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Woman who spent 7 years in Chinese prison describes torture, surveillance and loss of her husband
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EXCLUSIVE: Wang Chunyan held a photograph toward the camera, her hands trembling slightly as she pointed to each of the 21 smiling faces: a husband and wife, a university lecturer, a young engineer, friends she met in prison.
Some died in detention, she said. Others after years of abuse. Others disappeared into China’s vast security system and never returned the same. «More than 25 of my friends have died in this persecution. I only have photos of 21 of them,» Chunyan said, her voice breaking.
For more than two decades, the 70-year-old Falun Gong practitioner said, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) systematically dismantled her life, stripping away the business she had built, the home she once shared with her family and, eventually, seven years of her life in prison.
But the hardest thing for her, is that she believes it took her husband too. «My beloved husband died due to the persecution,» Chunyan claimed during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
REPORT DETAILS RISING PRESSURE ON UNDERGROUND CATHOLICS AS CHINA DENIES CRACKDOWN
Falun Gong practitioner Wang Chunyan holds photographs of friends she says died during the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on the spiritual movement during an interview with Fox News Digital. (Fox News)
Her account comes as President Donald Trump prepares to travel to China next week for meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with trade, security and regional tensions expected to dominate the agenda. Yet behind the geopolitical rivalry lies another conflict: Beijing’s decades-long campaign against religious and spiritual groups the Communist Party views as threats to its authority.
Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback believes Wang’s story reflects a much broader struggle unfolding inside China. «Either the world changes China or China will change the world,» Brownback told Fox News Digital.
Brownback recently chronicled Chunyan’s story and the experiences of other survivors in his book China’s War on Faith, arguing that personal testimony can often reveal the reality of persecution more powerfully than statistics alone. «Stories are more powerful than data,» he said.
Photograph shown by Falun Gong practitioner Wang Chunyan during a Zoom interview with Fox News Digital depict friends and fellow practitioners she says were persecuted during the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on the spiritual movement. (Fox News Digital)
The book examines what Brownback describes as an increasingly sophisticated system of surveillance and repression targeting Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners. He argues the Chinese Communist Party views independent faith communities as a direct threat to its authority.
«They fear religious freedom more than anything else. More than our aircraft carriers, more than our nuclear weapons, more than anything else because they think it is the biggest threat to the regime.»
CRUZ LEADS SENATE PUSH TO HOLD CHINA ACCOUNTABLE FOR BEIJING CHURCH CRACKDOWN
Protesters chant slogans and hold posters of victims during a demonstration against China’s crackdown on Uyghurs in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 30, 2022. (Khalil Hamra/AP)
Chunyan story started in the late 1990s, when she suffered from severe insomnia, sometimes sleeping only two or three hours a night. Then her older sister introduced her to Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice ,she says, is centered on meditation exercises and teachings rooted in «truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.»
The movement spread rapidly across China during the 1990s, attracting tens of millions of followers before Beijing banned it in 1999, portraying it as a threat to Communist Party control.
Chunyan says Falun Gong helped improve her «physical condition.» She said, «My business was booming. My family was happy. My life was perfect.»
Chunyan became convinced the practice had saved her life. She owned a successful company selling chemical production equipment and had become wealthy by Chinese standards, but after the crackdown began she felt compelled to publicly defend Falun Gong against what she believed were government lies.
She bought a printing press and began distributing leaflets. Soon afterward, she said, surveillance followed everywhere.
«The buildings where I worked were under constant surveillance,» Chunyan recalled. «I left to escape and was afraid to come home.»
GRAHAM FAMILY RESPONDS TO GLOBAL CRACKDOWN ON CHRISTIANS WITH $1.3M DEFENSE FUND AND URGENT CALL TO ACTION
A pro-democracy activist holds placards with a picture of Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan outside the Chinese central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong on Dec. 28, 2020. Zhang was released from prison after serving four years for charges related to reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, according to a video statement she released Tuesday, May 21, 2024. (Kin Cheung/AP)
For years, she lived in hiding, using prepaid calling cards and public telephones to secretly arrange meetings with her husband, Yu Yefu, in restaurants, coffee shops and hotels across the city. The two tried, briefly, to maintain some sense of normalcy.
Yu himself never practiced Falun Gong, but police repeatedly pressured him to reveal where his wife was hiding. He never did. Then, in 2002, Wang stopped hearing from him.
When she finally returned home, she found him unconscious. Doctors could not save him. «He protected me,» she said in tears.
He was 49 years old when he died. Their daughter was still in college.
The devastation spread through the family afterward, Chunyan said. Her mother-in-law stopped eating and later became paralyzed. Her father-in-law died from grief. Her sisters were also imprisoned and tortured.
Then came Chunyan’s own imprisonment.
WATCHDOG HIGHLIGHTS NATIONS WHERE CHRISTIANS FACE PERSECUTION AROUND THE GLOBE
The flag of China is flown behind a pair of surveillance cameras outside the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam defended national security legislation imposed on the city by China last week, hours after her government asserted broad new police powers, including warrant-less searches, online surveillance and property seizures. (Roy Liu/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
She described years of forced labor, sleep deprivation and physical abuse. At one point, she said, the torture became so severe that she fainted three times in a single day.
One memory still haunts her most. Shortly before her release from prison, Wang said authorities conducted unexplained blood tests and medical examinations. At the time, fellow inmates told her the government was simply checking on Falun Gong prisoners before release. Only later, after learning about allegations of forced organ harvesting involving detained Falun Gong practitioners, did she begin to fear why the testing may have happened. «I was horrified,» Chunyan said.
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Falun Gong practitioner Wang Chunyan recounting the death of her husband, whom she says was persecuted by Chinese authorities for refusing to reveal her whereabouts. (Fox News)
Today, Chunyan lives in the United States, having left China in 2013 and eventually making her way through Thailand before arriving in America in 2015.
Yet decades later, the losses remain immediate to her.
«There are millions of families in China like ours,» Chunyan wants the world to know, «Persecuted by the CCP.»
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu rejected the allegations and defended Beijing’s actions against Falun Gong. «The aforementioned remarks are nothing but malicious fabrications and sensational lies,» Liu said. «Falun Gong is a cult organization that is anti-humanity, anti-science and anti-society. It is hostile toward religion, endangers the public, and serves as a malignant tumor within society.» Liu argued that «the Chinese government outlawed the Falun Gong cult in accordance with the law, thereby safeguarding the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the vast majority of the Chinese people.»
china, persecutions, human rights, xi jinping, personal freedoms, donald trump
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Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar of Florida stated in a Monday social media post that «After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.»
The Central American nation’s president, Daniel Ortega, said on Sunday, «There won’t be any more elections here for them to try to seize the government and seize power,» according to Reuters. «The days when parties backed by the Yankees (United States) and the Somocistas would return to power are over – never again,» he said, according to the outlet.
In her Monday post on X, Salazar said, «Daniel Ortega just announced that Nicaragua will no longer hold elections. When a communist dictator knows the people would vote him out, he takes away their vote. Repression, fear, and force become the only way to stay in power. The Ortega-Murillo regime has declared war on the Nicaraguan people’s right to choose their own future.»
Ortega’s wife Rosario Murillo is co-president, reports indicate.
«The United States must stand unequivocally with the people of Nicaragua, increase the pressure on this despicable regime, and ensure that those responsible for its crimes are held accountable. After Cuba, Nicaragua is next,» Salazar added in the post.
NICARAGUA’S ORTEGA SAYS COUNTRY WILL ‘NEVER AGAIN’ HOLD ELECTIONS, SHUTTING OUT OPPOSITION
Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., leaves a news conference in the U.S. Capitol on developments regarding Cuba including the indictment of former Cuban President Raul Castro, on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The U.S. snatched Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and his wife out of Venezuela and transported them back to the U.S. earlier this year.
The U.S. later launched a war against the Islamic Republic of Iran in conjunction with Israel.
And then during a speech in March, U.S. President Donald Trump said «Cuba’s next.»
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Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua’s president, during the 23rd States of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) Summit at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. (Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Salazar’s office on Tuesday to ask more about her comment suggesting that «After Cuba, Nicaragua is next.»
The congresswoman said in a Tuesday post on X, «One by one, the dictators of the last era are answering for their crimes. Maduro sleeps in a cell in New York. The Ayatollah is dead. Raúl Castro is under indictment. Daniel Ortega, whose regime killed more than 300 peaceful protesters in 2018, jailed opposition candidates before elections, exiled priests, stripped hundreds of Nicaraguans of their citizenship, and has now abolished elections altogether, still sits in Managua. Communist dictators don’t fear losing elections. They fear having them. His day will come.»
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Tuesday statement, «Daniel Ortega’s declaration that under his family’s dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature. Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have abandoned even the pretense of popular consent.
CUBA BUILT COVERT NETWORK INSIDE AMERICA THROUGH SPIES, ACTIVISTS AND UNIVERSITIES, STATE DEPT ALLEGES
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio greets Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi ahead of their bilateral meeting at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., United States, on July 14, 2026. (Mehmet Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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«The Nicaraguan people have the right to choose their own leaders through democratic elections. The United States calls on the international community to join forces to demonstrate to the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship that it cannot expect to maintain business as usual with other nations when it is thwarting the basic tenets of our democratic hemisphere,» Rubio asserted.
politics, central america, republicans, world, donald trump
INTERNACIONAL
Gustavo Petro se despide del poder en Colombia con llamado a una huelga general contra Abelardo De la Espriella
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EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to waive prior nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for former government employees and contractors cooperating with unidentified anomalous phenomena investigations, Fox News Digital has learned.
«President Trump recently directed the Department of War and the intelligence community to allow former government employees or contractors, that have relevant information about the disclosure of UAP, to come forward to meet with designated government representatives — AARO or the President’s UAP taskforce, ‘PURSUE’ — and have their prior NDAs abrogated,» a senior administration official said, with AARO referring to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, the Pentagon office established to investigate UFOs and other unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs).
Another senior administration official emphasized the move was not a «declassification directive» and only allowed employees to come forward through government channels.
Officials say years of congressional inquiries, whistleblower allegations and newly declassified records have raised questions about whether additional witnesses have remained silent because they believed prior nondisclosure agreements prevented them from cooperating with government investigations.
Newly released infrared footage from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command shows an object officials described as resembling a six-pointed star over the Yellow Sea Jan. 1, 2025. (Department of War )
NEW TRUMP UFO FILE DUMP INCLUDES MILITARY FOOTAGE OF MYSTERIOUS STAR-SHAPED OBJECT
FBI rendering of witness account of «orbs launching orbs» is pictured above (Department of War)
UFO WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS BILLIONS IN SECRET SPENDING HIDDEN FROM CONGRESS
«People who believe that they have information have expressed reluctance in coming forward,» the official said. «We are eliminating that source of reluctance.»
Like other government employees and defense contractors with access to classified information or sensitive national security programs, many witnesses would have signed nondisclosure agreements as a condition of receiving security clearances or access to restricted information. Those agreements generally prohibit unauthorized disclosure of classified or otherwise protected information and typically remain in effect even after an individual leaves government service.
Former officials and contractors who disclose protected information without authorization risk losing security clearances, facing civil penalties or, in some circumstances, criminal prosecution if classified information is improperly disclosed.
Under the new process, former government employees and contractors who believe they possess relevant UAP information would first meet with designated officials at the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) or the president’s UAP task force, PURSUE, who hold the appropriate security clearances. During those authorized discussions, any applicable nondisclosure agreements could be waived, allowing witnesses to share information without fear of violating prior agreements.
Information provided through the process would be reviewed through the administration’s existing declassification procedures.
«Any information that is received that sheds light on the UAP mystery will ultimately be made public,» the official said.
A screenshot of video footage from an alleged unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) sighting in the northeastern United States in July 2025, which was detailed in files released by the DOW and originally obtained by the FBI. (DOW/FBI)
The official said the administration does not know whether potential witnesses actually possess significant new information, but wants to remove any perceived legal barriers so investigators can determine whether previously undisclosed information exists.
«You don’t know what you don’t know,» the official said.
The official said the focus is on incidents that remain unexplained, rather than known foreign technology, classified U.S. programs or natural phenomena.
The latest directive builds on the Trump administration’s broader effort to declassify decades of government records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena. Previous releases have included FBI and Pentagon records describing unexplained sightings reported by military personnel, law enforcement and astronauts, including accounts of glowing «mother orbs» that witnesses said released smaller objects near a sensitive U.S. national security site, mysterious orange spheres observed during military operations, and Apollo-era transcripts in which astronauts described unexplained lights and «jagged, angular fragments» drifting outside their spacecraft.
The latest tranche of UAP records included expanded details and imagery from a 2015 incident involving an unidentified object over the Pantex nuclear weapons facility in Texas, along with newly declassified infrared footage showing a mysterious six-pointed star-shaped object tracked by a U.S. military sensor over the Yellow Sea on Jan. 1, 2025.
The official said the next tranche of files will be made available «very soon.»
The directive follows years of complaints from some lawmakers and whistleblowers that former officials with firsthand knowledge were reluctant to come forward because of secrecy obligations.
An artist’s rendering released by the U.S. Department of War depicting a 2023 sighting of «orbs launching other orbs» near a national security site in the western United States. (Department of War)
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in 2023 that multiple individuals with firsthand knowledge had approached the committee but were hesitant to speak publicly because of potential repercussions.
«Some of these people still work in the government and frankly, a lot of them are very fearful — fearful of their jobs, fearful of their clearances, fearful of their career, and some, frankly, are fearful of harm coming to them,» he said on News Nation in June 2023.
«Grant immunity to anyone who has already come forward, and everyone who will come forward. Open the door and let them speak,» Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., demanded during a June 9 press conference on Capitol Hill.
Public interest in UAPs accelerated in 2017 after The New York Times revealed the Pentagon had quietly operated a secret program to investigate unexplained aerial encounters and published Navy cockpit videos showing objects exhibiting unusual flight characteristics.
Since then, Congress has held multiple bipartisan hearings on the issue, lawmakers have pressed intelligence agencies for greater transparency and former intelligence officer David Grusch’s allegations that the government had concealed information about UAP programs renewed calls for additional disclosure, despite the government’s denial of his central claims.
During the same event, former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch renewed his allegations that secret UAP programs had operated outside normal congressional oversight, calling it «a real fraud, waste and abuse issue» and claiming his investigation uncovered «slush funds to the tune of billions of dollars per annum for these activities.»
The Pentagon has disputed Grusch’s central claims, and AARO has said its investigations found no verified evidence of extraterrestrial technology or credible evidence that the government has secretly recovered or reverse-engineered craft of non-human origin.
ufos, investigations, donald trump
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