Xin Tian has lived in the United Kingdom since 2024, after being granted asylum following years of persecution in China for practicing Falun Gong.

In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party banned the Falun Gong movement, despite the estimated 70-100 million practitioners in China at the time. Practitioners have since been subject to harassment, arrests, torture, and allegations of forced organ harvesting.

Mr Tian said he was originally drawn to the belief system when he met an elderly war veteran whose intestines had been damaged in combat. Despite conventional medical treatment not being able to heal him, the man told Mr Tian that Falun Gong practices helped him find relief and become a normal human again. Mr Tian said if he had not met this man personally and seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed his story.

At the time, Mr Tian was experiencing both mental and physical health issues of his own. He began practicing Falun Dafa to try improving his health, and said after about 3 months, all of his illnesses disappeared. 

Along with the physical benefits, the practices also encouraged him to be a morally good person.  Falun Gong practitioners live by the three principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

As his faith grew, his world view shifted. When the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of practitioners began, he felt compelled to clarify the truth about his beliefs and challenge misconceptions.

Mr Tian was first arrested towards the end of 1999 after traveling with two other practitioners to Beijing to peacefully appeal to the Chinese Communist Party. The group unfurled a Falun Gong banner in Tian’anmen Square, which led to them being abducted by plain-clothes officers and taken to the police station.

During their time in captivity, the group suffered multiple forms of torture. Mr Tian was handcuffed and hung from the top of a bunk bed for more than ten hours, with the cuffs put on so tightly that his hands remained numb for years to come. They became extremely sensitive to cold, wind, and any sort of touch, causing sharp pains. 

Authorities repeatedly demanded that he renounce his faith, but he refused.

“If I renounce Falun Gong, it feels like I will give up my life,” interpreter Gene Hsu said on Mr Tian’s behalf.

Over the following decade, Mr Tian was imprisoned twice because of his faith–first in 2001 for four years, and again in 2008 for five years. Throughout his time in prison he experienced and witnessed what he described as “cruel tortures” of Falun Gong practitioners. 

According to Mr Tian, punishments for refusing to denounce Falun Dafa included things like electric shocks from high-voltage batons and intensive forced labor. He also described being subjected to 10 days of sleep deprivation, beatings, “splitting the pelvis” torture, and poisoning during hunger strikes.

“Normal people could not imagine how evil inside they are,” interpreter Gene Hsu said on Mr Tian’s behalf.

Mr Tian also said he underwent two large-scale physical examinations, including blood tests and organ examinations. He said these were exclusively done on Falun Gong practitioners, and he remembers detailed records were kept of all the examination results. Mr Tian presumes his organs were never harvested due to his deteriorating health from prolonged physical abuse in prison.

Today, Mr Tian still suffers numerous physical and psychological effects from his imprisonment. Residues from poison have caused prolonged damage, he experiences frequent nightmares, has a decreased memory, experiences pain in his feet and toes from prolonged standing, and other lasting impacts.

Despite these challenges, Mr Tian said he and many more are extremely grateful and honored to be in the United Kingdom where they can freely exercise their beliefs without persecution. He continues to fight for the rights of Falun Gong practitioners worldwide, and uses his voice in ways that many practitioners cannot. 

The APPG for Freedom of Religion or Belief stands with Mr Tian and all Falun Gong practitioners in their pursuit of the fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief. The APPG remains committed to supporting efforts to raise awareness of the persecution faced by practitioners, including allegations of forced organ harvesting, and to ensuring these issues continue to be discussed in Parliament.