(Minghui.org) Before Human Rights Day, December 10, 2024, Falun Gong practitioners in 45 countries submitted to their individual governments another list of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who have been involved in the persecution of Falun Gong. Because these officials have participated in the now 25-year persecution, practitioners have requested that they, along with their family members, be barred from entry to their respective countries and that their assets be frozen.

These 45 countries include The Five Eyes (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand), all 27 countries in the European Union (EU) and 13 countries on other continents. The EU countries are Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Romania, Czechia, Finland, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, and Malta. The remaining 13 countries are located in Asia, Europe, and the Americas: Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Israel, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay. This was the first time Paraguay had joined the list.

The CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong has continued for 25 years and the regime recently escalated its control overseas. According to a report published by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), the CCP highlighted a goal in a May 2024 meeting organized by the Ministry of Public Security, “Pay special attention to the cooperation between Falun Gong and Western politicians to sanction high-level Chinese leaders. Stop such behavior at all costs.”

Among the perpetrators listed was Song Hongyuan, deputy mayor of Daqing City and director of the Daqing City Police Department.

Perpetrator Information 

Full Name of Perpetrator: Song (last name) Hongyuan (first name) Chinese Name: 宋鸿源Gender: Male Date/year of Birth: July 1970 Place of Birth: Yitong, Jilin Province 

Title or Position

January 2022 – present: deputy mayor of Daqing and director of Daqing City Police Department

December 2021: member of the Party Leadership Group of the Daqing City Government and secretary of the Party Committee of the Daqing City Police Department

June 2019: member of the Party Leadership Group of the Qitaihe City Government, secretary of the Party Committee of the Qitaihe City Police Department; director, inspector general, and deputy secretary of Qitaihe City Political and Legal Affairs Commission

Previously: various positions with the Dongfeng Police Station in Jiamusi City and Jiamusi City Police Department.

Main Crimes 

Since the CCP began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999, Song Hongyuan, who held long-term positions within the law enforcement system, actively took part in the persecution. Particularly during his tenure as the director of the police departments in Qitaihe City and Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, he planned and directed the local police force to mass arrest practitioners, ransack their homes, and detain them. Many practitioners were later sentenced to prison and endured relentless torture in custody, sometimes beaten to death. 

Persecution During Song’s Tenure as Deputy Mayor of Daqing and Director of the Municipal Police Department(January 2022 – Present)

After Song took office as the head of the Daqing City Police Department in early 2022, at least three group arrests of at least 225 Falun Gong practitioners took place citywide, on April 20, June 6, and July 12, 2022. The arrests came as a coordinated effort between the police, the 610 Office, and the Political and Legal Affairs Committee. The oldest practitioner arrested was 85 years old. A 3-year-old child was also taken into custody along with her parent. Another 116 practitioners were harassed. A total of 247 practitioners had their homes ransacked. At least five were later sentenced to prison. Among them, Ms. Cheng Qiaoyun was sentenced to eight years, Ms. Li Dongju was given five and a half years in prison, and Ms. Du Chunxiang received 3 years and 4 months.

In total, the number of Falun Gong practitioners arrested in Daqing in 2022 exceeded the cumulative total of the previous five years, and the Daqing Police Department was awarded the “First-Class Merit” by the Ministry of Public Security. 

At the two annual citywide public security work conferences held by the Daqing City Police Department on February 14, 2023, and February 5, 2024, Song kept emphasizing the need to “strengthen the fight against cults.” 

At least 39 practitioners were arrested in Daqing in 2023, including a group arrest of 18 on May 18, 2023. In 2024, at least thirteen practitioners were arrested and eleven were harassed.

Select Persecution Cases

Case 1: Three Practitioners Sentenced to Prison, Police Forcibly Collected Urine from One of Them

Three practitioners, Ms. Tang Zengye, 58, Ms. Li Dongju, 66, and Ms. Zhao Li, were arrested on July 12, 2022, and sentenced to prison by the Kaifa District Court in December 2022. Ms. Li was sentenced to 5.5 years, Ms. Tang was given 2.5 years, and Ms. Zhao received 1.5 years.

While being held at the Daqing City Detention Center, Ms. Li was held in a tiger bench and beaten by the police. Ms. Zhao testified in her appeals hearing on March 16, 2023, that the police forcibly performed a physical examination on her. They forced an instrument into her lower body to collect her urine sample, causing her lower body to bleed and ulcerate. 

Case 2: 62-Year-Old Woman Emaciated and Anxiety-Stricken After Serving 10 Months, Family Suspects Prison Authorities Drugged Her

Ms. Dai Mingrong was no longer the same woman that her family knew of when she was released on September 17, 2023, after serving ten months for her faith in Falun Gong. She was emaciated, twitched her body uncontrollably, and appeared panicky. 

Ms. Dai was arrested on October 10, 2022, and secretly sentenced to ten months. She finished serving time at the Daqing City Detention Center. According to insiders, the guards instigated inmates to smear an unknown drug (unclear whether it was liquid or ointment) on Ms. Dai’s face and mix her food with some unknown substance. She then developed a mental collapse. She was seen shaking her body uncontrollably and talking to herself. When asked what she was saying, she had no clue of her self-talk. She also appeared to have lost control of her facial expressions. 

Despite her condition, the guards still forced her to stand for long periods and didn’t allow her to sleep. They also beat her and verbally abused her at will. Her body was covered with bruises after being pinched hard by the inmates. 

Case 3: Once Jailed for 8 Years, 74-Year-Old Woman Gets Six Years and Ten Months

Ms. Shi Jianhua, a 74-year-old retiree of Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau, was arrested at home on the night of June 6, 2022, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials days earlier.

While the arresting officers from the High-tech Development Zone Police Department released Ms. Shi on bail shortly afterward, they submitted her case to the local procuratorate. The High-tech Development Zone Court held a hearing on May 24, 2023, and sentenced her to six years and ten months with a 30,000-yuan fine on May 31.

This isn’t the first time that Ms. Shi has been targeted for practicing Falun Gong. She previously served one year at the Harbin Women’s Forced Labor Camp between 2001 and 2002 and another eight-year term at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison between 2011 and 2019. 

Case 4: 18 Practitioners Arrested in One Day

Officers from the Longgang Police Department, Ranghulu Police Department, Donghu Police Department, and Longfeng Police Department conducted a mass arrest on May 18, 2023. One officer from the Longgang Police Department said that 18 practitioners were arrested that day alone. Ms. Yao Qingyun, Ms. Zhang Guixiang, 65, and Ms. Tian Yingchun, 66, were beaten by the police because they resisted the arrests.

Case 5: Ms. Zhang Jing Arrested and Cancer-Stricken Father Dies 21 Days Later

Ms. Zhang Jing was arrested at home on the morning of May 18, 2023, by plainclothes officers from the Dong’an Police Department. The police broke the door handle and forced their way in. In front of her cancer-stricken father, they ransacked her home, confiscating the portrait of Falun Gong’s founder and Falun Gong books. She was given five days of administrative detention. Dealing a hard blow of her persecution, her father’s condition quickly deteriorated and he died 21 days later.

Case 6: Mr. Sun Deguo Tried in Court

Mr. Sun Deguo was arrested in Lindian County on August 6, 2024, and has since been detained in the Daqing City Detention Center. The police submitted his case to the Ranghulu District Procuratorate in late September 2024. He was tried virtually by the Ranghulu District Court on November 21, 2024, and is now awaiting verdict.

Persecution During Song’s Tenure as Deputy Mayor of Qitaihe City and Director of the Municipal Police Department (May 2019 – December 2021)

During the two years when Song served as the director of the Qitaihe City Police Department, deputy mayor, and deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, more than 100 Falun Gong practitioners in Qitaihe City were targeted for their faith, including being arrested, detained and sentenced. At least two practitioners, Ms. Li Yanjie and Ms. Wu Guirong, died as a result.

Select Persecution Cases

Case 1: Ms. Li Yanjie Fell to Her Death While Trying to Escape from Another Arrest

A group of officers knocked on the door of Ms. Li Yanjie, 41, and her husband, Mr. Gong Fengqiang, 48, on the evening of December 7, 2019. The couple tried to call her family for help, only to find their cellphone signal had been blocked. As the couple refused to open the door, the police called a locksmith and also attempted to cut open their metal door with an electric saw.

Having suffered 20 years of harassment, incarceration, and torture for not giving up their faith in Falun Gong, the couple didn’t want to go through the same nightmare again. They decided to escape from their sixth-floor apartment. They made a rope by tying several bed sheets and curtains together and fastened it to the window. The sawing grew louder and louder. Just as the door was about to be broken through, the couple climbed out of the window, one after the other, and down the makeshift rope. When they were down to the fourth floor, the knotted bed sheets broke loose and they fell the rest of the way down. Although Mr. Gong survived the fall, Ms. Li unfortunately fell to her death.

Case 2: Ms. Jin Yuhong Sentenced to Four Years

After nearly one year of detention, Ms. Jin Yuhong, a Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province resident, was sentenced to four years in prison.

Ms. Jin was arrested on December 11, 2019, while visiting Ms. Li Yanjie’s daughter, Ms. Gong Yu, at her college and planning to give her 10,000 yuan living expenses. She was held in a hotel, interrogated, and deprived of sleep for 12 days before being transferred to the Qitaihe Detention Center. She held three hunger strikes to protest the persecution. Her weight quickly dropped from 130 pounds to below 100.

Ms. Jin’s lawyer was given the runaround when he tried to file complaints against the detention center for mistreating his client and denying his visit. Meanwhile, the guards lied to Ms. Jin that her family didn’t hire a lawyer to represent her.

Ms. Jin was tried in the detention center by the Taoshan District Court on November 5, 2020, and sentenced to four years weeks later. 

Case 3: Six Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested or Harassed in One Day

Six practitioners, including Mr. Liu Huixue, 83, Ms. Liu Mingling, 68, Ms. Li Jinli, 61, Ms. Zhao Xiuzhen, 80, Ms. Zhang Lanjun, in her 50s, Mr. Li Shengchun, 67, were arrested or harassed by officers of the Taoshan Police Station on December 10, 2020. Most practitioners had their homes ransacked and Falun Gong materials confiscated. Ms. Liu and Ms. Li were both detained for 15 days.

The police deceived Ms. Zhao that they were close friends with her family members. They also showed her photos of other practitioners and attempted to deceive her into providing information about those practitioners.