Classification: Falun Gong practitioner; prisoner of conscience; reported sentenced to three years in prison. As of September 2026, listed as serving a fixed-term sentence with an expected release date of January 6, 2029.
Background
Sun Changhe (孙长河), born in 1951, is a retired worker of the Pingdu electric company in Pingdu City, Shandong Province, who practices Falun Gong. According to the Prisoners of Conscience Database maintained by tenchu.org, he is a male Pingdu resident and Falun Gong practitioner.
Arrest and detention
On January 7, 2026, police took Sun Changhe away for participating in a group Falun Gong study session. According to Minghui’s Chinese-language report, officers from the Chengguan police station seized three practitioners — Hou Xiuzhen, Cui Xiangying, and Sun Changhe — at Hou’s home that afternoon; a second group of five was seized the same day at another home. Minghui reports that Sun protested at the time of the arrest. He was first held at the Chengguan police station, taken to a hospital for a physical examination on the evening of January 8, and then transferred to the Mencun Detention Center in Pingdu, where he remained in custody. Minghui’s English-language report of the same sweep notes that the other practitioners seized on January 7 were released or given short administrative detentions, while Sun Changhe’s situation was not yet clear at that time.
Trial and three-year sentence
On June 1, 2026, the Pingdu People’s Court tried Sun Changhe’s case inside the Mencun Detention Center, according to Minghui. In August 2026, it was learned that the court had sentenced him to three years of fixed-term imprisonment. The charge of conviction has not been reported, and the location where he is serving the sentence is not stated. The tenchu.org database records the sentence as three years with the term running to January 6, 2029.
Status and evidentiary limits
Sun Changhe is classified as a current prisoner. The charge behind the three-year sentence is unknown; the precise conviction date in August 2026 is not further specified in the available sources; and his current detention location is not stated. This profile does not merge Sun Changhe with any other person of a similar name. Minghui’s account uses advocacy language (e.g., describing the arrest and sentence as unlawful) that reflects the position of the reporting organization and is presented here as attributed reporting, not as an independent legal finding.
Further reading
The full documented case record for Sun Changhe 孙长河 is preserved in a companion media archive, which gathers the case chronology, cited sources, and evidentiary limitations in one place.