(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously published two overviews of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners jailed at the Shenyang City First Prison in Liaoning Province that resulted in at least three in-custody deaths between 2022 and 2024 (see related reports). This follow-up report compiles two additional death cases and one persecution case.
Mr. Yin Guozhi, 56 and of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, died on May 22, 2022, while serving a ten-year term at the Shanyang City First Prison. His wife, Ms. Fu Jinghua, who was in displacement to avoid persecution for their shared faith in Falun Gong, also died in her rental place on December 1, 2019, not long after he was sentenced to prison. Two months before Mr. Yin’s passing, a relative of his was notified that he had developed late-stage lung cancer and was receiving oxygen in the hospital. The family was ordered to cover his medical expenses. It was unclear whether they complied.
Mr. Men Yulin, a 74-year-old resident of Yi County, Liaoning Province, died on October 21, 2025, four days after he completed a seven-year term at the Shenyang City First Prison. After years of abuse, he became dazed and could not even recognize his own children when he was released on October 17.
Mr. Li Kai, of Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, is serving an unknown term in Division Six of the Shenyang City First Prison. His family has been denied visits with him on the grounds that he holds firm to his faith.
Persecution Overview
As previously reported, the Shenyang City First Prison has a 19th Division known as the “High Security Division.” Most of the Falun Gong practitioners taken to this prison are held there and subject to brutal torture for not renouncing their faith. The head of the division has often said to practitioners, “Do you know how many practitioners have died here?”
The prison began to build the High Security Division in 2010, investing over 30 million yuan into the project. After construction finished in 2012, the former warden, Wang Bin, urged the Liaoning Province Prison Administration Bureau, Justice Bureau, and the 610 Office to have other prisons in the province transfer all Falun Gong practitioners who refused to renounce their faith to his prison, and he guaranteed a 100% “transformation” rate for practitioners. As a result, many practitioners, including both Liaoning residents and out-of-towners, were transferred there from prisons across the province.
Torture methods used in the prison include forced-feeding of feces and urine, the tiger bench, prolonged hours of sitting, scalding with boiling water, spraying pepper solution into the eyes, prying open eyelids with a toothpick (see image below), smashing toes with heavy objects, scraping the ribs with hard objects, hanging up by the wrists, forcing the legs into splits, electric shocks including on the genitals, and placing ice cubes on practitioners’ testicles. Many practitioners were also deprived of sleep, not allowed to use the bathroom, and forced to drink water from a toilet.
Torture Demonstration: prying open eyelids with a toothpick.
In addition to the physical torture, practitioners are forced to watch propaganda videos slandering Falun Gong or listen to defamatory audio recordings played at a high volume.
Since Cong Chunsheng became Party secretary and warden of Shenyang City First Prison in September 2022, he has continued to implement the Chinese Communist Party’s policy to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Many practitioners were also held in isolated rooms on the fourth floor, where all the windows are covered to conceal the torture that takes place inside.
In just three years, at least four practitioners died under questionable circumstances at the prison, including the aforementioned Mr. Yin, Mr. Di Yongchi (who died at 69 on December 22, 2022), Mr. Liu Dianyuan (who died at 86 on February 10, 2024, Chinese New Year’s Day), and Mr. Yan Xuguang (who died at 66 on October 16, 2024). Additionally, the aforementioned Mr. Men died four days after his prison release.
Related Reports:
The Persecution of Male Falun Gong Practitioners in Shenyang City First Prison
Crimes of Cong Chunsheng, Warden of Shenyang City First Prison, in Persecuting Falun Gong
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