Zhang Ruiping (张瑞萍) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yangquan, Shanxi Province, who was sentenced to three years and six months of imprisonment in December 2023. She is held as a prisoner of conscience by the PRC (mainland China).
Detention and sentencing
Born in February 1968, Zhang began practicing Falun Gong in April 1999. On April 19, 2023, police detained her at her home in Yangquan and held her in a local detention-through-education facility. On May 5, 2023, she was transferred to the Yangquan detention center and criminally detained; she was formally arrested on May 19, 2023.
On September 27, 2023, the Pingding County Court tried her case, with a defense lawyer entering a not-guilty plea. In early December 2023, she was sentenced to three years and six months; the charge has not been publicly specified. She appealed the sentence. In January 2024, she was transferred to the Shanxi Provincial Women’s Prison to serve the term, with a reported term end of November 4, 2026.
What is not publicly established
The criminal charge, and whether the appeal changed the sentence, have not been reported in publicly available sources. Her status after the reported term end (November 4, 2026) is not yet verifiable.
Sources
- Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) Prisoners of Conscience database — record for 张瑞萍 / Zhang Ruiping (entered January 29, 2024).
- Minghui, “山西阳泉市善良妇女张瑞萍被枉判三年半” (December 8, 2023).
- Rights Defense Network (维权网), Issue 131 monthly report (August 31, 2026) — confirms her inclusion among prisoners serving 3 years 6 months.
Media archive: Zhang Ruiping (张瑞萍) — Media Profile & Archive