Late last week, it was reported that Luo Chuanmei, a 68-year-old native of Urumqi, had lost her life in Urumqi’s Xinjiang Women’s Prison. As is often the case in Xinjiang, the information came late – Luo is reported to have died last October, with her family allegedly not notified until after the prison authorities had cremated her body. Luo was a follower and a proponent of Falun Gong, a religious movement that the People’s Republic of China made illegal in July 1999 and whose members, including Luo, have faced an unrelenting series of arrests, prison terms, and compulsory “education” periods ever since, often for activities that do not pass the threshold of simple proselytizing or criticism of authorities. In light of her death, we decided to reconstruct Luo’s story as best as possible, bringing together information from Falun Gong advocacy groups, internal police reports from Urumqi, and one of her more recent court verdicts.
Originally employed as a cashier at a food processing factory of the Military Zone Hospital in Urumqi, the 42-year-old Luo saw her life take a drastic turn with the criminalization of Falun Gong in 1999. After spending two months under house arrest, she was dismissed from her job the following April. In May 2000, she made two trips to Beijing with the intent of appealing to the authorities there, but would find herself detained that August and sentenced to 3 years of “re-education through labor” (RTL). Judging by the reports from that time, it appears that Luo and many other Falun Gong practitioners spent those years at the RTL facility in Urumqi’s Ulanbay, on the southern outskirts of the city.
In March 2006, Luo, now 49, was detained again and held at the pre-trial detention center in Urumqi’s Liudaowan Subdistrict, which Falun Gong advocacy groups reported was a result of her promoting the movement. Officially charged with “subversion of state power“, she was sentenced to 3 years by the Urumqi City Intermediate People’s Court in November 2006, and transferred to the (former) women’s prison in Urumqi. According to advocacy reports, Luo refused the prison uniform and insisted on wearing her normal clothes, but was not allowed to change them, which led to various skin problems.
In March 2009, she finished her term and was released. However, just a year later she was detained again while on her way to work, and sent to what Falun Gong advocacy groups call a “brainwashing class” (洗脑班) – a low-key extrajudicial detention facility intended for the “re-education” of Falun Gong followers. Specifically, she was sent to a small and repurposed banquet hall (度假村) in Urumqi’s Nanshan area, a place south of the city primarily known as a scenic getaway at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. It was an unassuming two-story brick building, in the middle of a rural residential area just across from the town’s middle school.
It isn’t known how long Luo spent at the makeshift facility in Nanshan. However, in January 2013 she and another Falun Gong practitioner, Jia Guilan, were detained by the Urumqi police again, following an early morning outing during which Luo was said to have stamped anti-government slogans on a public wall, to have left Falun Gong and anti-government materials on several parked cars, and to have promoted Falun Gong to passersby (one of whom reported the two women to the police). The appeal ruling for the case, previously available on China Judgments Online but since removed, provides a summary of the behavior the authorities viewed as problematic:
The original judgment determined that: At around 5 AM on January 10, 2013, the defendant Luo Chuanmei left her home carrying a red cloth bag, intending to go out and propagate the “Falun Gong” heterodox religion. When she reached the vicinity of the BRT station beside the “Baodi Hotel” on Urumqi’s Friendly Road, she encountered Jia XX (handled in a separate case), whom she knew. The defendant Luo Chuanmei said that there was “a place that distorted the Dafa” and that she was going to do something about it, and asked Jia XX to go with her. After Jia XX agreed, the two walked together from Friendly Road to a wall at 75 Baoshan Road (a former Chinese medicine factory), where the defendant Luo Chuanmei had Jia XX keep watch while she took out a seal and an ink pad from her bag and stamped five heterodox-religion slogans on the public display wall, reading “Heaven will destroy the CCP heterodox religion; withdrawing from the Party, League, and Pioneers ensures safety”. The two then walked to the side of the Peace Canal on October Street’s West Back Road, where the defendant Luo Chuanmei placed two copies of the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” booklet, four copies of propaganda flyers titled “The Three Withdrawals and Safety”, and one copy of the “Clear Wisdom Weekly” magazine on the front windshields of five sedans parked by the roadside. At around 7 AM, the two continued to walk to the front gate of the Red October Residential Complex on Yangzijiang Road, where the defendant Luo Chuanmei promoted “Falun Gong” to passerby Zhang XX, gave Zhang a disc of “firewall-circumvention software series” and two copies of “Clear Wisdom Weekly”, and encouraged Zhang XX to log into a “Falun Gong” website. Zhang XX immediately reported it to the police. At around 7:30 AM that same day, public security personnel detained the defendant Luo Chuanmei and Jia XX near the No. 22 Primary School on Yangzijiang Road, seizing at the scene one seal bearing the words “Heaven will destroy the CCP heterodox religion; withdrawing from the Party, League, and Pioneers ensures safety”, one ink pad, one small brush, and three “firewall-circumvention software series” discs from the red cloth bag carried by Luo Chuanmei. In addition, on August 10, 2012, public security personnel had discovered a heterodox-religion slogan on the corridor wall of Floor No. 1, Entrance No. 2, Building No. 5, Hongyun Residential Complex, 221 North Friendly Road, Urumqi (with the content “Heaven will destroy the CCP heterodox religion; withdrawing from the Party, League, and Pioneers ensures safety”). Subsequent appraisal determined that the five slogans on the public display wall at 75 Baoshan Road and the heterodox-religion slogan on the corridor wall of Floor No. 1, Entrance No. 2, Building No. 5, Hongyun Residential Complex, 221 North Friendly Road were identical, and were all stamped using the seal possessed by Luo Chuanmei.
Despite the absence of victims, violent behavior, and any apparent harm done (beyond acts that could be classified as vandalism), the Saybagh District People’s Court sentenced Luo to 5 years in prison, taking her earlier sentence into account as evidence of “recidivism” and opting for a heavier sentence. Luo appealed, but the Urumqi City Intermediate People’s Court upheld the original verdict and dismissed Luo’s objections that practicing Falun Gong was not a crime as unfounded, describing her as “obstinate and unrepentant” (执迷不悟). After another long period at the detention center in Liudaowan, she was again sent to prison (very likely the women’s facility in Urumqi, but this is not reported anywhere).
The decade that followed saw no reports from advocacy groups regarding Luo’s fate. Judging from her detention date (January 10, 2013) and sentence (5 years), it seems likely that she was released from prison on January 9, 2018, though an earlier release following a sentence reduction is also possible. Nothing has been reported about her time in prison during this period.
It is also not known if she was sent to the concentration camps that proliferated around Xinjiang in 2017-2018, as many Falun Gong practitioners were. Since she would have been 61 at the time of her scheduled prison release, it is possible that she was spared on account of her age, though in practice this cutoff often only occurred at 70 or 80. It was also standard for the authorities to send prison releases directly to camp in 2017-2018, making Luo’s immediate re-detention very possible (but unconfirmed).
What we do know about her during this period comes from a series of internal police records from Urumqi. Specifically, a number of reports between January and March 2019 show Luo at home but under close surveillance. In one report, dated January 23, 2019, Luo’s “behavior” or “performance” (表现) is described by the police as “average” (一般), with it noted that she refused to sign off on her “focus individual” (重点人员) case file:
Reported by a People’s police officer of Liyu Mountain Neighborhood: Heterodox-religion focus person Luo Chuanmei, female, Han, ID: 650103195611092820, place of household registration: 147 South Friendly Road, Saybagh District, Urumqi, Xinjiang, current residential address: Apt. 502, Entrance No. 2, Building No. 13, 772 South Liyu Mountain Road, Xinshi District, Urumqi. Through home visits, it was learned that Luo Chuanmei has been staying at home these past few days, with nothing irregular found for the time being. Her behavior is average, and she refused to sign on the monthly interview record of the focus-individual case file.
Later in the same report, police also express concern that she might maintain contact with other Falun Gong, while noting that she is subject to daily visits by the authorities:
Reported by a People’s police officer of Liyu Mountain Neighborhood: It is hereby reported that the Falun Gong individual in our jurisdiction, Luo Chuanmei, female, Han, ID number 650103195611092820, contact number: 13639955746, registration address: 147 South Friendly Road, Saybagh District, Urumqi, Xinjiang, current residential address: Apt. 502, Entrance No. 2, Building No. 13, 772 South Liyu Mountain Road; in order to prevent Luo Chuanmei from establishing contact with other Falun Gong individuals, the neighborhood administration is currently visiting and observing her daily. At present, nothing irregular has been found with regard to Luo Chuanmei through the visits and observation. If anything abnormal is found, it will be reported to the higher authorities promptly.
For the next 6 years, there is no record of what happened to Luo, and whether she was left alone or again subjected to detention. Advocacy group reports resumed in 2025, according to which Luo, now 68 years old, was taken in by the Urumqi police and kept in custody at a pre-trial detention center, where her health deteriorated. Notwithstanding, she is reported to have been sentenced to 3 years and 8 months, and transferred to the women’s prison in Urumqi, where she died later that year.
While Luo Chuanmei’s story reads like an incredible tragedy, defined by periods of detention and mistreatment that form an almost continuous 25-year arc and end with her demise in that same system, it is a story that – for Falun Gong in Xinjiang, at least – is far from unique. There is the case of Zhao Shuyuan, an engineer from Karamay who was given a long prison term in 2002-2003, released, arrested at least two more times, and then sentenced in 2015 and sent to the women’s prison, dying soon after when her health worsened and the prison allegedly refused her medical parole. There is Kong Qiuge, a pediatrician who was detained briefly in 1999, detained for a month in 2000 and later sentenced to 18 months of RTL, held for 1-2 months in 2003, and another month in 2009, before losing her life at a detention center in Urumqi in 2014, with police refusing to return her body for the next 3-4 years and keeping her relatives under surveillance. There is also Bai Yun, a female teacher who was detained for half a year in 2000, sentenced to 5 years in 2007, sent to an extrajudicial center for 40 days in 2013, detained again in 2014 and sentenced in 2015, dying a few days after the trial. Finally, there is Zhong Kai, an orphan from southern Xinjiang who was given two and a half years of RTL in 2000, then given an additional 3 months, then put under total surveillance, then sent to an extrajudicial center for 2 months in 2003, and again in 2004, before being detained in 2005 and sentenced to 4 years in 2006, and dying in prison in 2008, at the age of 32. Often, the victims have been middle-aged or elderly women.
Many more survived but have lived enduring detention after detention since 1999: from RTL sentence to RTL sentence, from RTL sentence to Falun Gong indoctrination camp, from indoctrination camp to detention center, from detention center to prison (following the nominal abolition of RTL), from prison to Chen Quanguo‘s camps, and then to detention center and/or prison again, with periods of harassment, discrimination, house arrest, and surveillance filling the gaps in between. In our experience, learning of a Falun Gong case through more official channels in the 2010s – such as court records or internal police reports – has often led to us finding an entire trajectory of detentions going back decades, made possible by the meticulous and persistent documentation work of the Falun Gong advocacy groups, who have often reported correctly even the most minute details.