached 5,231. Mr. Zhao’s death raises the toll to more than 5,232.

Earlier persecution

In July 1998, Mr. Zhao Jiyuan was diagnosed with late-stage stomach cancer. He struggled to swallow and vomited even after drinking water, causing him to lose a significant amount of weight. One day in December that same year, he listened to audio lectures about Falun Gong by its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. To his surprise, he was able to eat normally and even do yard work the very next day. He soon returned to work, attributing his recovery to Falun Gong.

Grateful for what he called a miraculous healing, Mr. Zhao began practicing Falun Gong and shared his story widely, telling friends and neighbors that Falun Gong had saved his life.

After the CCP launched its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Zhao went to Beijing twice to appeal for the right to practice. He was arrested both times. In December 1999, he was sent to Longshan Labor Camp in Shenyang and was released in June 2000.

On February 27, 2001, Mr. Zhao was arrested again for putting up banners that exposed the persecution. He was initially sentenced to five years, but when he told the CCP’s judge at the Heping District Court in Shenyang he planned to appeal, his sentence was extended by two years as punishment. On February 10, 2002, he was transferred to Shenyang Second Prison, where he endured torture and abuse until his release on February 26, 2008.

Adding to the injustice, the local government withheld compensation that Mr. Zhao’s family was entitled to for the demolition of their home for urban development, citing his prison sentence as the reason.

Jinzhou prison

Zhao is not the first Falun Gong practitioner to die behind the walls of Jinzhou City Prison. According to Minghui.org, Zhang Litian, Cui Zhilin, and Xin Minduo were tortured to death there, while dozens—including Tian Baochang, Ma Wanlin, and Pan Yufeng—have been maimed or disabled. Other inmates such as Yu Guozhi, Li Jiechun, and Zhang Kuntang perished after being transferred out in critical condition. 

Zhao Jiyuan’s death adds yet another name to a growing list of victims in a facility notorious for systematic, and often lethal, abuse of prisoners of conscience.