Born: February 17, 1956 (per Minghui; birth year 1956 per the prisoners-of-conscience database record)
Status: Currently imprisoned (in-custody listing, August 31, 2026)
Sentence: 8 years’ imprisonment
Court: Wulian County Court, Rizhao City, Shandong Province
Sentenced: November 2023
Home: Donggang District, Rizhao City, Shandong Province
Zhang Shanjuan (张善娟) is a retired worker from Rizhao, Shandong, serving an eight-year prison sentence. Born in 1956, she took up Falun Gong in June 1998, according to the case record. In May 2021, while distributing Falun Gong informational materials, she was detained by officers of the Huanghai Road police station in Rizhao. She was taken to a detention center that night but was denied admission after a medical check found abnormal heart rhythm and a systolic blood pressure reading of 220 mm Hg; she was released the same night.
Detention and sentencing
Over the next two years, the Huanghai Road police station, the Wulian County procuratorate, and the Wulian County Court repeatedly harassed Zhang, and she repeatedly failed the required medical examinations. In November 2023, still failing the examinations, she was sentenced by the Wulian County Court to eight years’ imprisonment and was taken to prison. The case report states that her family was not told which prison she was sent to; the prison where she is serving remains unconfirmed. The specific criminal charge was not stated in the available records. She was listed among in-custody prisoners in the Rights Defense Network’s August 31, 2026 monthly report of mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, in the eight-year sentence group.
Sources
- Rights Defense Network (维权网), “中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告（2026年8月31日）第131期（共1638人）” — in-custody listing, eight-year sentence group. Chinese edition · English edition
- Minghui.org (English), “67-Year-Old Shandong Woman Sentenced to 8-Year Prison Term for Practicing Falun Gong”, February 5, 2024. link
- Minghui.org (Chinese), “山东省日照市68岁张善娟被枉判八年入狱”, February 3, 2024. link
- CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database — individual record for 张善娟 (entered March 14, 2024). search page
Editorial notes
- The eight-year sentence is a judicial act of the Wulian County Court; the Minghui reports’ characterization of it as wrongful is reported as the outlet’s view, not as an established fact.
- The specific criminal charge and the prison where she is serving are not stated in the available records and are not asserted here.
- The two Minghui editions give slightly different ages (68 in the Chinese edition, 67 in the English headline); the birth date of February 17, 1956 comes from the Chinese edition. This page states the birth year as 1956.
Media archive: Zhang Shanjuan (张善娟) — Media Profile & Archive