2024 Year in Review: Five Key Developments and More


Dear Reader,


This week, we at the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) issued our latest report, 2024 Year in Review: Five Key Developments in the Chinese Regime’s Persecution of Falun Gong, which outlines significant developments in 2024 regarding the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It reports at least 103 deaths due to persecution, 541 prison sentences, and over 5,692 arrests and harassment cases. Victims endured torture, forced labor, and even organ harvesting, with evidence from the first-known forced organ harvesting survivor shedding further light on these abuses. The CCP also expanded its repression internationally, using disinformation campaigns, lawfare, and targeted attacks on Shen Yun Performing Arts to discredit Falun Gong.


Despite the severity of these actions, grassroots and global responses grew. Legislative measures were passed in the U.S., Australia, and the European Parliament. Advocacy groups, diplomats, and individuals worldwide condemned the CCP’s actions. The article emphasizes the need for greater public awareness of this enduring human rights crisis, which remains a critical issue in China and beyond.

  
Also in this issue:

  • Five Falun Gong practitioners in Jilin Province were sentenced, leaving their families in difficult circumstances.

  • A Guangdong court sentenced a couple to ten years in prison for sharing Falun Gong materials.

  • A human rights lawyer rebuts criticisms of Falun Gong.

  • The 20th anniversary of Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s ground-breaking open letter.

Finally, we are sharing a video by Ben Maloney, FDIC’s Digital Outreach Director, who critiques recent New York Times articles for echoing CCP propaganda and urges independent research to understand Falun Gong and its persecution in China.


As we enter the New Year, we are pleased to announce that we have begun offering Chinese versions of some of our products, including recent research reports. This initiative aims to bring reliable information about Falun Gong directly to Chinese audiences.

Sincerely,

Levi Browde, Executive Director
Falun Dafa Information Center

FEATURE STORY

2024 Year in Review: Five Key Developments in the Chinese Regime’s Persecution of Falun Gong

Brazilian Falun Gong practitioners faced harassment as Chinese counter-protesters obstructed their yellow banner with flags during the G20 Summit on November 17, 2024.

What’s new?

On January 15, the Falun Dafa Information Center published its annual review of key developments and trends in the persecution of Falun Gong. These included the fact that in 2024, at least 103 Falun Gong practitioners reportedly died due to persecution, while 541 were sentenced, and over 5,692 harassed or detained. Cheng Peiming became the first-known survivor of forced organ harvesting, publicly testified about his ordeal, an account affirmed by medical experts, which drew international media coverage.


Moreover, the CCP’s longstanding campaign of transnational repression against Falun Gong practitioners escalated significantly in an apparent coordinated effort to discredit the Falun Gong community abroad and sabotage Shen Yun Performing Arts, a renowned American classical Chinese dance company. Leaked internal CCP information have outlined a range of the campaign’s tactics that have manifested themselves in the real world. Importantly, during the year, which also marked 25 years since the CCP launched its campaign against Falun Gong, many governments and prominent individuals publicly voiced their support for Falun Gong practitioners’ rights.


Why does it matter?

The CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong remains one of the most severe instances of large-scale religious persecution occurring in the world today, affecting millions of people. Falun Gong practitioners are one of the largest contingents of prisoners of conscience in China, with many elderly prisoners facing long prison terms for their faith or sharing information about the persecution with fellow citizens. With each passing year, the human toll of the CCP’s brutality increases, while the regime refines its authoritarian tactics for use against Falun Gong and other future targets. With the regime’s transnational repression and disinformation efforts intensifying and becoming more manipulative in 2024, the risks not only to Falun Gong practitioners but also to other CCP victim groups and even broader American society has grown.


What else do you need to know?

As we head into 2025, the Falun Dafa Information Center will continue tracking rights abuses in China, CCP foreign influence efforts, and the many actions of support and solidarity offered by policymakers and ordinary citizens around the world. Please stay tuned!

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PERSECUTION IN CHINA

Five Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced in Jilin, Their Families Also Harmed

In early 2025, reports from Weiquanwang, a website that crowdsources updates on human rights cases in China from grassroots activists, revealed the secret sentencing of five veteran Falun Gong practitioners in Tonghua City, Jilin Province. The individuals—Xu Deming, Sun Jinna, Qu Xiaofei, Luo Xizhen, and Liu Xiaoyan—were arrested in March 2024 during a coordinated operation targeting Falun Gong adherents in the area. Without notifying their families, Liuhe County Court conducted secret trials, and issued prison sentences ranging from two to five years. By December 2024, all five had been transferred to various prisons, reflecting the intensifying crackdown on Falun Gong practitioners in the region.

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PERSECUTION IN CHINA

Guangdong, Falun Gong Husband and Wife Get Record Sentence of 10 Years in Jail 

On December 20, 2024, relatives of Li Zhuozhong and his wife Liao Yuanqun learned that the couple had been sentenced to ten years in prison by the Meixian District Court in Meizhou City, Guangdong. Although even harsher sentences have been handed down against Falun Gong practitioners, this case sets a kind of record for spouses receiving the same sentence for comparatively minor issues such as being found in possession of Falun Gong literature and copying and sharing it with others. The news was reported by Bitter Winter, an online magazine based in Italy that focuses on religious liberty and human rights in China.

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CCP INFLUENCE

A Response to Falun Gong Critics

Ms. Terri Marsh, Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, published a commentary on the allegations against Falun Gong in a recent New York Times article. Ms. Marsh lays out the legal basis for why Falun Gong is a religion similar to other mainstream religions recognized under U.S. and international law, and highlights Falun Gong’s core values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Drawing on her familiarity with Falun Gong as a lawyer who has helped torture victims sue Chinese officials and knowledge of incidents raised in the Times’ reporting, she addresses the paper’s ill-supported claims that Shen Yun extorts money, provides evidence that the allegations are unfounded, and defends the legitimacy of Falun Gong’s teachings and practices.

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Have you read this? Chinese Rights Lawyer’s Open Letter Outlining Illegality of Persecution

Just over 20 years ago, on December 31, 2004, prominent Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng published the first of several open letters to the top leadership of the CCP, calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. He outlines in detail his first-hand experience trying to represent jailed Falun Gong practitioners and the many obstacles faced, most illegal under China’s own laws, while questioning the taboo surrounding Falun Gong:


“As I began to write this letter, others warned me out of kindness that the Falun Gong issue is taboo and a ‘political issue.’ As a lawyer, I am well aware of the special social situation in China. In a society where political powers are used appropriately, there would be no taboos. The fact that taboos exist demonstrates distortion, illegitimacy, and dishonesty in the use of political power.”


Gao’s principled stance inspired a new generation of lawyers to take on Falun Gong cases, but also resulted in his own jailing, torture, and ultimate disappearance. 


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My honest thoughts about recent New York Times coverage on Falun Gong and Shen Yun


FDIC’s Digital Outreach Director Ben Maloney discusses the recent New York Times coverage and urges independent research to understand Falun Gong and its persecution in China.

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