Zhang Chunlei (张春蕾) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, who was detained in June 2017 after spending a year petitioning authorities on behalf of her imprisoned father.
According to reports by the Chinese rights-monitoring network 维权网 and the Falun Gong-affiliated outlet Minghui, Zhang’s father, Zhang Liangfeng, a physician at a Xinzhou hospital, was detained in December 2015 after filing a lawsuit against former leader Jiang Zemin over the crackdown on Falun Gong; he was later sentenced to five years in prison. Zhang Chunlei taught herself law and, over the following months, wrote and mailed dozens of legal documents and complaint letters to courts, procuratorates, and petition offices seeking her father’s release.
On the morning of June 1, 2017, officers from the Xinzhou public security bureau’s domestic-security unit came to her home, saying they only wanted to ask her some questions, and took her and her young child away. That afternoon, police searched her home and her workplace. The next evening, Zhang and her younger sister Zhang Zelei were placed under criminal detention and held at the Xinzhou Detention Center. Her sister was later released.
On the morning of November 16, 2017, the Xinfu District Court in Xinzhou tried Zhang on the charge of “using a cult to undermine law enforcement.” Her defense lawyer, Wen Donghai, took part in the hearing. Reporting by 维权网 says the procuratorate refused to let the lawyer review the case file, accept his filings, or hear his opinions, and that the court held the hearing behind closed doors without a recording; the lawyer declined to comment on the prosecutor’s evidence list without having seen the file. Later reports say Zhang was sentenced, but the length of the sentence and her place of detention were not publicly disclosed.
The 维权网 monthly report on mainland China’s political and conscience prisoners (August 2026 edition) lists Zhang Chunlei among detainees in Shanxi. Earlier case reporting described her as sentenced with an undisclosed term; the monthly report classifies her entry as not yet sentenced — the two dated claims differ, and neither has been independently resolved.
Media archive: Media Archive: Zhang Chunlei (张春蕾)