Zhang Yuzhen (张余振)
Mr. Zhang Yuzhen (张余振), 71, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Dongzhi Village, Yong’an Town, Dashiqiao City, Liaoning Province, China. On November 25, 2025, after roughly six months of mobile-phone surveillance by the Dashiqiao City Public Security Bureau, more than twenty officers broke into the Zhang family home and arrested Mr. Zhang together with his wife, Gong Suyan (龚素艳), 72, and their non-practitioner son, Zhang Bo (张博). Tried at the Zhanqian District Court in Yingkou on July 16–17, 2026, he was sentenced on August 11, 2026 to nine years in prison with a 50,000-yuan fine — criminal judgment (2026) Liao 0802 Xing Chu No. 72 — the heaviest term among nine defendants. His reported term runs until November 24, 2034. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists him in its nine-year sentence group among those newly sentenced in that issue.
Background
Falun Gong (法轮功), also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline combining meditation exercises with moral teachings centered on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. It has been suppressed in China since July 1999. Practitioners detained for their faith are commonly prosecuted under the charge of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement.”
The 2025–2026 case
According to the Falun Dafa Information Center and Bitter Winter, both drawing on Minghui.org and Weiquanwang reporting, the Dashiqiao City Public Security Bureau monitored and tracked local practitioners’ mobile phones for roughly six months before a coordinated sweep on November 25, 2025. More than twenty officers from the criminal police brigade alone took part. Police entered the Zhang family home in Dongzhi Village, Yong’an Town, arrested Mr. Zhang Yuzhen, his wife Gong Suyan, and their son Zhang Bo — who does not practice Falun Gong — and searched the residence. The men were held at the Dashiqiao City Detention Center and the women at the Yingkou City Detention Center. Formal arrests followed in late December 2025, and the Zhanqian District Procuratorate indicted all nine defendants around March 2026; four family-retained lawyers argued the facts were unclear and the evidence insufficient, but the procuratorate proceeded.
Mr. Zhang’s health collapsed during pre-trial detention. He developed severe hypertension, cardiac problems, and stroke symptoms, with multiple cerebral lacunar infarctions reported. On June 23, 2026, police rushed him to Luhe Hospital, where he remained shackled throughout his stay, guarded by four officers, with no family visits permitted. Discharged on June 30 back to the Dashiqiao Detention Center, he was found by his lawyer unable to walk — forced to crawl — blind in both eyes, speech slurred, and extremely thin, with blood pressure recorded at 170. Repeated requests by his lawyer and family for medical bail were disregarded. He was wheeled into the courtroom for the two-day trial.
The Zhanqian District Court issued its judgment on August 11, 2026 as criminal verdict (2026) Liao 0802 Xing Chu No. 72. Mr. Zhang received nine years and a 50,000-yuan fine; his wife Gong Suyan received eight years and six months with the same fine; co-defendants Wang Zhaomin, Xing Dongmei, Wang Jun, Li Xiuying, Yang Qiang, and Xing Chun’e received terms from six months to seven years; his son Zhang Bo, convicted solely on the basis of his relationship to his parents, received one year and three months with a 10,000-yuan fine.
Current status
The Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 monthly report (August 31, 2026), which lists reported current-custody political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, places 张余振 in its newly-sentenced nine-year group. His term is recorded as running until November 24, 2034. Reporting after the verdict notes that his family and lawyer had been told nothing about his treatment, and that given his condition, his age, and the length of his term, there is a real risk he will not survive it. No update on his medical condition, prison placement, or any appeal has been found.
A note on sources
The case chronology above draws on the Falun Dafa Information Center and Bitter Winter, both reporting on the basis of Minghui.org and Weiquanwang coverage. Minghui is a Falun Gong community publication and presents detentions as persecution, reflecting that community’s perspective. Factual claims — dates, courts, officials, the judgment number, and the health timeline — are recorded here as reported by these publications; no court document, state-media account, or independent wire-service reporting on his case was found. The nine-year sentence, the judgment number, and the current-custody listing are corroborated across all three sources and the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 roster in both Chinese and English editions.
Sources
- Falun Dafa Information Center, “Nine Sentenced in Liaoning for Falun Gong, Including a Non-Practitioner Convicted Over Family Ties” — full nine-defendant sentence table, arrest/surveillance background, health collapse and medical-bail refusals, term end November 24, 2034
- Bitter Winter, “The Falun Gong Dashiqiao Nine Verdict: Jail Terms Up to Nine Years,” by Yang Feng — trial, presiding judge Gao Yue, sentence table, Luhe Hospital June 23–30, 2026, lawyer’s account of Mr. Zhang’s condition, courtroom wheelchair scene
- 维权网 (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,” August 31, 2026 (Chinese edition; 张余振 in the newly-sentenced nine-year group)
- 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), English edition of the same report (“Zhang Yuzhen,” nine years), August 31, 2026
Media profile & archive: Zhang Yuzhen (张余振) — Media Profile & Archive
Related family coverage: Zhang Bo (张博) — son, sentenced to 15 months in the same case; Gong Suyan — wife, sentenced to 8 years 6 months in the same case.