Profile
Zhang Wenying (张文英） is a Christian elder from Kaili City, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. She served as an elder and meeting-point head of the Kaili Seventh-day Adventist （基督复临安息日教会） house church, a congregation established in the early 1990s that never accepted oversight by the state-sanctioned Three-Self church system. According to the CHRD Prisoners-of-Conscience database and case records compiled by the CPPC project, the congregation repeatedly applied to the Guizhou religious-affairs authorities for legal registration of its meeting point, but approval was never granted; the church continued to meet underground for more than two decades.
Detention and sentencing
In July 2020, the Qiandongnan authorities formed a special task force to investigate the congregation. Zhang Wenying was detained by Kaili police on suspicion of fraud （诈骗罪）, along with three other church clergy. According to the case accounts, the authorities treated the congregation’s voluntary offerings as fraud proceeds because the meeting point had not been state-approved. On September 4, 2020, the Kaili City procuratorate approved the arrests.
On August 14, 2021, the Kaili City Court handed down first-instance verdicts: Zhang Wenying, as the church’s elder, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment (term to July 2032); the three other clergy — Jiang Kui （姜奎）, Xie Zhiqun （谢治群） and He Se-qin （贺瑟琴） — received sentences of 6, 5 and 3 years respectively. All four appealed. The CPPC record notes that the Qiandongnan Intermediate Court’s second-instance ruling upheld the verdicts.
ChinaAid’s reporting (August 14, 2021) includes video testimony from elderly congregants — including Wan Shuping (born 1949), Tang Yongfang (80), He Lianzhu (79) and Xu Qiongzhen (79) — stating that offerings were entirely voluntary, that Zhang Wenying never pressured anyone to give, and that she herself donated generously to support poorer members.
Current situation
Zhang Wenying was held at the Qiandongnan Kaili City Detention Center following her detention (CHRD record, entered August 31, 2021); the prison where she is now serving her sentence is not publicly documented. The 维权网 monthly report of August 31, 2026 listed her among the group of prisoners serving 12-year sentences. Developments after August 2026 are unverified.
Sources
- 对华援助新闻网 (ChinaAid Chinese), “贵州凯里基督复临安息日会聚会点四位带领人被以”诈骗罪”重判”, August 14, 2021 — link
- 中國政治犯關注 (CPPC), “張文英（女）（CPPC編號：01040）”, August 2021 — link
- CHRD Prisoners-of-Conscience database record for 张文英 / Zhang Wenying, entered August 31, 2021 — CHRD database search