Di Lianxia is a Falun Gong practitioner from Linjiang City in Jilin Province who has been repeatedly detained for her faith since the Chinese government’s campaign against Falun Gong began in 1999. Disabled since childhood by polio, she worked at the Linjiang City Railroad Station.
Di was first reported detained in June 2011, when she and her husband, fellow practitioner Wang Mingzhi, were arrested together. In July 2011 she was sent to the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp on a two-year term. Camp guards initially refused to admit her because of her disability but accepted her after police insisted, according to the reports. She was reported to have been shocked with an electric baton and forced to stand or sit motionless on a small bench for long hours. After three days she was released when her family produced a copy of her disability certificate.
Her husband Wang Mingzhi was detained and beaten repeatedly between 2000 and 2011, and died on May 20, 2016, at the age of 44, after years of declining health following custody.
On the evening of July 6, 2023, officers led by Linjiang City Police Department deputy chief Shi Dengfeng arrested Di at her home, seizing her Falun Gong books, a portrait of the faith’s founder, a printer, and a laptop. Police also raided the home of her mother that day. Held briefly at the Xinshi Police Station, Di was released that night. After being summoned back on July 12, she left home to avoid detention, but was arrested again in early August 2023 by officers of the Linjiang City Domestic Security Bureau.
In January 2024 Di was sentenced to six years in prison. Details of the indictment, trial, and sentencing have not been publicly reported; her family confirmed the sentence in late January 2024.
In July 2025 it was reported that Di, then 55, had developed tuberculosis in the Jilin Province Women’s Prison, where she had been quarantined, and was so weak she had difficulty walking. Her six-year term, imposed in January 2024, would run to approximately January 2030.
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Media Profile & Archive: Di Lianxia — Media Archive & Case Record