Cong Lanying (丛兰英) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Weihai City, Shandong Province, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2023. She was in her late seventies at the time of her arrest — nearly eighty when the first reports of her case reached the public — and is held in the Jinan Women’s Prison in Shandong.
Her daughter, Cong Xinmiao, a Canadian citizen living in Montreal, has described her mother’s life and the case against her. Cong Lanying suffered for years from severe myocarditis, cervical spondylosis, and other chronic illnesses; her hands and feet darkened and she had difficulty breathing, and she was hospitalized for months almost every year. In 1997 she heard about Falun Gong and began doing the exercises in a park each morning. Her daughter says her ailments disappeared within eighteen days. “Chinese medicine, Western medicine, and folk remedies did not cure me,” Cong Lanying is quoted as saying. “I practiced Falun Gong for 18 days, and my illnesses disappeared. It is impossible to stop me from practicing Falun Gong.”
For insisting on practicing and for telling officials at all levels about Falun Gong, she was frequently harassed by the neighborhood committee and the police, and detained many times. In 2022 she was detained for more than thirty days after practicing the exercises in a park; she was released on bail, and during the bail period her home was raided. In February 2023 she was arrested again, and was later sentenced in secret to four years in prison with a 20,000 yuan fine. Her family was not informed of the sentence.
Her case has been raised in Canada’s parliament. Members of Parliament including Scott Reid — who singled her out as a relative of a Canadian citizen — Garnett Genuis, Tom Kmiec, Larry Brock, Jeremy Patzer, Brad Vis, Greg McLean, Marc Dalton, and Cathay Wagantall called for her release, and Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs responded to her case in June 2024. On July 16, 2024, Falun Gong practitioners rallied in front of the Chinese Consulate in Montreal to demand her freedom, with Cong Xinmiao speaking for her mother.
As of mid-2026 reporting, Cong Lanying — by then eighty-one — remained in the Jinan Women’s Prison, more than three years into her sentence.
### Case summary
– **Arrest:** February 2023 (earlier detention: 2022, 30+ days, park exercises)
– **Sentence:** 4 years’ imprisonment, 20,000 yuan fine; secret sentencing in 2023 (court not reported)
– **Detention:** Jinan Women’s Prison, Shandong Province
– **Status:** Imprisoned; most recent reporting mid-2026
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Media Profile & Archive: Cong Lanying — Media Profile & Archive