After 22 Years on the Run for Broadcasting the Truth, Falun Gong Practitioner Dies in Exile

Wang Zhanhai was one of seven practitioners who tapped into a local cable network in 2002 to expose the Chinese regime’s brutal persecution.

Falun Gong practitioners hold wreaths in memory of victims of the Chinese regime's persecution of Falun Gong, in the National Mall, Washington, on July 21, 2022. Lisa Fan/The Epoch Times

Wang Zhanhai, a Falun Gong practitioner from northern China, died on May 10, 2024, after 22 years of exile, according to news published this month by Minghui.org, a clearinghouse for first-hand information about the spiritual practice and the persecution it suffers in its home country. He died at the age of 67.

Wang was forced into hiding after participating in a covert broadcast that exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) persecution of Falun Gong.

In January 2001, the CCP staged a self-immolation incident in Tiananmen Square under the direction of then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin and blamed it on Falun Gong practitioners. The hoax, aired nationally by China Central Television (CCTV) on Jan. 31 of that year, became a key part of an intensified propaganda campaign to vilify Falun Gong and incite hatred in Chinese people against the spiritual practice.

Since the CCP’s nationwide persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, practitioners have risked imprisonment and death to counter the state’s defamatory narrative. Their efforts include underground printing houses, phone and internet campaigns, and technical operations to override state-controlled broadcasts with factual content.

On Feb. 16, 2002, Wang and six other Falun Gong practitioners in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, tapped into the local cable network at 7 p.m. to air a documentary called “False Fire,” according to Minghui. The documentary exposed the self-immolation hoax to a large number of Anshan’s 3 million residents.

This was one of the first television network interception efforts recorded by Minghui.

Exposing the CCP Hoax

The attempt to bring this information to the public came at a steep cost.

Police located the group during the operation and opened fire, shooting practitioner Xu Zhaobin in the leg and face.

Wang managed to escape, fled his hometown, and remained in hiding for the next 22 years. The other six were captured in the next several weeks. All received severe punishment.

File photo: Zhang Li. Courtesy of Minghui

Zhang Li, arrested on March 3, 2002, was interrogated and tortured in the First Detention Center of Anshan City. She died on Aug. 27 in the same year after being denied medical treatment despite being in critical condition. Witnesses described her body as “scored with bloody knife wounds.” She was 40.

The remaining five—Wei Zhiyi, Shen Hailong, Xu Zhaobin, Li Guihong, and He Xiaoqiu—were sentenced in secret trials, held in a corridor of the detention center. Their prison terms ranged from 14 to 20 years.

Wang’s Fight for Justice

In 2015, while still in hiding, Wang filed a criminal complaint against Jiang. He accused the former CCP leader of “throwing hundreds of millions of kind-hearted people and their families into turmoil and devastating basic human conscience and the moral foundation essential for a stable and sustainable society.”

Wang wrote that Falun Gong had improved his health and helped him become a better person. But once the persecution began, he endured constant harassment, including from local police, factory supervisors, and others. He was stalked, pressured to renounce his beliefs, fined, and forced to resign from his job.

Wang said he and his fellow practitioners then decided to do something to raise the public awareness of the persecution. In addition to handing out flyers, they thought of a better way to let more people know about the truth: intercepting the local cable system.

After the 2002 broadcast, he was listed as a fugitive.

“The police tapped my home phone, harassed my family, and even revoked my wife’s small subsidy—leaving her and our child in deep financial trouble,” Wang wrote. “They tried to bribe my friends to find me. During holidays, officers staked out my parents’ house. Everyone in my family lived under unbearable pressure.”

Unable to work or go out, Wang lived in constant fear. He couldn’t care for his elderly parents or support his family, he said. He described the toll as “unimaginable” in terms of physical, emotional, and financial stress.

His health declined in the years that followed before his death last year. Due to China’s tight censorship, his death was only confirmed and reported by Minghui on May 6, 2025.

Wang Zhanhai. Courtesy of Minghui

Speaking Out for All of Humanity

Wang Zhiyuan, president and spokesperson of the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), said Falun Gong practitioners risk their lives not just for their own sake, but “for the people, the society, and the nation.”

He told The Epoch Times on Thursday that practitioners outside China are also speaking out—not only on behalf of those suffering inside the country, but also “to defend freedom and truth for all humanity.”

WOIPFG, founded in 2003 in New York, has branches in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Canada. Its mission is to hold accountable all individuals and entities involved in the abuse of Falun Gong practitioners and to uphold justice, no matter how long the persecution lasts.

Bypassing the Firewall

Falun Gong—also known as Falun Dafa—is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Introduced by Mr. Li Hongzhi in 1992, it grew rapidly due to its health and moral benefits, attracting at least 70 million followers by the late 1990s.

Fearing Falun Gong’s popularity, the CCP launched a sweeping nationwide suppression in 1999. State media and propaganda arms were mobilized to discredit the practice.

Despite extreme surveillance, including the deployment of more than 600 million cameras, Falun Gong practitioners have managed to intercept TV broadcasts across China.

The 2022 documentary “Eternal Spring” tells a story similar to that of the interception effort by Wang and his fellow practitioners. The film is about an incident in 2002 in Changchun City, where more than a dozen practitioners aired 50 minutes of uncensored content to 300,000 viewers. Of the core members involved, all six died from persecution following their effort—four in custody and two after release due to torture.

Promotional materials for the documentary "Eternal Spring" are on display at the Film Forum in New York, on Oct. 14, 2022. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

Inspired by their counterparts in China, Falun Gong practitioners overseas helped develop anti-censorship tools such as FreeGate, UltraSurf, and Dynaweb. These tools bypass the regime’s “Golden Shield,” also known as the Great Firewall, which monitors and censors internet access in China.

Author and China expert Ethan Gutmann praised the movement, writing in an opinion article in the Washington Examiner in 2010 that Falun Gong was “the only group” to successfully develop technology to “enable citizens to exercise their rights of free expression by circumventing politically motivated censorship.”

More Support Needed

Prominent Chinese dissident Yuan Hongbing, now based in Australia, called the CCP “the most evil authoritarian regime in human history.” In an interview with The Epoch Times on Thursday, he warned that the spread of communist totalitarianism poses a threat to global civilization.

“For years, Falun Gong practitioners have carried out tireless and courageous truth-clarification efforts,” Yuan said. “What they are doing is tearing through the CCP’s ideological iron curtain, allowing free thought and ideals to flow into China like a spring breeze. This is an immensely meaningful movement to save the hearts and minds of the Chinese people.”

He also pointed to a rise in the CCP’s overseas suppression of Falun Gong, with the communist regime spreading false information and employing legal tactics to target the group.

“It’s hate-driven persecution from a dictatorship,” he said, urging the international community to respond with strong countermeasures.

On May 5, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Falun Gong Protection Act, including provisions to sanction those involved in the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners.

WOIPFG’s Wang Zhiyuan expressed appreciation to the United States for passing the bill, and he called on Western democracies to stand by the U.S. in support of Falun Gong.

“We need real action—not just symbolic support or oral sanctions,” he said. “Only concrete steps can stop the persecution and dismantle the CCP.”

Luo Ya, Mary Hong, and Joan Delaney contributed to this report.