(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old woman in Tai’an City, Shandong Province, was admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Jinan) on September 23, 2025, to serve a 3-year term because she practices Falun Gong.
Ms. Zheng Hongling, who retired from Liangzhuang Mine Hospital of Xinwen Mining Group, was arrested on the morning of January 6, 2025, after a plainclothes officer spotted her talking to people about Falun Gong at a local fair. Officers from the Xiazhang Police Station soon arrived to arrest her. They also searched her bag and confiscated some banknotes printed with messages about Falun Gong.
Around 1 p.m., the police raided Ms. Zhang’s home but did not find Falun Gong related materials. They next took her to the Tai’an City Detention Center.
Ms. Zhang was sentenced to three years and fined 20,000 yuan on June 5, 2025. It is unclear which court convicted her. The details of her indictment, trial, and sentencing also remain unknown.
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhang has been targeted for her faith, which she took up in October 1998 and credits for ending her rheumatoid arthritis, myocardial ischemia, general weakness, cold limbs, and gynecological diseases.
After the Chinese Communist Party started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Zheng held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted. Her home was raided multiple times and she was forced to pay fines. She also served two forced labor terms (the length is not known). She served the second term at the Shandong Women’s Labor Camp, and was admitted on November 10, 2012. She was tortured to critical condition and was released on parole.
After another arrest on October 25, 2018, Ms. Zheng was sentenced to three and a half years and fined 20,000 yuan on July 24, 2019. Her husband, Ms. Zhao Qisen, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested and sentenced together with her. He was admitted to the Shandong Province Prison on October 24, 2019 to serve a two-year term. Ms. Zheng was allowed to serve time outside of prison due to health reasons but her pension was suspended (it is unclear whether it was later reinstated).
See the related reports for the couple’s 2018 arrests and 2019 sentencing.