(Minghui.org) The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published its annual report on March 4, 2026. According to the report, in 2025, China perpetuated particularly severe violations of religious freedom, the CCP continues to persecute Falun Gong, and several elderly Falun Gong practitioners reportedly died while imprisoned.
USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler announced the findings of the 2025 Annual Report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom on March 4, 2026. (NTD TV)
The commission recommended that the US government “Redesignate China as a ‘country of particular concern,’ or CPC, for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act.”
USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said, “As USCIRF’s Annual Report shows, far too many people in key nations are denied religious freedom through unjust laws, discrimination, harassment, violence, and even crimes against humanity. The U.S. government must continue to advance religious freedom abroad to make a difference for those facing religious persecution.”
USCIRF Vice Chair Asif Mahmood said, “The world’s worst violators persisted in their disdain of freedom of religion or belief. The CCP deepened its crackdown on all religious activities that dared to operate outside its tight-fisted control.”
Commissioner Mohamed Elsanousi gave several examples of people who were persecuted for their religious belief. He said, “It would be simply impossible for the victim list to provide an exhaustive recounting of all such victims … including ranging from a number of beliefs, religions, and traditions, including Buddhists, Christians, Falun Gong, and sadly the list continues to grow.”
According to the report, “The government imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners and followers of other unrecognized religious groups that authorities deemed illegal. In August, authorities reportedly forced an 87-year-old Falun Gong practitioner to begin serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.”
Zhao Yungu, the 87-year-old Falun Gong practitioner mentioned in the report, was arrested by police from Bin County, Heilongjiang Province, on August 8, 2025, and taken to a newly built prison in Heilongjiang. The judge in Yilan County Court held a hearing of Mr. Zhao’s case at his home on August 16, 2024. He was sentenced to 3.5 years and fined 30,000 yuan.
Police officers from the Bin County Public Security Bureau, National Security, and the Xicheng Police Station carried him to an ambulance and drove him to Heilongjiang Hospital for a physical examination as per a court order on July 11, 2025. He was then taken to a county hospital on July 21 and incarcerated in a new prison in Heilongjiang on August 8.
Mr. Zhao is a retired small tractor factory worker from Bin County, Heilongjiang Province. He and his wife, Ms. Liu Shumei, a former business professional, have both been repeatedly targeted in the past 25 years for practicing Falun Gong. Both of them were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2011. Miss Liu developed a serious medical condition due to the stress from the persecution and passed away in May 2019 at the age of 77.
According to the USCIRF 2026 report, several elderly Falun Gong practitioners reportedly died while imprisoned in 2025.
According to reports on Minghui.org, in 2025, at least 152 Falun Gong practitioners died as a result of the ongoing persecution; 751 were illegally sentenced to prison, police confiscated their money, and the court fines totaled 4,744,900 yuan across 26 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China. Of the 498 victims whose ages are known, 74.3 per cent were over 60 years old.
The USCIRF reports that China continued to harass, monitor, threaten family members of, and pursue the deportation of religious minorities and dissidents living outside China as part of its transnational repression efforts.
The CCP engaged in transnational repression, including through high-tech and emerging technologies, to silence religious and ethnic minorities living abroad.
In February, the Swiss government alleged that China monitored Uyghurs and Tibetans in Switzerland and pressured them to spy on their own diaspora communities.
Sun Yaoning, a Chinese man in California, pleaded guilty to acting as an agent for the CCP during his trial at the Federal Court in Los Angeles on October 27, 2025. He was sentenced to four years in prison on February 9, 2026. Sun was also charged with conspiring with Chen Jun, another CCP agent, to persecute Falun Gong.
The USCIRF recommended that the US administration implement the State Department policy regarding visa restrictions on “individuals who have directed, authorized, significantly supported, participated in, or carried out violations of religious freedom and, where appropriate, their immediate family members,” with a particular emphasis on countries USCIRF recommends for CPC or SWL (Special Watch List) designation.
The commission also recommended that the US government “Sanction, in coordination with international partners, Chinese government agencies, entities, and officials—including the CCP’s United Front Work Department and the public security and state security apparatus—responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.”
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