Zhao Lanying (赵兰英)
Ms. Zhao Lanying (赵兰英), a retired railway worker from Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, is serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong, imposed by the Daoli District Court in Harbin in February 2025, according to a case report by Minghui.org. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists her in its three-year-and-six-month-sentence band, confirming she remains in custody serving her term as of that date.
The case
Police arrested Ms. Zhao at her rented room in Harbin — about 200 miles from her home in Mudanjiang — on September 20, 2024, according to Minghui.org, a Falun Gong-affiliated outlet. During interrogation, officers showed her photos and videos of a woman distributing Falun Gong materials and ordered her to admit she was that woman; she firmly denied the allegation. The Daoli District Court tried her on February 20, 2025 and convicted her at the end of the hearing, sentencing her to three and a half years.
Earlier targeting
It was not her first encounter with the authorities. The report says she took up Falun Gong in June 1998. She traveled to Beijing to appeal for the practice in February 2000 and was detained for 39 days; later that year she was sent to a labor camp for one year. In October 2002 she was given three years of forced labor but was denied admission to the camp because of poor health. In November 2012 she was sentenced to four and a half years and served time in the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison. She fled her Mudanjiang home in October 2019 after noticing she was being followed, and was not found again until her arrest in Harbin in September 2024.
Status and evidentiary limits
As of August 31, 2026, the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 report lists Ms. Zhao in its three-year-and-six-month-sentence band with an in-custody classification. Her current prison location has not been independently verified, and no release date has been stated in any public source; none is given here. All case details come from Falun Gong-affiliated sources and have not been independently corroborated; no court judgment text, appeal record, or PRC official account has been located. A 2011 Minghui news item describes a different “Ms. Zhao Lanying” arrested in Weifang City, Shandong Province — that is a different person and is not merged here.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhao Lanying 赵兰英 — Media Profile & Archive