Person profile: Zhang Chunlei (张春蕾)
This archive preserves the documented record on Zhang Chunlei, a Falun Gong practitioner from Xinzhou, Shanxi, whose detention followed a year of self-taught legal advocacy for her father, a physician imprisoned after suing a former Chinese leader.
Case chronology
- December 2015 – 2016 — Zhang Chunlei’s father, Zhang Liangfeng, a chief physician at a Xinzhou hospital, is detained after filing a lawsuit over the crackdown on Falun Gong; he is later sentenced to five years. Zhang teaches herself law and writes dozens of legal documents and complaint letters to courts, procuratorates, and petition offices seeking his release (Minghui report, February 2018).
- June 1, 2017 (morning) — Officers from the Xinzhou public security bureau’s domestic-security unit take Zhang and her young child from her home, saying they only want to ask questions; that afternoon, police search her home and workplace (Minghui reports; CHRD database record).
- June 2, 2017 (evening) — Zhang and her younger sister Zhang Zelei are placed under criminal detention at the Xinzhou Detention Center; the sister is later released (Minghui reports).
- November 16, 2017 (morning) — The Xinfu District Court in Xinzhou tries Zhang on the charge of “using a cult to undermine law enforcement.” Defense lawyer Wen Donghai participates; reporting says the procuratorate barred the lawyer from reviewing the case file and the court held the hearing behind closed doors without a recording (维权网 monthly report, May 2021; Minghui report, February 2018).
- After November 2017 — Case reporting says Zhang was sentenced, with the term and detention facility undisclosed (维权网, May 2021; CHRD record).
- August 31, 2026 — 维权网’s monthly report on mainland China’s political and conscience prisoners lists 张春蕾 among Shanxi detainees classified as not yet sentenced — a classification that differs from the earlier “sentenced, term unknown” reporting; the discrepancy is unresolved.
Source record
The case is documented by the CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database record for 张春蕾 (queried October 2026), the 维权网 monthly report for May 2021 (which carries the same case biography), a February 2018 Minghui report that reconstructs the family’s history and the advocacy campaign, and the Minghui victim archive page that corroborates the June 2017 seizure and detention facts. The 维权网 monthly roster series (including the August 2026 edition) lists her among Shanxi detainees.
Evidentiary limitations
- The sentence term and the detention facility were never publicly disclosed; reporting consistently marks them as unknown.
- The current monthly roster classifies the entry as not yet sentenced while earlier case reporting says she was sentenced — both claims are dated and attributed; the conflict is unresolved.
- Claims by Minghui-affiliated outlets about the legality of the proceedings (“unlawful,” “persecution”) are the outlets’ characterizations, used here only for dated facts.
- No PRC official statement, court notice, or state-media report on the case was located.
Person profile: Zhang Chunlei (张春蕾)