Child Victims of the Persecution of Falun Gong

While the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has led to a multitude of horrific and heartbreaking outcomes for practitioners and their families, for children whose parents are persecuted, the terror, stress, and disorientation such tragedies cause is especially acute.

According to statistics gathered by Minghui as of June 28, 2024, at least 5,088 practitioners of Falun Dafa have died due to the persecution. This number is likely much lower than the actual death count due to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) censorship and Internet blockade. Many of these practitioners had children, who as a result of the persecution were left in fear. The following accounts document children of all ages whose lives have been affected by the persecution. 

The children stem from numerous provinces, including Jilin, Sichuan, Jiangxi and Guangdong Provinces. Their parents were teachers, police officers, textile employees, postal couriers, and government officials. Many were left to be raised by relatives or forced to leave China, where they continue to be harassed by Chinese police.

Liu Zhiming’s Son

Liu Zhiming was sentenced to three years and six months in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine (approximately 1380 USD) on April 22, 2024 for practicing Falun Gong. His sentence expires on May 15, 2027. 

Mr. Liu, a 51-year-old man born in November 1973, was a postal courier and ride-share driver from Kunming City, Yunnan Province, before he transitioned to staying at home full-time to care for his autistic sister and nine-year-old son (who is in elementary school). Liu Zhiming’s family consists of four people (including himself): his autistic sister (for whom Mr. Liu is full-time caretaker), his son, and his wife. Mr. Liu’s parents both previously passed away. 

On November 16, 2023, at approximately 7 a.m., several officers from the Jinbi Police Station broke into and raided Mr. Liu’s home and seized his personal property, including his, his son’s, and his wife’s cell phones. Both Mr. Liu’s son and sister witnessed the home raid and his arrest.

On the day of Mr. Liu’s arrest, at around 7 a.m. on November 16, 2023, at the same moment that police were raiding his house, Ms. Cheng Yun (Mr. Liu’s wife) received a phone call from an unknown number. A caller claiming to be from the local education bureau inquired about Ms. Cheng’s son’s absence from school. Since she was at her client’s home where she worked as a live-in babysitter, she directed them to contact her husband. Shortly after, seven officers, only two in uniform, arrived at her client’s home, also claiming to be from the education bureau. Ms. Cheng was then deceptively taken to the Jinbi Police Station under the pretense of signing a form related to her son’s education and her sister-in-law’s welfare.

When Ms. Cheng arrived home around 9 p.m. after her interrogation, she found two residential committee staffers and her son, but her husband and his sister were missing. Her son revealed that, contrary to the police’s claims, he had not gone to school but had witnessed a raid, the confiscation of their belongings, his father’s arrest, and his aunt’s kidnapping. He had been with two community staff members while Ms. Cheng was being interrogated.

Mr. Liu’s nine-year-old son will now be fatherless for almost four years, until his dad’s sentence expires in May 2027. Additionally, due to the persecution, he experienced a home raid and the stress of being watched by two strangers while both his parents were taken away: his father arrested and his mother interrogated.

Wang Jing

Wang Jing, the five-year-old son of Mr. Wang Zhihai and his wife Ms. Duan Shiqiong, has been raised by his grandparents. His parents, both Falun Dafa practitioners from Chongqing, were absent from his life after being persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. In July 2001, Jing’s father was sent to the Xinhua Forced Labor Camp in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province. On September 17, 2003, Jing’s mother died in the Chengdu Detention Center of Sichuan Province. Wang Jing’s childhood was thus filled with sorrow and shame, as he was often met with discrimination from other children. A seven-year-old girl from Changchun City named Zheng Xianchu found herself in a situation similar to Jing’s and was afraid to utter either of her parents’ names. 

Zhang Jiarui

Ten-year-old (in 2004) Zhang Jiarui’s father, Mr. Zhang Bin, was arrested in December 2004 and subjected to torture in Suihua Forced Labor Camp. Ever since the beginning of his father’s absence, Jiarui has suffered emotionally and psychologically, experiencing extreme sadness, loneliness, and a drop in self-confidence. Jiarui’s mother, Ms. Cheng Qinglan, said of her son: “For a long time, he has not had his father’s love. Because his classmates and teachers discriminate against him, he is depressed and has low self-esteem. His grades dropped, and his physical and mental health have been affected.” 

Wan Ruyi

A police officer from Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, Mr. Wan Liji lost his life after long-term physical and mental torture for practicing Falun Gong. He was just 34 years old when he passed away on February 9, 2004. Forced to make a living after the loss of family income from her husband being persecuted to death, Mr. Wan Liji’s wife became a street vendor. Wan Ruyi, the daughter of Mr. Wan Liji who was four years old at the time of his death, often whispered to herself, “I need to call my dad.” Walking in the park, she was followed by CCP officers, something that terrified her. 

Liu Xiang

An 11-year-old boy from Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, named Liu Xiang expressed that his greatest fear was being sent to live at an orphanage. His greatest fear was realized when his parents both disappeared from his life due to the persecution. Both of Xiang’s parents were teachers at Nantou Middle School in Shenzhen City. Ms. Wang Xiaodong, Xiang’s mother, was tortured to death at Nanshan Detention Center in July 2003. Xiang’s father, Mr. Liu Xifeng, was sentenced to a ten year term in Sihui Prison in December 2003. Parentless, Xiang was forced to live in a perpetual state of terror in Shenzhen Orphanage. If he were to leave the orphanage, he would be pursued by the police. 

Liu Xiaotian

Mr. Liu Qing, an official of the Zhishan Town Government in Yongzhou City, and his wife Ms. Yang Yuyan, an employee of the Shanghe Town Textile Factory in Lengshuitan District, were tortured to death five months after they were first detained for practicing Falun Gong. Their son, Liu Xiaotian, found out about their deaths over two years after they passed away. Throughout the two years since his parents’ detainment, Xiaotian lived with his uncle (a farmer in Fujian Province), hid in an abandoned warehouse in Shenzhen for a year, was smuggled out of China to Denmark, and was taken to a refugee camp. His uncle, who did not have an easy life as a farmer, went into serious debt to pay the smugglers to get him out of China. 

Terrified of being sent back to China and falling into the hands of CCP authorities, and having suffered mentally and physically from his yearlong stay at the warehouse alone, it took Xiaotian a year to express his story clearly to Denmark Falun Gong practitioners. During his time in Denmark, Xiaotian himself took up Falun Dafa, a practice that he only knew about vaguely. The healing effects of the practice had a positive effect on him physically and mentally. 

In 2004, almost three years after Xiaotian learned in school that his parents were detained, Xiaotian was finally told by his uncle that his parents had died from torture for practicing Falun Dafa. To this day, no one knows where they were detained, the location of their deaths, or the torture methods used on them. The police used the word “suicide” to describe their deaths, and refused to give more details. 

After Xiaotian’s parents were tortured to death, the police attempted to get rid of their orphan (Xiaotian). They forced Xiaotian’s uncle to sign documents promising to “dissociate himself from Liu Xiaotian’s family.” The officers also demanded that the uncle immediately report Xiaotian’s location if he had access to that information, threatening to punish his family if he did not comply with that order. Terrorized, these conditions were what led to his uncle sending Xiaotian to the warehouse in Shenzhen, out of fear that his nephew would be captured by CCP authorities if he continued to stay with him. 

Xiaotian later discovered that the police had ransacked his family home the day they seized his parents, smashing windows and destroying furniture. They then posted seals on the gate of his home, before completely tearing the house down and removing the remaining ruins. Now nothing is left of Xiaotian’s childhood home, as if his parents never existed, their lives erased from historical record. In efforts to cover up deaths of practitioners that occur at the hands of CCP authorities, the CCP destroys all evidence of their barbaric torture methods. A horrific common practice on Falun Gong practitioners is cremation without family consent in order to cover up evidence of torture visible on practitioners’ bodies. 

Sun Mingyuan

Sun Mingyuan, a young boy from Dehui City, Jilin Province, was sent to live with his grandmother after both of his parents were taken away for practicing Falun Dafa. Mr. Sun Qian, Mingyuan’s father, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and Ms. Ma Chunli, Mingyuan’s mother, was sent to the Dehui Detention Center. In December 2004, she was in life-threatening conditions in the detention center. 

Yang Shengwei

Yang Zhonghong, mother of two, was arrested on September, 19, 2006 for telling people about Falun Dafa. While being detained, Ms. Yang Zhonghong was tied to an iron chair, threatened, and tortured. Yang Shengwei, Ms. Yang’s 13-year-old son, was kicked in the face by a police officer from the Fusong County Police Department for demanding his mother’s release from the detention center. This assault, however, did not deter him from returning to the police station the next day, carrying his three-year-old sister on his back. 

Liu Qian

On November 15, 2003, Liu Qian of Xiong County (Hebei Province), 12 years old at the time, was diagnosed with acute leukemia. Her parents were told flat out that there was no cure and to start making funeral preparations. Rather than succumbing to the doctors’ dismal prognosis, her parents instead taught their daughter Falun Dafa. Within seven days of learning the exercises, Qian, who had been bedridden, was fully cured. When looked at by the doctors, examinations confirmed that she was perfectly healed. 

However, two months after school began, the principal of Qian’s school threatened to expel her unless she signed paperwork renouncing her faith in Falun Gong. The principal was pressured by higher CCP authorities to threaten this middle schooler for her beliefs. Five days after this threat, due to the extreme psychological stress and resulting depression, Qian passed away. 

Adapted from compiled original Minghui articles.