Alert: Deaths in detention should prompt investigations, prosecutions
(Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, November 25, 2025) — Chinese website Rights Defence Network reported in recent days that 83-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Wenxiu died in March 2025 while serving a 7.5-year prison sentence in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Zhao was wrongfully prosecuted in 2019 for exercising her right to religious freedom and given a lengthy prison sentence despite her age. Media reports alleged that she had been subjected to torture during previous prison terms, which were also related to her Falun Gong beliefs.
Denying access to adequate medical treatment in custody a deadly form of torture
(Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, November 25, 2025) — Chinese website Rights Defence Network reported in recent days that 83-year-old Falun Gong practitioner Zhao Wenxiu died in March 2025 while serving a 7.5-year prison sentence in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Zhao was wrongfully prosecuted in 2019 for exercising her right to religious freedom and given a lengthy prison sentence despite her age. Media reports alleged that she had been subjected to torture during previous prison terms, which were also related to her Falun Gong beliefs.
Another Falun Gong practitioner, Zhao Jiyuan, died on July 4, 2025 while serving a 7.5-year sentence in Jinzhou Prison, Liaoning Province. He was 71 years old and had suffered two heart attacks earlier in the year. His family discovered bruises on his body and scars from shackles on his feet.
Chinese authorities should immediately investigate these—and other—deaths and denials of medical care in detention. CHRD is closely following several such cases.
Public security officers from Hubei Province took rights activist Yin Xu’an into custody on August 11, 2025, as he was getting into an ambulance in Beijing for emergency medical treatment. They escorted him back to his home city, Daye in Hubei, where his current wellbeing, exact location, and access to adequate medical treatment remain unknown. Yin suffers from severe hypertension and had a stroke during his previous sentence in 2022.
Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai, Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, and human rights website founder Huang Qi suffer from serious health conditions that their loved ones believe are being left insufficiently treated in custody. In February 2025, five United Nations Special Procedures mandates raised concerns that the Chinese government imposed sentences of more than 10 years on human rights defenders (HRDs). They particularly urged the Chinese government to ensure these individuals had access to adequate medical attention, and to disclose information on their conditions in custody.
Several Chinese HRDs have died in custody after being denied adequate medical care, including 2010 Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, revered Tibetan monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, and activist Cao Shunli. CHRD has found no evidence that any individual has been held accountable for the deaths in custody of these defenders.
Denying medical treatment to individuals in custody constitutes a life-threatening form of torture. Authorities’ failure or refusal to provide adequate medical care for detainees violates Chinese law and multiple international standards, including the Convention against Torture, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners. In December 2015, the Committee against Torture (CAT) called on the Chinese government to ensure that “detained persons have access to adequate medical care, including to a doctor of their choice”.
CHRD calls on the Chinese government to follow its own and international human rights law, and the recommendation made by CAT in 2015. Beijing should ensure prompt and impartial investigations by an independent body into all deaths in custody, allegations of torture and ill treatment, and refusal to provide medical treatment.
For more information, please contact:
Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, sophierichardson[at]nchrd.org, +1 917 721 7473
Angeli Datt, Research and Advocacy Coordinator, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, angelidatt[at]nchrd.org, +1 934 444 6155
Shane Yi, Researcher, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, shaneyi[at]nchrd.org