(Minghui.org) The deaths of 67 Falun Gong practitioners were confirmed in the first half of 2021.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Since its introduction to the public in 1992, countless people have been drawn to its profound principles and health benefits. Fearing its ever-growing popularity, communist China launched a nationwide campaign in July 1999, attempting to stamp out the practice.

Hundreds of thousands of practitioners have since been harassed, arrested, detained, imprisoned, and tortured. A total of 4,660 deaths have been documented by Minghui.org as of June 30, 2021. But due to the strict censorship of information in China, the actual number is most likely to be much higher.

The newly-confirmed deaths in the first half of 2021 include 1 that took place in 2017, 2 in 2018, 2 in 2019, 20 in 2020, and 42 in 2021. The 20 new confirmed cases in 2020 also raised the total number of deaths last year from 83 to 103.

The 67 practitioners, 36 of them women, came from 22 provinces and municipalities. The top four provinces with the most newly reported deaths were Liaoning (11), Jilin (9), Heilongjiang (8), and Henan (4). Those provinces were also among the top five regions with the highest death tolls confirmed in 2020.

In particular, three of the four deceased practitioners in Henan Province died in custody, including a 54-year-old man who died two months after being imprisoned, another man in his 50s who died in a detention center one month following his arrest, and a 63-year-old man who died after 1.5 years of detention and whose family wasn’t allowed to see his body before he was cremated.

Another ten practitioners from Shandong (3), Inner Mongolia (1), Jiangsu (1), Liaoning (1), Sichuan (1), Yunnan (1), Zhejiang (1) and Heilongjiang (1), four of them women, also died in custody.

A 55-year-old teacher died in prison in November 2020, ten days before he was due to be released. One 76-year-old woman died in prison in January 2021. February, March, and April 2021 each saw two, one, and three deaths, respectively, in custody, as well as four out of the six cases confirmed in June so far. The number of deaths in custody in May 2021 was unclear due to strict information censorship.

Of note, for the death cases in June 2021, one Inner Mongolia man died one day following his hearing and a Shandong resident died one day after his arrest.

While some practitioners survived being tortured in prison, they died shortly after their release, including an 83-year-old man who died hours after being sent home on oxygen. His entire body was black and blue. A 54-year-old woman died two months after she was released.

Most of the other practitioners passed away after suffering decades of displacement, harassment, incarceration, and torture.

Those who died came from every walk of life, including a retired military officer, a teacher, an engineer, and an accountant. Except for 14 practitioners whose ages were unknown, the other 53 practitioners were between 46 and 85, with an average age of 64.

Falun Gong practitioners persecuted to death in the first half of 2021Upper row (left to right): Gong Piqi, Liu Xiufang, Ding Guiying, Mao Kun, Lu GuanruLower row (left to right): Lu Songming, Li Hongwei, Xie Dewen, Li Caie, Zhang Cuicui

Below are snapshots of some of the deaths. The full list of 67 deaths can be downloaded here. More cases have been covered in previous reports:

Deaths of 13 Falun Gong Practitioners Reported in April 2021

Deaths of 27 Falun Gong Practitioners Reported Between January and March 2021

13 Died in Custody

Schoolteacher Dies 10 Days Before Prison Term Ends, Family Suspects Organ Harvesting

Mr. Pan Xujun of Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, was arrested on May 19, 2015, and sentenced in 2016 to 5.5 years to Hongzehu Prison. On November 8, 2020, 10 days before his scheduled release, his family was summoned to the prison to “visit him.” When they got there, they saw his body in the mortuary. A prison doctor showed one of his organs to his family (details unknown), saying that they had done an autopsy and determined that he had died of a stroke.

Mr. Pan Xujun

Mr. Pan’s family didn’t accept the explanation and suspects that the 55-year-old man was killed for his organs, because he had been subjected to intensive examinations and tests during his first term in Hongzehu Prison between 2002 and 2010. They believe his information was stored in some database for organ matching and he was selected after he was sentenced to 5.5 years to the same prison in 2016.

During the past 22 years of persecution of Falun Gong, reports from witnesses and Chinese physicians reveal that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners held in custody have been killed for their organs, which are sold and transplanted for profit in state and military hospitals.

Mr. Pan’s family initially refused to accept the compensation offered by the prison and insisted on filing a complaint to seek justice for him. After being pressured by the township and village officials, they later relented.

Mr. Pan’s body was cremated three months later and he was buried in the cemetery in his village. His family declined to reveal to the Minghui correspondent how much compensation they received from the prison.

76-year-old Woman Suddenly Dies While Serving Time

Ms. Ding Guiying’s family was dealt a heavy blow when the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison informed them in mid-January 2021 that their loved one had just passed away. Prior to that, Ms. Ding’s family didn’t even know she had been sentenced for practicing Falun Gong. The prison had her body cremated just days later. She was 76 years old.

Ms. Ding Guiying

Ms. Ding, a Kunming City, Yunnan Province resident, was arrested at home on August 28, 2019. Because the Kunming City Detention Center had been barring Ms. Ding’s family from visiting her, and the authorities never updated them with her status, they still thought she was in the detention center and often went to the Domestic Security Division to demand her release.

A Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison guard informed them that Ms. Ding suffered “an acute disease” on January 14 and died at 8:53 a.m. on January 15. The prison cremated her body on January 19 without much explanation about her condition. Because Ms. Ding had been perfectly healthy before her arrest, her family suspected that she may have died from the abuse in custody, not due to a disease, as prison officials claimed.

Only after Ms. Ding had passed away did her family receive her verdict. She’d been sentenced to four years by the Wuhua District Court on July 10, 2020.

54-year-old Man Denied Medical Parole, Dies Two Months after Being Imprisoned

Mr. Yue Caiyun, a native of Yucheng County, Henan Province, died two months after he was imprisoned for his faith in Falun Gong. He was 54.

Mr. Yue was arrested on August 21, 2020, in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, where he had been living the past few years. The Hangzhou police accused him of mailing informational materials about Falun Gong.

Mr. Yue held a hunger strike for four months and was often force-fed. The detention center doctor also injected him with unknown drugs every day he was there.

He was sentenced to one year and four months in the Hangzhou No. 2 Prison in late December 2020. He continued his hunger strike after being taken to the prison.

The prison authorities barred his family from visiting him and denied their request to have him released on medical parole, despite his critical condition.

The prison informed Mr. Yue’s family on February 24, 2021, that he had just passed away. According to his son who saw his body in the hospital, he was emaciated. The prison denied any responsibility for Mr. Yue’s death. They warned his family not to leak the news of his death or they would lose their jobs. The prison gave Mr. Yue’s family 30,000 yuan as a final settlement.

Shandong Man Slips into Coma at Detention Center, Dies after the Police Remove His Life Support

While Mr. Yao Xinren was still in a coma after suffering a stroke, the authorities took him off life support and transferred him from the hospital intensive care unit to a senior center without the proper medical equipment to care for him. The 51-year-old man passed away a week later, leaving behind his wife and a child.

Mr. Yao of Longkou City, Shandong Province, suffered a stroke at around 9:00 p.m. on April 22, 2020, nearly ten months after his arrest on July 3, 2019. A craniotomy was done on him early on the morning of April 23 at the Longkou City People’s Hospital. The doctor also gave him a tracheotomy two days later and put him on a ventilator.

When Mr. Yao’s wife went to the hospital to inquire about him, the police refused to let the doctor or nurse give her any information about him. They also refused to show surveillance footage of Mr. Yao, regarding what had happened to him at the detention center.

Mr. Yao after the craniotomy

Even though Mr. Yao remained in a coma after the operation, the police stayed outside of the intensive care unit to monitor him for the next nine months and prevented people from getting close to him.

Police guarding Mr. Yao in the hospital

On February 4, 2021, the police and hospital staff removed Mr. Yao from the intensive care unit and took him to the Dongjiang Senior Center, which didn’t have the equipment required to care for him properly. He died at around 1:40 a.m. on February 11.

Henan Man Dies in Custody after Nearly 1.5 Years in Detention

After Mr. Guo Baojun of Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, passed away in custody on March 14, 2021, the guards at the Zhengzhou City No. 3 Detention Center would not let his family see his body or give them an autopsy report.

Mr. Guo was arrested on November 10, 2019, after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. He was tried via a video conference in the detention center on June 13, 2020. By then, he had been on a hunger strike for seven months. The guards kept the feeding tube in his nose during the hearing.

Mr. Guo was sentenced to two years and fined 20,000 yuan on June 29. He appealed the verdict, but the intermediate court ruled to uphold the original sentence on August 28.

Because Mr. Guo continued his hunger strike, his condition continued to deteriorate. In early December, he was in critical condition and hospitalized.

On December 3, Mr. Guo’s son and daughter-in-law were finally allowed to visit him in the hospital, the first time since his arrest more than a year ago. Mr. Guo’s son said that his father was emaciated. His lips were very dry, his skin was cracked, and his eyes were swollen.

It’s not clear whether Mr. Guo was ever taken back to the detention center before he died. He was 63.

69-year-old Man Dies Suddenly in Prison

Mr. Lu Guanru of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, passed away on April 4, 2021, while serving a seven-year term for practicing Falun Gong. While Tailai Prison officials claimed that the 69-year-old man died of a stroke, his family suspects that he may have been tortured to death.

Mr. Lu Guanru

Mr. Lu was arrested on November 9, 2018, in a sweep of more than 60 Falun Gong practitioners in both Daqing and Harbin City, the capital of Heilongjiang Province. While he was held in the Daqing City Detention Center, the police interrogated him, forced him to stand for long hours, and made him wear shackles.

When Mr. Lu went on a hunger strike to protest the treatment, the guards force-fed him, which caused him to vomit blood and suffer heart failure. He was on the verge of death and was resuscitated at the hospital several times.

Mr. Lu appeared in the Ranghulu District Court on June 6, 2019. His two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for him, and he testified in his own defense. The judge sentenced him to seven years with a 40,000-yuan fine on July 1, 2019. He appealed the verdict, but the Daqing City Intermediate Court upheld his sentence without a hearing on July 23.

Despite his serious medical condition, the detention center took him to Hulan Prison on July 30, 2019, to serve time without notifying his family. The guards said that they would accept him even if he was incapacitated.

Accountant Dies While Serving 11.5 Years

While in a detention center awaiting the results of her appeal of an 11.5-year prison sentence, Ms. Mao Kun, an accountant in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, was taken to a hospital emergency room around April 9, 2021. Her family was asked to apply for medical parole on her behalf. But before they even got a chance to submit the application, Ms. Mao passed away in the hospital on the evening of April 11. She was 57.

Similar to Mr. Lu’s case, Ms. Mao’s family also suspects that torture may have been responsible for her sudden death.

Ms. Mao Kun

Ms. Mao was arrested at home on July 10, 2019. Her arm was broken and her face was bruised during the violent arrest. Dozens of officers ransacked Ms. Mao’s home from 4 p.m. the day of the arrest until 2 a.m. the next day. Many personal belongings and informational materials about Falun Gong were confiscated. Ms. Mao’s parents, in their 80s and who lived with her, were terrified by the police raid. They wept in the hallway while the police were ransacking their home.

Ms. Mao stood trial on December 28, 2020, and was later sentenced to 11.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine.

Retired Colonel Dies in Prison, Family Suspects Foul Play

Mr. Gong Piqi’s family received a call from a prison guard on the evening of April 12, 2021, and was told that the 66-year-old retired colonel in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, had just been taken to the hospital for resuscitation. Moments later, the guard called again and said Mr. Gong had died of a stroke.

Mr. Gong Piqi

When Mr. Gong’s family went to the hospital the next morning, the doctor and prison authorities refused to let them see his body. When the family protested, Mr. Gong’s older brother and nephew were finally allowed to see his body but not to take photos or videos.

Mr. Gong’s head was injured and swollen and there was blood in his ears, according to his brother.

According to surveillance video later provided to Mr. Gong’s family, he was in bed the evening before he died. A prison doctor took his blood pressure but did not treat him. At around 8:32 p.m., Mr. Gong fell out of bed onto the floor and was unable to move. The ambulance didn’t arrive until 9 p.m. His family asked why it took half an hour for the ambulance to come.

While the guard who called his family claimed that Mr. Gong’s deadly stroke was caused by his non-compliance with treatment for his high blood pressure, his family asked why the prison had failed to inform them earlier of his condition or to release him on medical parole.

Mr. Gong was seized during a group arrest in October 2017. He was later sentenced to 7.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine on July 20, 2018.

Since 2020, citing the pandemic as an excuse, Shandong Province Prison authorities cut off all of Mr. Gong’s contact with his family. His family said they had no idea how he was faring in the prison.

It was later confirmed by Minghui.org that, since the second half of 2020, the guards had been forcing the inmates to work from 5 a.m. to 7 or 9 p.m. with almost no breaks. When Mr. Gong and other practitioners refused to do the unpaid labor, they were held in a room to watch a film slandering Falun Gong.

By then, Mr. Gong had already begun to suffer high blood pressure and constantly felt dizzy. Seeing that Mr. Gong was leaning against the wall due to dizziness, inmate Li Feng said to him, “What’s up? Not feeling well? Don’t pretend. You won’t die.”

Li often said to the inmates, “Gong Piqi is just pretending (that he is dying). It would be just wonderful if he did.”

Liaoning Man Dies Months after Arrest for Practicing Falun Gong, Authorities Concealing Details

Mr. Cheng Weixing, a retired mine worker in Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province, died months after he was arrested for practicing Falun Gong. He was 54.

Mr. Cheng was arrested at around 10 p.m. on May 12, 2020, while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Wenquan Police Station officers went to his home in three cars the next morning and confiscated his Falun Gong books.

Mr. Cheng later died while being held in the Huludao City Detention Center. Due to strict information control, the details of his death remain unclear. Some sources said he died in January 2021, while others said he died in May 2021.

Zhejiang Woman Dies in Custody after Involuntary Surgery for Alleged Brain Tumor

Ms. Shi Mengqiao of Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province, passed away on June 6, 2021, after being in a coma for over two months following involuntary brain surgery.

Ms. Shi was arrested on February 12, 2020, for distributing materials about Falun Gong. The Yongkang City Detention Center repeatedly rejected her family’s request to visit her, using the pandemic as an excuse.

Ms. Shi was sentenced to 18 months with a 20,000-yuan fine on September 27. While she was still awaiting the Jinhua City Intermediate Court to rule on her appeal, the detention center informed her family in late March 2021 that she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to be operated on immediately. Suspecting that she’d been tortured to critical condition instead of really being ill, her family refused to sign the consent for the operation and instead applied for medical parole for her.

The detention center refused to release Ms. Shi and ordered the hospital to operate on her in the middle of the night. She remained in an intensive care unit after the operation.

Ms. Shi’s family filed various complaints against the detention center for the suspected torture of their loved one. The authorities responded that the detention center didn’t violate any law and that Ms. Shi’s brain damage was caused by a tumor, although it’s not clear whether any investigation ever took place.

Ms. Shi never regained consciousness after the operation. The hospital informed her family on the evening of June 6 that she had passed away. The detention center refused to provide any information about her and took her body from the hospital straight to the funeral home. It’s not clear if her family was allowed to see her body at the funeral home.

Inner Mongolia Man Dies One Day after Being Tried for His Faith

Mr. Guo Zhenfang of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, died one day after he and his wife stood trial for their faith in Falun Gong.

Mr. Guo’s family received a call from the police on the evening of June 9, 2021, and was told that he had died. They rushed to the hospital and saw dozens of plainclothes officers guarding his body. They noted that his lower back was purple, there were injuries on the inner side of one of his knees, and his nose had blood on it. They tried to look more carefully, but the police barred them from getting any closer to the body.

One doctor at the hospital revealed that Mr. Guo had no vital signs when the police brought him in.

Without his family’s consent, the police had Mr. Guo’s body taken to the Songshan District Funeral Home shortly after.

Just one day before his death, Mr. Guo and his wife Ms. Feng Yuhua were tried in the Songshan District Court. According to his family members who attended the hearing, they saw him jump out of the police car and walk into the courtroom. He appeared to be very healthy.

While the authorities didn’t provide any explanation for his death, his family strongly suspects that he was tortured to death in the Songshan District Detention Center.

Mr. Guo and his wife were arrested on the morning of November 25, 2020. This was the second time that they had appeared in court, following an earlier hearing on April 8, 2021.

Henan Man Dies in Custody One Month After Arrest

Mr. Li Xianxi of Anyang City, Henan Province, went out to buy steamed buns for dinner at around 5 p.m. on May 11, 2021, and never returned. It’s reported that the small shop owner in his 50s was arrested when the police saw him talking to people about Falun Gong.

Four Beiguan Police Station officers ransacked Mr. Li’s two residences without showing a search warrant or their IDs. A criminal detention notice was issued the next day and Mr. Li was held at the Anyang City Detention Center.

Because Mr. Li did the Falun Gong exercises at the detention center, the guards handcuffed and shackled him. He held a hunger strike to protest.

On the morning of June 13, Mr. Li’s family was informed that he had died the day before. According to his family who saw his body, he was emaciated. His head was swollen, and there were injuries to his back and knees. The authorities refused to provide any explanation for his death.

Having Lost His Wife to the Persecution of Their Faith, Shandong Man Dies One Day after Arrest

A Mengyin County, Shandong Province, man died one day after he was arrested while working on his family farm on June 17, 2021.

Officers from the Mengyin County Police Station informed Mr. Sun Pijin’s family of his death on June 18. They said that Mr. Sun refused to have the coronavirus test at the Mengyin County Chinese Medicine Hospital and that he jumped from the building and died instantly. The police cordoned off the scene and didn’t allow anyone to get close.

When Mr. Sun’s family saw his body at the Mengyin County Funeral Home, they saw that he was leaking brain fluid, one of his eyeballs was missing, and his abdomen was sunken.

Prior to Mr. Sun’s arrest, his daughter (nicknamed Jiaojiao), was also arrested at home and is now being held at the Linyi Detention Center.

With Mr. Sun’s death, Jiaojiao is now parentless, as her mother, Ms. Yu Zaihua, died six years ago following 11 years of displacement to avoid being persecuted for the family’s shared faith in Falun Gong.

During the “Zero-out” campaign (a concerted effort to force all Falun Gong practitioners on the government’s blacklist to renounce Falun Gong) last year, police officers went to Mr. Sun’s home on October 25, 2020, and attempted to take him to a brainwashing session at the Wenhe Hotel.

Because he wasn’t home, the police threatened that they would force him to go. When Mr. Sun’s daughter tried to prevent the police from taking pictures of her father’s automobile license plate and then took pictures of the police officers herself, an officer grabbed her by the neck and said, “I dare you to try again!”

Deaths after Long Term Harassment and Torture

Liaoning Woman Dies in Displacement to Avoid Constant Harassment

After living in despair for the past two decades, Ms. Jiang Yanling died on February 12, 2021, at the age of 63.

Ms. Jiang Yanling in an undated photo

The death of Ms. Jiang of Yi County, Liaoning Province, was a tragic end to the nonstop harassment by the authorities for upholding her faith in Falun Gong.

While visiting a friend on March 20, 2001, Ms. Jiang was arrested by police officers who suddenly broke in. She was taken to the Yi County Police Department and interrogated for many hours. She was released on bail the next day after having 3,000 yuan extorted from her. The police never stopped harassing her.

After escaping another arrest in July 2004, Ms. Jiang was forced to live away from home. During this time, the police harassed her family even more frequently and threatened them to turn her in. The police also put her on a wanted list and looked for her everywhere, further forcing her to remain in displacement.

After moving from place to place for five years and five months, Ms. Jiang was arrested at a temporary residence on December 22, 2009. She was secretly tried in the Yi County Court on March 23, 2010, and sentenced to 13 years in May 2010, a term predetermined by the Jinzhou City 610 Office and Jinzhou City Intermediate Court. She appealed the verdict, but the higher court ruled to uphold her sentence.

Ms. Jiang developed serious illness symptoms during her ten months in the Jinzhou City Detention Center, but she was still taken to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison around September 11, 2020. The detention center extorted 2,000 yuan from her family.

Her health further deteriorated after she was tortured in prison. She developed a heart condition, uterine fibroids, and hemangioma. She was hospitalized after she began to vomit blood and had a persistent fever. When she was near death, the prison released her a few days later on April 30, 2011.

Just as she began to recover, the authorities took her back to the prison on November 3, 2011, and she was tortured again for not renouncing Falun Gong. Ms. Jiang’s health quickly declined due to the torture, and she was released on medical parole for the second time on July 10, 2013.

Not given a moment of peace to recover due to continued police harassment, Ms. Jiang sold her house and was forced into an unstable life again. She passed away eight years later, after enduring unimaginable hardship and suffering.

83-year-old Man Given Seven Years for His Faith, Dies Hours after Being Sent Home on Oxygen

Mr. Huang Qingdeng, a Leqing City, Zhejiang Province resident, was arrested at home on April 17, 2019, for sending text messages to people about the persecution of Falun Gong.

After nearly a year in detention, Mr. Huang was sentenced to seven years by the Leqing City Court on March 12, 2020. He was admitted to Hangzhou Second Prison on an unknown date.

A prison guard called Mr. Huang’s family in mid-November 2020 and said Mr. Huang was suffering from six ailments and had been taken to the hospital for resuscitation. Despite his critical condition, the prison refused to release him on bail.

Mr. Huang’s family received another call from the prison in March 2021 and was told that he had been taken back to the hospital for resuscitation.

Days later, at around 2 p.m. on March 26, 2021, Mr. Huang was sent home on oxygen. His entire body was black and blue. His family suspected that he had been given toxic drugs before being released. He died that evening.

Wife Dies in Fear While Husband Serves Time for Their Shared Faith

Although Ms. Ma Ying was released on bail and spared from being sentenced following her arrest nearly two years ago, she didn’t escape the constant police harassment and their continued attempts to persecute her. Distressed and fearful, the 54-year-old resident of Jilin City, Jilin Province, passed away on April 26, 2021, while her husband was still serving time.

The couple’s ordeal dated back to July 19, 2019, when they were arrested for their shared faith in Falun Gong.

Led by Wang Chaoyue, the deputy chief of Huapochang Town Police Station, seven officers knocked on the couple’s door at 6:20 a.m. Upon entering, one officer waved his police ID quickly and put it away without allowing them to see his name. When Ms. Ma’s husband, Mr. Zhang Yong, refused to cooperate with the police, they handcuffed him behind his back and shackled him.

While taking the couple to the Changyi District Police Department for interrogation, the police covered their heads with black plastic bags, making it hard for them to breathe. The police also handcuffed them during the interrogation. The handcuffs were so tight that their hands turned purple.

Ms. Ma was later released on bail due to her health. Mr. Zhang was taken to the Jilin City Detention Center and sentenced to three years in December 2020.

After Ms. Ma was released, the police constantly harassed and intimidated her. On July 17, 2020, a year after her arrest, deputy police chief Wang returned with several officers in two police cars. Some of them went upstairs and knocked on Ms. Ma’s door, while others stayed downstairs and shouted her name. The police tried to use a master key to break in and also smashed her peephole. When they failed to open the door, they threatened to smash it or hire a locksmith. The police also revealed that they were trying to submit Ms. Ma’s case to the Changyi District Procuratorate.

Fearful and worried about her husband, Ms. Ma’s health declined quickly. She passed away on April 26, 2021, without seeing her husband for the last time.

Engineer Dies from Physical and Mental Exhaustion after 12 Years of Imprisonment

An engineer in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, died on May 20, 2021, a year after he was released from serving a second prison term. His death was so sudden, his parents and sisters did not get to see him before he died.

Mr. Li was arrested in March 2017 and later sentenced to three years. After he was taken to the Fengtun Prison in November 2018, he was forced to do hard labor without compensation. When he protested the abuse, he was handcuffed in a twisted position that caused excruciating pain. He wasn’t allowed to use the restroom either. As a result of the torture, he contracted pleural effusion and was hospitalized.

When Mr. Li's family visited him in September 2019, he was underweight and too weak to walk. A guard carried him out and said that he’d just had fluid removed from his lungs and chest cavity in the prison hospital.

The torture and inhumane treatment took a heavy toll on his health. His weight dropped from 170 pounds to less than 90 pounds (he was 5’10’’ or 178 cm tall). He couldn’t walk on his own, had no appetite, and suffered from shortness of breath. The skin on his feet had been scraped off from wearing shackles around the clock. During the day his hands were cuffed to a door and he wasn’t allowed to use the restroom. At night, he lay on the floor, with his hands cuffed to the bed frame and deprived of sleep.

By the time he was released in March 2020, he was emaciated beyond recognition and constantly coughed. But despite his condition, he had to take care of his wife, Ms. Chen Li, and her mother, both of whom were in dire condition after being persecuted for their shared faith.

After serving three years in Harbin Women’s Prison, Ms. Chen became mentally ill and often tried to start fires. Her condition prevented Mr. Li from sleeping well at night, which took an even harder toll on his own health. To make it worse, the local police many times found him and ordered him to move. They once knocked on his door for over an hour in April 2021. Physically, mentally, and financially exhausted, Mr. Li died in May 2021. He was in his early 50s.

In addition to his second prison term, Mr. Li had previously served nine years in prison for his faith. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, he suffered a variety of tortures, including being hung up by handcuffs for long periods of time, forced to sit in an iron chair for long periods of time, beaten with metal clubs, held in solitary confinement, and force-fed.

Liaoning Man Succumbs to Torture-Induced Health Problems, Dies 3.5 Years after Medical Parole

While detained for his faith in Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongwei was subjected to brutal torture and force-fed highly salted milk for 29 days in a row. His health was severely damaged as a result. After struggling with severe diabetes and other health issues for three and a half years following his medical parole, Mr. Li passed away on June 8, 2021. He was 58.

Mr. Li Hongwei before the persecution

Photo of Mr. Li Hongwei taken on December 30, 2017, three days after he was released on medical parole

Mr. Li, a former Real Estate Bureau employee in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, took up Falun Gong in 1998 and soon saw his severe diabetes and fatty liver cured without medical intervention. He never wavered in his faith after the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong a year later. As a result, he was given one year of forced labor following his arrest in 2006 and sentenced to four and a half years in prison following his arrest in 2016.

The guards constantly beat him and shocked him with electric batons. His vision deteriorated and he had tightness in his chest as a result.

When his family visited him on September 21, 2017, two people had to carry him out. His right pant leg was rolled up, and there was a large purple and black pustule on his right calf. His eyesight was so poor that even with his face against the glass partition, he was unable to see his family member facing him on the other side clearly.

Because of serious diabetes, he was severely dizzy, emaciated, and weak. He developed paralysis on the right side of his body and was always thirsty.

On December 27, 2017, Mr. Li was released on medical parole. His health continued to deteriorate, and he passed away three and a half years later on June 8, 2021.