Classification: Falun Gong practitioner in Tai’an, Shandong; sentenced to three years in prison in June 2025; reported in custody as of August 2026.
Background
Zheng Hongling (郑洪玲), born in 1964, is a retired worker of the Liangzhuang Mine Hospital of the Xinwen Mining Group in Tai’an City, Shandong Province. She began practicing Falun Gong in October 1998. According to the case record compiled by Chinese Human Rights Defenders, after July 1999 she was placed under long-term surveillance and harassment, subjected to repeated home raids, detentions, and forced indoctrination sessions, and twice sent to re-education through labor. In November 2012 she was taken to the Jinan Shandong Women’s labor camp and released only after becoming critically ill. In July 2019, the Feicheng Court in Shandong sentenced her to three and a half years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, with a fine of 20,000 yuan; her husband Zhao Qisen was sentenced to two years in the same case. She did not enter prison after that verdict for health reasons, and her pension account was frozen.
Detention and sentencing
On the morning of January 6, 2025, Zheng Hongling was seized by officers of the Xiazhang police station while at a market in Lijiashangzhang Village, Xiazhang Town, Daiyue District, and taken to the Tai’an City Detention Center. She was placed under criminal detention, then formally arrested and prosecuted. On June 5, 2025, she was sentenced to three years in prison with a fine of 20,000 yuan; the offense of conviction was not recorded in the case file. Her appeal was denied. On September 23, 2025, she was transferred to the Jinan Women’s Prison (the Shandong Provincial Women’s Prison), with her term running through January 5, 2028. Minghui, the Falun Gong-affiliated news outlet, reported the same arrest, sentencing, and transfer dates.
Current status
The Rights Defense Network’s monthly in-custody report for August 2026 lists Zheng Hongling among the 110 people it records as sentenced to three years, consistent with her still serving the sentence. No details of any sentence reduction or further transfer have been located, and none is inferred.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Prisoners of Conscience database individual record (entered December 15, 2025); Minghui (明慧网), November 21, 2025 case report; Rights Defense Network (维权网), Issue 131 monthly in-custody report, August 31, 2026.
Media profile & archive: Zheng Hongling (郑洪玲) — Media Profile & Archive