Reported in January and February 2026: 796 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested or Harassed for Their Faith
(Minghui.org) A total 796 of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested or harassed for their faith in January and February 2026.
Of the 796 cases reported, 404 were arrests and 392 were incidents of harassment. Among them, 217 practitioners had their homes ransacked and seven were held in brainwashing centers. Some of the incidents took place years ago. The delay in reporting is due to the information censorship in China under the communist regime, which makes it difficult for Minghui correspondents to collect, verify, and report the data in a timely manner.
The 796 practitioners hailed from 26 provinces, autonomous regions, or centrally-controlled municipalities. Shandong reported the most combined cases of 336, followed by 96 in Hebei and 64 in Liaoning. Eight more regions had double-digit cases between 11 and 43. The remaining 15 places registered single-digit cases between 1 and 8.
Information is available on the ages of 173 practitioners at the time of their arrests or harassment. Two were in their 30s, four in their 40s, 19 in their 50s, 48 in their 60s, 75 in their 70s, 24 in their 80s, and one in her 90s. They came from all walks of life, including teachers, calligraphers, auditors, and engineers. Five had their pensions suspended, and one’s low-income subsidy was suspended.
In Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, the Daqing Oilfield Company published a “Notice on Anti-Cult Prevention and Control Work.” The notice slandered Falun Gong and ordered its employees who practiced Falun Gong to sign statements to renounce their faith.
In Tianjin, the Municipal Education Working Committee ordered its teachers to sign statements every year to pledge their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party as part of their performance profile. Falun Gong practitioners who refused to sign the statements were often did not pass the performance evaluation and even had their pay deducted.
Mass Arrests and Harassment in Shandong
In January and February 2026, there were mass arrests and incidents of harassment in over ten cities in Shandong Province, including Liaocheng, Qingdao, Yantai, Weifang, Zibo, Jinan, Laizhou, Zouping, Zhucheng, and Pingyuan County. The 336 reported persecution incidents in Shandong accounted for 42.2% of the total cases in the entire country. Most of the practitioners had their homes raided, and somewere photographed against their will. Some also had samples of their blood, voice, or fingerprints collected against their will.
Officers from the Quanfu Police Station in Jinan City broke into 77-year-old Ms. Hao Guangju’s home on January 6 and arrested her and her five practitioner-guests, including Mr. Zhao Xianghai, 73, former deputy director of the Licheng District Price Bureau; Mr. Liu Sitang, 82, former engineer at the Jinan Steel Company; Ms. Hao Guangping, in her late 60s; Ms. Pan Juan, in her 70s; and Mr. Hu Hua, in his 70s.
Ms. Yang Chunxiang of Qingdao City was arrested at noon on January 13 as she was leaving her office building. Three officers from the Liujiazhuang Police Station ordered her to show her ID, then seized her cell phone and handcuffed her. They told Ms. Yang’s family that she’d be released after 10 days of administrative detention in the Qingdao City Second Detention Center. When her family went to pick her up on January 23, they were told that her status had been changed to criminal detention.
Ms. Yu Aihua, 63, also of Qingdao was arrested on January 13 and released around 6 p.m. She was taken back into custody the next morning after she was deceived into going to the local police station to pick up her cell phone confiscated the day before. She was taken straight to the Qingdao City Second Detention Center.
Several police officers in Yantai City broke into the home of 76-year-old Ms. Zou (first name unknown) on January 16 to harass her. She wasn’t home, but her husband, who had a heart condition, was so frightened by the police that he dropped dead. The police fled.
Two sisters in Laizhou City, Ms. Pan Ruiying and Ms. Pan Ruihua, were arrested on January 26 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong at a community fair. The police raided their homes and extorted 50,000 yuan from each of them. They were released later that day. The police went to their homes the next day and ordered them to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong.
Officer Yang Zuguang from the Haidaibianfang Police Station in Longkou City called Ms. Yu Xiaomei on January 26 and demanded to meet with her. When she asked him who had instructed him to harass her, he replied, “The Chinese Communist Party!” She refused to comply. An officer surnamed Zhong called Ms. Yu’s husband, Mr. Ren Tao, demanding to come and take his picture. He refused.
Officers from the Nanliu Town Police Station in Weifang City took pictures of Mr. Du Chonglai’s deli shop and ordered his wife to sign a blank piece of paper. When she refused, they ordered her to pretend to be signing it so they could take a picture of her.
Over ten officers from the Laiyang City Domestic Security Office and the Muyudian Town Police Station descended on a married couple’s home on February 2. Ms. Cheng Meiying refused to open the door, so the police pried open it. They handcuffed her and her husband, Mr. Du Weiguo, before searching the house. They confiscated the couple’s Falun Gong books and cell phones and took them to the Muyudian Town Police Station. The couple were ordered to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Cheng was released on bail at 8:30 p.m., but Mr. Du was taken to the Laiyang City Lockup.
Another married couple in Laiyang City were also arrested on February 2. Mr. An Libo and Ms. Liu Daihong were tending to their vendor business at a fair that day, when Ma Shuguang from the Laiyang City Domestic Security Office and a few other officers showed up. They ordered the couple to close their business for the day and took them to their home for a “visit.”
Mr. An said that what the police were doing was illegal. They replied they were following orders from their superiors. They seized him and pushed him into the police car. He refused to hand over his house key, so they searched him and found it. They then tied him up and drove him to his house. His wife was put in another car and driven home, too.
Mr. An escaped while the police were ransacking his home. They confiscated all of his Falun Gong books, cell phones, computer, and other valuables. His wife was released at 7 p.m. that day.
Elderly Practitioners Persecuted
78-Year-Old Woman Detained for Her Faith in Falun Gong, Health Quickly Declines
A 78-year-old woman in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, became incapacitated just days after being arrested for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Chen Suyuan was walking in a residential area on January 20, 2026, when she saw two Falun Gong booklets on the ground near the entrance to an apartment building. When she picked them up, two women appeared out of nowhere and seized her. One of them went inside the building and emerged with eight more booklets. They accused Ms. Chen of distributing them in the building. They took her to the Liqiao Residential Committee Office. One of the women called the police department, which then dispatched officers to arrest Ms. Chen.
When Ms. Chen’s lawyer visited her in the Anshan City First Detention Center in early February, two people had to carry her out. She appeared extremely weak. She told her lawyer that when the police took her for a physical exam, they dragged her and pulled her, causing her severe injuries. She now relies on others for care.
Ms. Chen had been very healthy before her arrest. Her family asked the police of she was abused in custody and that was why her health declined so quickly. The police denied she was ever abused.
Ms. Chen Suzhen, 77, of Huludao City, Liaoning Province, has been forced to live away from home to avoid being persecuted for her faith in Falun Gong.
The police began to harass Ms. Chen in October and November 2025. They even dispatched SWAT officers to her residence. On January 21, 2026, a man from the Longgang District Procuratorate called Ms. Chen’s daughter and demanded to meet with Ms. Chen. He claimed that Ms. Chen had committed a serious crime, but if she signed some documents, she would be fine.
Ms. Chen refused to comply. To avoid being arrested, she moved into a temporary, unheated apartment, which, given her age and the extreme cold in the northeast of China, is making life very difficult for her. She cannot even return home for the Chinese New Year, because the police and community office have dispatched officers to look for her.
A woman in her 70s has had her pension suspended since 2020 for practicing Falun Gong. She filed a lawsuit against the local social security bureau. She won, but the agency still refuses to reinstate her pension.
The ordeal of Ms. Gang Fengqing, a retired factory worker in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, stemmed from her three-year prison sentence in 2013. She was reduced to just skin and bones and her hair had turned gray by the time she was released in 2016.
In 2020, the Nianzishan District Social Security Bureau suspended Ms. Gang’s pension, citing a notice barring retirees who served time in prison from receiving retirement benefits. However, there is no such law on the books in China.
Ms. Gang filed a lawsuit with the local court, which recently ruled that the Nianzishan District Social Security Bureau must pay Ms. Gang the basic pension.
However, the social security bureau still refuses to make any payments. Its director, Li Cheng, even said to Ms. Gang, “I’m the gatekeeper of the Chinese Communist Party’s money, and I won’t give you the pension payments.”
Elderly Woman’s Pension Suspended for Practicing Falun Gong
When 87-year-old Ms. Geng Yingfeng completed a four-year term on June 29, 2025, for practicing Falun Gong, she was devastated to learn that her pension had been suspended throughout her prison term. Without any other source of income, she and her 90-year-old husband only have an old, dilapidated bicycle to ride around town and collect scrap recyclable materials and discarded vegetables from the farmers’ market to make a living.
Since the CCP initiated the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Geng of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, has been repeatedly targeted for practicing her faith. She was arrested on August 26, 2019, and later sentenced to four years with a 30,000-yuan fine. The court ordered her family to pay 45,000 yuan and claimed that the additional 15,000 yuan was the court fee.
Ms. Geng was admitted to prison on September 27, 2021. The local social security bureau suspended her pension around the same time and have thus far withheld 220,000 yuan. She repeatedly contacted the bureau and demanded to see the legal basis for suspending her pension. They only showed her a document issued by the Heilongjiang Province Social Security Bureau that barred Falun Gong practitioners from receiving their pension while serving time. She pointed out that the out-of-province document had nothing to do with her case. The bureau refused to talk to her again.
65-Year-Old Former Journalist Has Pension Suspended for 4 Years and Counting
A 65-year-old woman in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, has had her pension suspended since the summer of 2021 when she started serving a three-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong. The benefits were not reinstated after she was released in 2024.
Ms. Ning Hong’s latest prison sentence stemmed from her arrest on August 15, 2019, after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police initially gave her 15 days of detention. But after the detention center denied her admission due to high blood pressure, the police released her and put her under house arrest. They later forced her landlord to terminate her lease and evict her.
On March 26, 2021, a Pengzhou City Court judge and his clerks descended on Ms. Ning’s home, where he heard her case and sentenced her to three years with a 5,000-yuan fine.
The court deceived Ms. Ning into reporting to them “for a physical exam” on August 23, 2021. She was arrested on arrival and taken straight to the Pi County Detention Center to serve her term.
Because Ms. Ning refused to give up her faith, the detention center guards did not allow her family to visit her or send her clothes. They could only deposit a small amount of money into her commissary account. She was likely released on August 22, 2024.
After she returned home, Ms. Ning learned that her former employer, the Sichuan Province People’s Radio Station, had suspended her pension starting in the summer of 2021, even though she had worked there as a reporter for decades. They still have not reinstated her benefits.
Practitioners from All Walks of Life Targeted
Middle School Teacher Arrested for Practicing Falun Gong
A 49-year-old middle school teacher in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, was arrested by approximately 20 officers on the evening of February 3, 2026, because he practices Falun Gong.
Mr. Xu Tong’s Falun Gong books, computer, printer, and cell phone were confiscated. He is being held at the Zhanjiang City Detention Center.
Mr. Xu, a teacher at the Chikan District 17th Middle School, discovered Falun Gong in 2012 and identified with its principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. He realized that the practice was nothing like the slanderous propaganda depicted by the CCP, but rather an ancient spiritual discipline that teaches people to be a good. As he strove to live by Falun Gong’s principles, his outlook on the world changed. He focused on eliminating his jealousy and short temper. Some of his chronic ailments also disappeared.
Prior to his latest arrest, Mr. Xu was arrested before, on August 6, 2018, and held at the Zhanjiang Brainwashing Center for four months. He was released after he started a hunger strike to protest. Upon returning home, he still faced constant harassment. That same year, the Chikan District Political and Legal Affairs Committee forced his school to withhold his annual bonus under the pretext that he had been detained.
During the “Zero-Out” campaign in 2020, the Chikan District Political and Legal Affairs Committee repeatedly harassed Mr. Xu and ordered him to sign statements declaring that he renounced Falun Gong. When he refused to comply, the authorities again pressured his schoo to withhold his annual bonus, claiming that he failed the annual performance review.
Once Jailed for Three Years, Former Construction Worker Detained Again
When Mr. Zheng Deliang, a former construction worker, returned to his home in Suining City, Sichuan Province, at 10 a.m. on January 6, 2026, he saw his fence gate open and seven plainclothes officers waiting outside. His wife was visiting their son out of town, and no one else was home. The police ordered him inside, but he refused to comply. They then went in and confiscated his Falun Gong informational materials and the music player he used to do the Falun Gong exercises.
The police handcuffed Mr. Zheng and drove him away. His wife received a call from the number +86-19183050068 on January 9, 2026. The caller said that he was with the Jiefuqiao Police Station and that they had put her husband in criminal detention at the Suining City Detention Center. She later received a detention notice issued by the Chuanshan District Police Department, which oversees the police station. The notice was dated January 6. It is unclear whether the police issued the notice before arresting Mr. Zheng. By law, such a notice can only be issued after a suspect has been apprehended.
This is not the first time that Mr. Zheng has been targeted for his faith. He and his father, Mr. Zheng Shiyi, also a Falun Gong practitioner, were previously arrested on February 3, 2015, and wrongly convicted in November of that year. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and his father to three and a half years. They were brutally tortured in prison for not renouncing Falun Gong.
Hebei Physician Still Facing Surveillance and Harassment After Serving 18 Months
Dr. Li Lixia was emaciated and pale when she finished serving an 18-month prison term in September 2025 for practicing Falun Gong. While still recovering from the physical and psychological trauma she endured in custody, she faced constant surveillance and harassment from the local justice bureau, the police, and the street committee.
Dr. Li, 31, of Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, was not home when the police from her hometown in Huapi Town, Xinle City (which is administered by Shijiazhuang City) came to harass her in November 2025. They called her family every few days, trying to pressure them to make her give up her spiritual belief.
Upon learning of her ordeal, Dr. Li’s lawyer condemned the authorities’ illegal acts. He told her that she has the right to sue the specific individuals who shadowed, surveilled, harassed, and threatened her.
Dr. Li, who graduated from Hebei Medical School, was arrested on March 25, 2024. The Qiaoxi District Court in Shijiazhuang City sentenced her to one and a half years sometime after April 2025. Her appeal was denied by the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court, and she was ordered to serve time in the Shijiazhuang City Second Detention Center.
52-Year-Old Former Railway Mechanic Faces Harassment and Surveillance After Four Years in Prison
Mr. Zhang Guohai’s four-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong ended on July 27, 2023, but the Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, resident was not allowed to go home.
He was met at the prison gate by an agent from the Qianjin District Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Jiamusi City and two people from his local street committee. They took him to the Zhongshan Police Station and ordered him to give them a copy of his prison release certificate. The street committee people promised to give him a low-income subsidy if he sent in an application.
Having endured four years of abuse in prison, Mr. Zhang, 52, often had pain in his stomach and spleen. He was always fatigued and doubted if he had the strength to look for a job, so went to the street committee to submit his low-income subsidy application. The director denied his request on the spot because he was a Falun Gong practitioner.
The director later brought two people to where Mr. Zhang was living—an attic in a rundown building—and demanded to know his phone number. Only then did he realize that the low-income subsidy promise was just a ruse to try to get his contact information. He refused to reveal his information, but they managed to find it on their own. One of the people monitoring him later called him and asked for his address. He said that he was still living in the attic.
Mr. Zhang once worked at the Jiamusi Railway Bureau as a mechanic. He took up Falun Gong in 1996 and soon recovered from neurasthenia. After the persecution started in July 1999, he was repeatedly targeted for upholding his faith. He was sent to a forced labor camp in 2002 and again in 2004. His wife was unable to cope with the stress of the persecution and divorced him in 2004 while he was serving the second labor camp term. After another arrest on July 27, 2019, Mr. Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison. Besides the three long-term detentions, he was also arrested at on at least four other occasions and was fired from his job.
Family Tragedies
Her Family Broken Apart Due to Persecution, 58-Year-Old Woman Now Faces Prosecution
Ms. Cui Yuling of Linqing City, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, was arrested on the evening of January 19, 2026. She was taken to the Liaocheng City Detention Center and issued a formal arrest warrant on February 12. The police have submitted her case to the Linqing City Procuratorate. Her family is working with a lawyer to seek her release.
Ms. Cui, 58, a former employee of the Linqing City state-owned cotton mill, took up Falun Gong in May 1998. After the persecution began a year later, she was repeatedly arrested for upholding her faith. Unable to cope with the persecution, her husband committed suicide around 2009.
Ms. Cui was arrested on July 20, 1999, the day the persecution officially started. She was taken to her workplace and forced to watch TV programs slandering Falun Gong. Her manager also ordered her to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply and only wrote how she benefited from the practice. Her manager didn’t let her leave and called her husband and other relatives for help to persuade her otherwise. Under pressure, her husband slapped her in the face in front of everyone.
Ms. Cui went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in May 2000. She was arrested by officers from the Fengtai Police Station in Beijing. She was detained for 12 hours, beaten, and interrogated.
For doing the Falun Gong exercises in an apple orchard in 2001, Ms. Cui was arrested and taken to the Linqing City Lockup. She held a hunger strike for five days and was released.
Several officers broke into Ms. Cui’s home on the morning of August 2, 2009, and arrested her and her daughter, even though her daughter didn’t practice Falun Gong. The police interrogated both of them. They beat Ms. Cui’s daughter and tried to force her to reveal information about other practitioners. Both women were taken to the Linqing City Detention Center, where they were forced to work without pay. Ms. Cui’s daughter became very weak and was unable to eat. She was taken to a hospital, and the guards threatened to force-feed her.
Ms. Cui’s husband struggled with a long-term illness, and the family relied on her income driving an electric tricycle. The arrest of Ms. Cui and their daughter devastated him, but the police confiscating their only savings of 1,000 yuan was the final straw. He had a mental breakdown and committed suicide.
While still mourning her husband’s death, Ms. Cui was given a 1.5-year labor camp term. She was admitted to the Jinan City First Women’s Forced Labor Camp on September 2, 2009, and forced to watch propaganda materials slandering Falun Gong and sit on a small stool all day long. The inmates watched her closely and often intimidated her.
Ms. Cui was arrested again on October 30, 2015. She was first held in the Linqing City Lockup for five days and then transferred to the Liaocheng City Detention Center. She was released on bail five months later.
For talking to people about Falun Gong at a farmers’ market, Ms. Cui was arrested on July 17, 2018, and detained for 15 days.
Over the next few years, the police repeatedly harassed Ms. Cui and her daughter, claiming that her bail condition from the 2015 arrest was still in force.
In April 2025, while searching for Ms. Cui, who had gone into hiding, the police harassed her granddaughter, who was in fourth grade, and asked her who took her to school.
Hubei Man Remains Detained for His Faith, Distraught Mother Passes Away
While a Wuhan City, Hubei Province, man remained detained for his faith in Falun Gong, his 90-year-old grief-stricken mother died in early February 2026.
Mr. Peng Dan, around 60, was arrested at home on September 19, 2025. The police targeted him after their surveillance cameras recorded him distributing Falun Gong informational materials earlier that day.
Mr. Peng was taken to the Wuchang District Detention Center. His mother was so distraught that she passed away in early February 2026. Their entire family was heartbroken and is eager to see him return home to attend the funeral, but he remains in custody.