This archive collects source material on the case of Sun Hongzhu (孙洪柱), a Falun Gong practitioner from Shouguang City, Shandong Province, sentenced to seven years in prison.
Case timeline
- 2002 — Minghui reports Sun was given two years of forced labor and tortured at the Changle Labor Camp; released in 2004.
- February 27, 2007 — Minghui reports a raid on Sun’s home; a DVD player and tape recorder were confiscated. A 2025 retrospective says he later received one and a half years of forced labor, while a contemporaneous 2007 Clearwisdom item reports one year. The discrepancy remains unresolved.
- September 7, 2012 — Minghui reports Sun was arrested at home in Shouguang.
- September 15, 2017 — Minghui reports several police cars surrounded Sun’s home during the “knocking on the door” campaign; he escaped, was placed on a wanted list, and a 60,000-yuan reward was offered.
- November 9, 2024 — Minghui reports Sun was arrested by Shouguang City Domestic Security Office agents and accused of “using a cult to undermine law enforcement.”
- June 25, 2025 — a prison notice received by the family, as reported by Minghui, states that Sun was admitted to Jinan Prison to serve a seven-year term.
Registry records
Prisoners of Conscience Data: 孙洪柱 / Sun Hongzhu — in prison; release date 2031.11.8; last updated 2025-08-18.
Rights Defense Network, Issue 131: the Chinese and English S-section indexes place 孙洪柱 / Sun Hongzhu at the same position, confirming the name equation and dated custody listing.
Key sources
Minghui.org, “73-Year-Old Shandong Man Secretly Sentenced to 7 Years for Practicing Falun Gong” (July 19, 2025): https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2025/7/19/228931.html
Minghui.org, “Additional Persecution News from China — February 28, 2007”: http://En.Minghui.org/html/articles/2007/3/10/83382.html
Clearwisdom/Minghui, 2007 report: https://en.minghui.org/emh/articles/2007/7/4/87340.html
Minghui.org, “Additional Persecution News from China – September 11, 2012”: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/9/29/135631p.html
Prisoners of Conscience Data, Shandong listing: http://tenchu.org/pocd/public/pocs?province=shandong
Evidence note
The 2025 Minghui retrospective reports one and a half years of forced labor in 2007; a contemporaneous 2007 Clearwisdom item reports one year. The discrepancy is unresolved and both figures are preserved. The seven-year sentence is reported by Minghui; the trial date, court, and written judgment have not been located. The POCD release date of 2031.11.8 is consistent with a term counted from the November 2024 arrest, not from the June 2025 prison admission; the two dates have not been reconciled. All persecution accounts come from practitioner-linked reporting and have not been independently verified.
Person profile: Sun Hongzhu 孙洪柱