Zhang Lihua (张丽华), born in 1966, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Daqing, Heilongjiang Province. She formerly worked as a driver in the Design Section of Daqing Oilfield’s No. 4 Oil Extraction Plant and lived in Honggang District, Daqing. She began practicing Falun Gong in March 1997.
According to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) database of prisoners of conscience, Zhang was detained on November 22, 2020, together with fellow practitioner Wang Luhua, by plainclothes police from the Daqing Public Security Bureau and the Saertu District Tieren Branch at Xinda Plaza in Dongfeng New Village, Daqing. Police searched their homes and sent both to the Daqing detention center the same night; after failing the physical examination, each was placed on bail pending trial with a 20,000-yuan deposit. Over the following two years she was repeatedly placed on bail and prosecuted.
On December 30, 2022, the Ranghulu court sentenced Zhang to three years and four months in prison with a 30,000-yuan fine; the specific charge is not recorded in the database. She refused to plead guilty and appealed. The appeal was rejected at second instance on March 20, 2023, and her wage card was frozen. Between 2023 and 2025, the authorities repeatedly sent her for physical examinations to take her into custody, but she failed the health requirements and was kept in medical-parole custody outside prison. On June 16, 2025, Zhang and Wang Luhua were forcibly taken into custody at the Heilongjiang Provincial Women’s Prison.
The Rights Defense Network’s monthly report on political and conscience prisoners in custody in mainland China (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists Zhang Lihua among prisoners sentenced to three years and four months. The CHRD database records her sentence as ending October 15, 2028.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Database of Prisoners of Conscience in Mainland China (record poc_z_00668, updated 2026-03-17); Rights Defense Network, Monthly Report on Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience in Custody in Mainland China, Issue 131 (2026-08-31), Chinese and English editions.
Further source records on this case are preserved in the Media Profile & Archive.