Zhang Zhirong (张芝榕)
Mr. Zhang Zhirong (张芝榕), 56, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Yitandian Village, Shuiji Subdistrict, Laixi City, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. On September 26, 2024, officers of the Laixi City Public Security Bureau’s domestic-security brigade together with Shuiji police station police, in plainclothes, seized him at his home, searched the residence, and took him to the Laixi City Detention Center, where he was held for nearly a year. Around September 2025 the Laixi City Court sentenced him to four years in prison, and he was transferred to Jinan Prison. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists him in its four-year sentence group of reported current-custody prisoners.
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 2024–2025 case
According to the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), which published a dated investigation notice on his case on October 25, 2025, Mr. Zhang Zhirong was seized at his home in Yitandian Village on September 26, 2024 by the Laixi City Public Security Bureau’s domestic-security (国保) brigade together with officers of the Shuiji police station, who arrived in plainclothes. Police searched his home and took him to the Laixi City Detention Center, where he remained in custody for nearly a year.
Around September 2025, the Laixi City Court sentenced him to four years in prison. He was subsequently transferred to Jinan Prison to serve the term. The WOIPFG notice names the Laixi political-legal, public-security, procuratorial, court, detention-center, and village officials it holds responsible for the case.
Prior persecution history
The WOIPFG case record documents a long history of detention for Mr. Zhang’s Falun Gong practice prior to the 2024 seizure. In late 1999 he traveled to Beijing to petition and was held at the Qingdao liaison office in Beijing and the Laixi City shelter, with over 1,000 yuan confiscated from him. In late October 2000 he petitioned in Beijing again and was held at the Miyun Detention Center in Beijing, where he was doused with cold water. In late October 2001 Laixi police held him for a month at the Laiyang City Detention Center, where he was verbally and physically abused by police and inmates. In 2002 and 2004 he was twice sent to labor camp for a combined four years and fined 5,000 yuan by the village committee, enduring sleep deprivation, forced “brainwashing,” and heavy forced labor at the Qingdao City labor camp. In August and October 2017, Shuiji police station officers repeatedly came to his home to harass him and his family.
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 grouped by sentence length, places 张芝榕 in its four-year group. The WOIPFG notice of October 2025 reported him held at Jinan Prison serving the four-year term. No update on his condition or placement after October 2025, no appeal record, and no court document have been found.
A note on sources
The case chronology above draws on the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), an advocacy organization founded in 2003 that investigates the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Its reporting is partisan: it presents detentions as persecution and reflects the Falun Gong community’s perspective. Factual claims — dates, places, the sentence, and the prior-detention history — are recorded here as reported by that organization; no court document, state-media account, or second independent outlet covering his case was found. The four-year sentence is corroborated independently by the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 roster, which lists Zhang Zhirong in its four-year band in both the Chinese and English editions.
Sources
- World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, “追查山东省莱西市迫害法轮功学员张芝榕的责任人的通告” (Notice on investigating those responsible for persecuting Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Zhirong in Laixi City, Shandong), October 25, 2025 — full case record: identity, September 26, 2024 seizure, Laixi City Detention Center, four-year sentence by Laixi City Court around September 2025, Jinan Prison transfer, prior-persecution history, named responsible officials
- 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; 张芝榕 in the four-year group)
- 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), English edition of the same report (“Zhang Zhirong,” four years), August 31, 2026
Media profile & archive: Zhang Zhirong (张芝榕) — Media Profile & Archive