Zhang Ailian (张爱莲)

Zhang Ailian (张爱莲)

Zhang Ailian (张爱莲), a woman born around 1958–1959 from Shizhong District in Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, is a Falun Gong practitioner serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for distributing materials about her faith.

In September 2025, Zhang was handing out Falun Gong–related materials at the Qingtan Road wholesale market in Shizhong District when security staff spotted her on surveillance cameras and reported her, according to a record compiled by the Prisoners of Conscience database of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network. Police followed Zhang to her home, searched the residence, and took her away. She was placed under criminal detention at the Yuelou Detention Center in Shizhong District, and was later formally arrested and indicted.

While Zhang was in custody, police made repeated visits to her home, warning and pressuring her husband, who was seriously ill. He died at home less than a month after her arrest; Zhang was not allowed to return home to handle his funeral arrangements.

Zhang was subsequently sentenced to three years and six months in prison — the record does not specify the charge — and transferred to the Shandong Provincial Women’s Prison to serve her term, which runs to March 2029.

Evidentiary note: Zhang’s account is documented through a prisoner database maintained by a human-rights monitoring network that records individual cases of conscience; narrative details of her detention were compiled from a Falun Gong–affiliated press report cited by that database. The exact charge and verdict document have not been independently confirmed.

Full source record and archive: Zhang Ailian (张爱莲) — Media Profile & Archive