Ms. Wang Xingmei (王杏妹), 66, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Pinghu City in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China. She was arrested in late October 2024 and was recently sentenced to three years and three months in prison for practicing Falun Gong. This is her third prison term; she previously served a two-year forced-labor term and two prison terms totaling seven years and three months. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists her as a current in-custody political prisoner in its three-year-three-month sentence group.
## Background
Ms. Wang took up Falun Gong in early 1997. Falun Gong (法轮功), a spiritual discipline combining meditation exercises with moral teachings, has been suppressed in China since July 1999.
## First term: two years of forced labor
Ms. Wang was arrested on April 18, 2006, and held for a month. On the evening of June 16, 2006, a group of 610 Office agents — an extralegal security body created to suppress Falun Gong — tricked her into stepping outside her apartment building and took her directly to the local police station. She was not allowed to change out of her pajamas or put on shoes, was interrogated overnight without sleep, and was transferred to a detention center the next day. A few days later she was given a two-year term at the Moganshan Forced Labor Camp.
The labor camp guards assigned two inmates to watch her around the clock and forced her to watch and listen to propaganda materials denouncing Falun Gong. One morning she fainted while cleaning and fell from a height, suffering a severe lower-back injury that left her unable to stand; the camp sent her to a local hospital and brought her back as soon as she recovered. Police continued to harass her after her release.
## Second term: three years and nine months
On the evening of March 24, 2012, Ms. Wang was arrested for distributing information about Falun Gong. She was held in the Jiaxing City Detention Center, a formal arrest warrant was issued on May 2, 2012, and she was sentenced to three years and nine months on January 11, 2013. She was transferred to the Zhejiang Province Women’s Prison on January 31, 2013.
In prison, guards again assigned two inmates to monitor her around the clock and forced her to watch videos denouncing Falun Gong. She was allowed only four hours of sleep per day and was forced to do slave labor. She was released on January 25, 2015; shortly afterward her husband divorced her, saying he could no longer cope with the pressure of the persecution.
## Third term: one year and six months
Ms. Wang was arrested again on May 16, 2018, for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was first given 15 days of administrative detention, then put in criminal detention. She appeared in the Pinghu City Court on September 17, 2018, and was sentenced to one year and six months with a 2,000-yuan fine on November 16, 2018. She was released in November 2019.
## Fourth term: three years and three months
Ms. Wang was arrested in late October 2024. Many of her personal belongings were confiscated during the police raid. She was admitted to the Xucun Detention Center in Jiaxing City, and her family received no updates about her case afterward. Her family only recently confirmed that she had been sentenced to three years and three months in prison; details of her indictment, trial, and sentencing are not clear.
## Current status
The Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 monthly report (August 31, 2026), which lists 1,638 reported current-custody political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, places 王杏妹 in its 判刑3年3个月 (sentenced to 3 years and 3 months, 12 people) group. No later update on her condition or location has been found.
## A note on sources
The case chronology draws on Minghui (minghui.org), a Falun Gong-affiliated news and information outlet that publishes practitioner-submitted reports on the detention of Falun Gong practitioners. Minghui’s reporting is partisan: its accounts present the detention and prosecution as persecution and reflect the perspective of the Falun Gong community. The details of the 2006 labor-camp episode and the prison conditions described are Minghui’s account. No court document, state-media account, or independent international-media reporting on her case was found. The details of the 2024 indictment, trial, and sentencing are not clear even to Minghui.
## Sources
– Minghui (English), “Zhejiang Woman Given Third Prison Term for Practicing Falun Gong,” October 30, 2025 — http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2025/10/30/231110.html
– Minghui (English), “Additional Persecution News from China – November 7, 2024 (12 Reports),” item 3 “[Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province] Ms. Wang Xingmei Arrested,” November 19, 2024 — http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2024/11/19/221721.html
– 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), “维权网：中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告（2026年8月31日）第131期（共1638人）,” August 31, 2026 — https://chinatruth.net/zh/article/…009b1
– 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), English edition of the same report — https://chinatruth.net/en/article/…009b1
## Media coverage and source archive