Amnesty International (AI) first began researching and reporting on the persecution of Falun Gong in the days immediately following the ban on the practice on July 20, 1999. Since that time, abuses against Falun Gong practitioners have been a regular feature of the China section of AI’s annual report. Thanks to multiple Urgent Actions that have been issued for adherents in imminent danger of being tortured, thousands of AI members have written to the Chinese authorities on behalf of practitioners and in several instances, contributed to better treatment or early release.
In a special report on torture in 2001, AI highlighted the systematic use of torture by security agents in a nation-wide effort to force citizens to abandon the traditional Chinese practice. More recently, AI has featured Bu Dongwei, a practitioner serving a two-and-a-half year sentence in a Beijing labor camp, as one of the prisoners of conscience whose release it is calling for ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Annual Reports:
- 2017-2018 Annual Report
“Falun Gong practitioners continued to be subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and torture and other ill-treatment.” - 2016-2017 Annual Report
“Falun Gong practitioners continued to be subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and torture and other ill-treatment.” - 2015-2016 Annual Report
“Falun Gong practitioners continued to be subjected to persecution, arbitrary detention, unfair trials and torture and other ill-treatment.” - 2014-2015 Annual Report
“In December, 11 foreign nationals and supporters of the Falun Gong movement were unlawfully detained after their proposed protest against the Chinese government was banned, and subsequently deported.” - 2013 Annual Report
“Muslims, Buddhists and Christians, who practiced their religion outside officially sanctioned channels, and Falun Gong practitioners, were tortured, harassed, arbitrarily detained, imprisoned and faced other serious restrictions on their right to freedom of religion.” - 2012 Annual Report
“Practitioners who refused to renounce their faith were at risk of escalating levels of torture and other ill-treatment. The authorities operated illegal detention centres, informally referred to as ‘brainwashing centres’, for this process. - 2011 Annual Report
“The authorities renewed the campaign to “transform” Falun Gong practitioners, which required prison and detention centres to force Falun Gong inmates to renounce their beliefs. Those considered “stubborn,” that is, those who refuse to sign a statement to this effect, are typically tortured until they cooperate; many die in detention or shortly after release. ” - 2010 Annual Report
“The severe and systematic 10-year campaign against Falun Gong continued…Former RTL prisoners reported that Falun Gong constituted one of the largest groups of prisoners…The government campaign against Falun Gong intensified, with sweeping detentions, unfair trials leading to long sentences, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention following torture and ill-treatment.”
- 2009 Annual Report
“Falun Gong practitioners were among those most harshly persecuted by the government. In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, thousands were reported to have been arrested, with hundreds imprisoned or assigned to Re-education through Labour camps and other forms of administrative detention where they were at risk of torture and other ill-treatment sometimes leading to death.”
- 2008 Annual Report
Falun Gong practitioners were at particularly high risk of torture and other ill-treatment in detention….During the year over 100 Falun Gong practitioners were reported to have died in detention or shortly after release as a result of torture, denial of food or medical treatment, and other forms of ill-treatment.”
- 2007 Annual Report
- 2006 Annual Report
- 2005 Annual Report
- 2004 Annual Report
- 2003 Annual Report
- 2002 Annual Report
- 2001 Annual Report
- 2000 Annual Report
General Amnesty International Description of Persecution against Falun Gong (compiled from recent Urgent Actions):
“Falun Gong is a spiritual movement that gained large numbers of adherents in China during the 1990s. […I]n July 1999, the government outlawed the group and launched a long-term campaign of intimidation and persecution, directed by a special organization called the 610 Office.
Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained since the spiritual movement was banned […]. Those accused of being Falun Gong leaders or organizers have been jailed. Others have been held in psychiatric hospitals, but the vast majority have been held in Re-education Through Labour facilities, a form of punitive administrative detention in which people can be deprived of their liberty without trial for up to four years.
The crackdown on Falun Gong intensified in the lead-up to the Olympics. Falun Gong sources reported over 8000 arrests of Falun Gong practitioners nationwide during this period, and say that in 2008 over 100 died in custody or shortly after being released, due to torture, starvation and lack of medical treatment.”
Urgent Actions and Appeal Cases for Falun Gong practitioners
- Ouyang Wen (f):
Urgent Action: China: Medical concern/fear of torture or other ill-treatment (2 March 2009)
“Falun Gong practitioner Ouyang Wen began a two-year term of Re-education Through Labour (RTL) in June 2008. While in custody her eyesight began to deteriorate, to the point where she is now almost blind, but she has been given no medical treatment. She was arrested without a warrant at her home in Beijing in May 2008, and sent to RTL, after she had been in custody for a month, for “hiding Falun Gong propaganda materials” in her home….This is the third time Ouyang Wen has been persecuted for her religious beliefs.”
“Shortly after her [previous] release Ouyang Wen resumed practicing Falun Gong and declared on a Falun Gong website that she regretted signing the letter [to denounce the practice] and had been coerced into doing so. Fearing the government would punish her for this; she fled her home and became destitute. She travelled for the next six years, only occasionally visiting her family at home. Her arrest on 14 May 2008 was a result of her visiting home to celebrate her daughter’s 17th birthday.”
- Xu Na (f)
China: Fear of torture and other ill-treatment / Prisoner of conscience (28 November 2008)
“Falun Gong practitioner Xu Na is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. She was sentenced to three years in prison on 25 November… Amnesty International believes she is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful exercise of her right to freedom of conscience and religion […].”
“On 25 January 2008, Xu Na and her folk musician husband Yu Zhou were detained after a routine search, during which the Beijing police discovered they were carrying Falun Gong materials. Yu Zhou died in detention 11 days after being taken into police custody.”
Urgent Actions and Reports on Lawyers Who Had Defended Falun Gong Adherents
- Wei Liangyue and wife Du Yongjing
Urgent Action: China: Fear of torture and other ill-treatment (26 March 2009)
“Human rights lawyer Wei Liangyue and his wife Du Yongjing were detained on 28 February in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, reportedly for attending a Falun Gong meeting. They are currently held at Nangang District Detention Centre in Harbin. … Amnesty International believes they are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.”
China: Further Information on Fear of torture and other ill-treatment (31 March 2009)
“Human rights lawyer Wei Liangyue and his wife Du Yongjing have been released and returned home after 30 days of detention. Both were released on bail on 30 March pending further investigation. Wei Liangyue remains under suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order” and Du Yongjing is still under suspicion of “using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law”…. Wei Liangyue believes that international attention and pressure contributed to him and his wife’s temporary release, and would like to thank those who have taken actions for them.”
Reports and Press Releases on Falun Gong (1999-2000)
Internet Censorship and Cyberdissidents (2001-2008)
