Zhang Yuping (张玉萍)
Ms. Zhang Yuping (张玉萍), a woman around 60, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, China. She began practicing Falun Gong in October 1998 and had been detained repeatedly for her faith before — appealing in Beijing in 1999, given two years of forced labor in 2001, and a three-year prison sentence in 2004. On June 12, 2021, she was arrested for using banknotes printed with information about Falun Gong. Held at the Gujiao No.4 Detention Center, she was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison with a 30,000-yuan fine by the Yingze District Court on January 28, 2022. She appealed the verdict. 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 eight-and-a-half-year sentence group.
Background
Falun Gong (法轮功), also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline combining meditation exercises with moral teachings centered on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It has been suppressed in China since July 1999. Practitioners detained for their faith are commonly prosecuted under the charge of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement.”
The 2021–2022 case
According to Minghui.org, a Falun Gong community publication, Ms. Zhang was arrested on June 12, 2021, for using banknotes printed with information about Falun Gong — a workaround practitioners use against China’s strict information censorship. The Yingze District Court sentenced her on January 28, 2022, to eight and a half years in prison with a 30,000-yuan fine. She pleaded not guilty and appealed. At the time of the March 2022 report she was still being held at the Gujiao No.4 Detention Center.
Earlier persecution
Minghui’s March 2022 report also recounts her earlier encounters with the authorities. After the persecution of Falun Gong began, she traveled to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice and was held at the Fengtai Stadium for three days without food. She returned to Beijing to appeal on October 26, 1999, and was arrested again — police handcuffed her behind her back for over two hours, so tightly that she lost feeling in her hands for 40 days. Arrested again in late October 2001, she was chained to heating pipes, interrogated, forced to do unpaid labor and deprived of sleep; she was later given two years of forced labor. A 2004 arrest resulted in a three-year prison sentence. Shortly after her release, police harassed her in 2008 and confiscated her Falun Gong books and belongings.
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 张玉萍 in its 判刑8年6个月，9人 (sentenced to 8 years 6 months, 9 people) group. No update on her condition after the March 2022 report has been found.
A note on sources
The case chronology above draws on Minghui.org, a Falun Gong community publication. Minghui’s reporting is partisan: it presents detentions as persecution and reflects the Falun Gong community’s perspective. Factual claims — dates, courts, the fine, and the appeal — are recorded here as reported by that publication; no court document, state-media account, or independent international-media reporting on her case was found. The eight-and-a-half-year sentence and current-custody listing are independently corroborated by the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 roster (August 31, 2026).
Sources
- Minghui.org, “Shanxi Woman Sentenced to 8.5 Years for Using Banknotes Printed with Information about Falun Gong,” March 26, 2022
- Minghui.org, “Reported in March 2022: 74 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith,” April 6, 2022
- 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 (Chinese edition; 张玉萍 in the 判刑8年6个月，9人 group)
- 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), English edition of the same report (“Sentenced to 8 years and 6 months, 9 people: … Zhang Yuping …”), August 31, 2026
Media profile & archive: Zhang Yuping (张玉萍) — Media Profile & Archive