Status: Currently imprisoned (verified; serving a seven-year sentence, term to June 10, 2028)
Summary
Zhang Kunshan (张昆山), in his fifties, is a former worker at the Lingyuan Iron and Steel Company in Lingyuan City, Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, and a practitioner of Falun Gong. He was detained on June 11, 2021, in a coordinated police sweep of Falun Gong practitioners in Chaoyang, tried by the Lingyuan City Court on December 16, 2021, and sentenced to seven years in prison. He is serving his sentence, with the term running to June 10, 2028.
Background
Zhang Kunshan lived in Lingyuan City, Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, and formerly worked at the Lingyuan Iron and Steel Company (凌源钢铁公司). The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) Prisoners of Conscience database identifies him as a Falun Gong practitioner.
Detention and trial
According to a report by Minghui, a news outlet run by Falun Gong practitioners that documents cases of detained practitioners, Zhang Kunshan was detained on the morning of June 11, 2021. Police across Chaoyang City carried out simultaneous arrests and home searches of Falun Gong practitioners and their families that morning — at least 27 people were detained in the sweep, including 12 in Lingyuan, where some 50 officers from the Lingyuan public security bureau and local stations took part. Zhang’s home was searched and Falun Gong books and materials were seized. He was held at the Lingyuan City Detention Center.
On December 16, 2021, the Lingyuan City Court tried his case by remote video, together with the cases of fellow detained practitioners Wang Zhongxue, Wu Yanling, Wan Guiying, and others. Zhang Kunshan was sentenced to seven years in prison; he filed an appeal, according to Minghui. The CHRD database record lists his sentence as seven years, with the term running to June 10, 2028. The specific charge was not reported.
Current imprisonment
Zhang Kunshan remains imprisoned, serving the seven-year sentence imposed in 2021. The exact prison where he is held has not been reported. His name appears in the August 31, 2026 monthly report on political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in mainland China published by the Chinese-language rights website 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), in its group of people sentenced to seven years.
Note on sources
This profile is based on the CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database record for Zhang Kunshan, a Minghui report dated May 4, 2022, a Falun Dafa Information Center sentencing roundup of May 2022 that corroborates the seven-year sentence, and the 维权网 monthly report of August 31, 2026. The Chinese authorities have not published an official account of the case. Characterizations of the detention and trial as unlawful are those of the reporting sources.
Media archive: Zhang Kunshan (张昆山) — Media Archive