Another Falun Gong practitioner tortured to death in prison

The 61-year-old practitioner died two days after being released into the care of her family. The whereabouts of a fellow believer remain unknown.

by Yang Feng

On August 7, 2024, human rights organizations were informed by fellow believers and relatives of Xu Shanping, a 61-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Beihai City, Guangxi Province, that she had passed away on July 7. This happened just two days after she was released early from Nanning City Women's Prison due to a serious illness she contracted there. Xu was still serving her sentence for participating in Falun Gong activities when her family was asked by the authorities to pick her up.

Xu and her friend Tan Zezhen, 76, were arrested by police at 4:00 p.m. on December 19, 2020, for distributing Falun Dafa literature near a school. After the arrest, officers searched their homes and took them to the Beihai City Detention Center. At some point during her detention, Xu was transferred to the Nanning City Women's Prison.

The status and location of Tan's detention remain unknown. Tan's daughter, Ms. Chen, who lives in Sydney, Australia, is urging the authorities to release her mother, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Over the past 25 years, Tan's household has been searched over 20 times. She was twice held in labour camps, equivalent to nearly four years of detention, and endured various periods of physical and psychological hardship during repeated stays in detention centers. Her family, who report that she was repeatedly tortured, are now deeply concerned for her well-being.

As for Xu, in 2023, the authorities informed her family that she had cancer. The family's request for her release was denied. The prison suddenly told Xu's family to take her home in early July 2024. She returned home on July 5, only to die two days later. She was just skin and bones, and it was obvious that her health had not been properly treated in prison. She joins a long list of Falun Gong practitioners who have been persecuted to death in China.