Zhong Fangqiong (钟芳琼)
Zhong Fangqiong (钟芳琼), born in August 1965, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, formerly a transport business owner. After serving prison terms from 2007–2014 and 2016–2020, she was arrested on July 7, 2024 and held in the Chengdu City Detention Center; according to Minghui, an outlet that documents the persecution of Falun Gong in China, the Xindu District Court sentenced her to five years in prison and fined her 10,000 yuan on November 18, 2025, and she was appealing at the time of the report. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) includes her among the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience classified as in custody as of that date.
The case
According to Minghui, Ms. Zhong was arrested on July 7, 2024 and held in the Chengdu City Detention Center. On November 18, 2025, the Xindu District Court sentenced her to five years in prison and fined her 10,000 yuan for her practice of Falun Gong. She was appealing the verdict at the time of the report. As of that reporting, Ms. Zhong remained held in the Chengdu City Detention Center with the appeal pending; the reporting notes it was unclear when she would be taken into custody to begin serving the sentence. A Human Rights Without Frontiers bimonthly digest summarizes the same Minghui sentencing report.
Earlier targeting
Ms. Zhong has been repeatedly detained since the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, according to Minghui’s reporting. She was detained ten times in total (nine administrative detentions and one criminal detention) in 1999–2000 after traveling to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, including consecutive detentions from December 19, 1999 to March 1, 2000 and from March 18 to May 23, 2000. She was arrested on June 14, 2000 and sentenced to one year of re-education through labor for writing an article exposing the persecution, and was held at the Nanmusi Women’s Forced Labor Camp, where her term was extended by three months. She served a seven-year prison term from September 2007 to September 2014, and a four-year prison term from October 2016 to October 2020. Reports describe severe beatings during these periods, including a December 2002 abduction in Chengdu during which, the accounts state, she was tied to a chair for nearly six days, beaten, deprived of sleep, and fell from a fourth floor, fracturing her pelvis and leg — she was later hospitalized at Chengdu 416 Hospital. After completing her second prison term in 2020, she moved in with her brother in Chengdu and was subjected to repeated harassment by police, government officials, and community staff, including a September 2022 raid on her brother’s home by more than 20 officers and officials and the installation of a surveillance camera outside the residence.
Status and evidentiary limits
As of August 31, 2026, the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 report includes Zhong Fangqiong among its in-custody classification. No release date has been stated in any public source; none is given here. The custodial history and sentencing details rest on Minghui, Clear Harmony, and Pure Insight reporting, outlets affiliated with Falun Gong practitioners; no independent court record or state-media confirmation was located, and allegations of torture and mistreatment are attributed to the practitioner and to these outlets, not stated as independently verified findings. The 2007 (seven-year) and 2016 (four-year) sentences are known only from the 2025 report’s summary — no case-level detail — and the facility in which she would serve the 2025 sentence is unknown, with the appeal outcome unknown. This profile must not be merged with 钟锦麟 / Ben Chung, a Hong Kong figure listed in a local directory who is a different person.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhong Fangqiong (钟芳琼) — Media Profile & Archive