(Minghui.org)
Name: Zhu WenlanChinese Name: 朱文兰Gender: FemaleAge: in her 60sCity: Cao CountyProvince: ShandongOccupation: Retired hospital workerDate of Death: April 25, 2026Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 2025Most Recent Place of Detention: Heze County Detention Center
A woman in her 60s died on April 25, 2026, shortly before she was scheduled to be admitted to prison to serve a three-year term for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhu Wenlan, a retired hospital worker in Cao County, Shandong Province, recovered from her decades-long illnesses after she took up Falun Gong. After the Chinese communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, she held firm to her faith, and was repeatedly targeted.
Her prison sentence stemmed from her arrest in early October 2025. Chengguan Town Police Station officers, along with local community officials, raided her home and took her to the Heze City Detention Center. Heze oversees Cao County. The police said someone had photographed her putting up Falun Gong flyers somewhere.
While in detention, Ms. Zhu suffered both physically and mentally due to abuse. The Cao County Court sentenced her to a three-year prison term at an unknown time. While awaiting prison transfer, her health kept worsening, and she eventually lost the ability to walk. Upon her family’s strong request, the police sent her to a hospital.
Shortly before she was scheduled to admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison, Ms. Zhu died on April 25, 2026.
Ms. Zhu’s passing capped decades of persecution for upholding her faith. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong many times and was repeatedly detained and fined. While still working at the Cao County Chinese Medicine Hospital, she was given a labor camp term of more than one year.
Shao Dianwei and An Chenghua from the Cao County Domestic Security Office arrested Ms. Zhu on March 3, 2009, and held her in the Cao County Detention Center for an unknown amount of time.
Ms. Zhu was arrested again in mid-August 2019, while distributing Falun Gong materials along with two other practitioners, Zhu Cuilan and Huang Jiuhan. Their case was submitted to the Cao County Procuratorate. The police promised to release them right after October 1, 2019, but did not. It is unclear whether the practitioners were eventually cleared of prosecution.
Three Shandong Residents Face Indictment for Passing Out Information About Their Faith