Falun Gong practitioners in China continued to be killed amid calls on the Communist Communist Party (CCP) from government officials across the globe to stop the persecution.
124 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death in 2025, according to a report published by Falun Gong official website Minghui.org.
This is believed to be only a small number of the real death toll due to censorship in China.
The report highlights that most of them had been detained in prisons, detention centres, or ‘brainwashing facilities’ where they suffered severe physical and psychological torture.
Nearly 80 per cent of them were from over 60 years of age to over 90.
751 practitioners were sentenced to imprisonment while there were 4,803 cases of arrests and harassment across China in 2025, according to the report.
The persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999 when then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin ordered a nationwide campaign aiming to eliminate the practice.
CCP felt threatened by Falun Gong’s massive popularity as the number of Falun Gong practitioners at that time had exceeded the membership of the CCP.
Falun Gong is a spiritual practice whose core values are truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It includes meditation that practitioners say improve both physical and moral well-being.
Since the persecution campaign began more than two decades ago, at least 5,300 practitioners are reported to have died as a result.
Human rights groups warn the true number of victims is likely far higher due to the CCP’s long-standing practice of censoring or concealing data from the public.
Several countries have called out the CCP for its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
U.S. lawmakers passed the Falun Gong Protection Act in 2023, calling for an end to the persecution and for sanctions on people complicit in the CCP’s live organ harvesting activities.
The European Parliament, comprising 720 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), passed a resolution in January 2024 demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Ding Yuande and all Falun Gong practitioners in China.
In 2024, 132 lawmakers from 15 countries signed a joint statement that “ strongly condemn the 25 years of human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China,” according to the Friends of Falun Gong, a U.S. non-profit organisation.
The lawmakers were from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Indonesia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Norway, Slovak Republic, Sweden and the U.K.
The statement also urged the CCP to “immediately stop the 25-year-long persecution of Falun Gong in China” and to “unconditionally release all detained Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience.”
