(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on the three-year prison sentence of a Tai’an City, Shandong Province, woman following her latest arrest in January 2025 for her faith in Falun Gong. New information has emerged that she was actually ordered to serve a total of five and a half years.
Ms. Zheng Hongling, 61, was last arrested on January 6, 2025, and sentenced to three years with a 20,000-yuan fine on June 5, 2025. Her appeal was rejected, and she was admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison on September 23, 2025.
The newly available information indicated that Ms. Zhang must also re-serve part of a 3.5-year term she was previously allowed to serve outside of prison. She was sentenced to three and a half years following an earlier arrest on October 25, 2018. Due to health reasons, she was released on October 24, 2019, and allowed to serve the remaining term of two and a half years at home.
The court that sentenced Ms. Zhao ordered her to re-serve the two and a half years on top of the latest three-year sentence, for a total of five and a half years.
Details of Latest Persecution
Ms. Zheng, who retired from Liangzhuang Mine Hospital of Xinwen Mining Group, was arrested on the morning of January 6, 2025, after a plainclothes officer spotted her talking to people about Falun Gong at a local fair. Xiazhang Police Station officers arrested her, searched her bag, and confiscated banknotes with Falun Gong messages printed on them.
The police raided Ms. Zhang’s home but did not find any Falun Gong materials. They had her admitted to the Tai’an City Detention Center anyway.
Ms. Zhang was sentenced to three years and fined 20,000 yuan on June 5, 2025. It is unclear which court convicted her. The details of her indictment, trial, and sentencing also remain unknown.
Earlier Persecution
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhang has been targeted for her faith, which she began to practice in October 1998 and credits for curing her rheumatoid arthritis, myocardial ischemia, general weakness, cold limbs, and gynecological diseases.
After the Chinese Communist Party started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Zheng held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted. Her home was raided multiple times and she was forced to pay fines. She also served two forced labor terms of unknown length. She served the second term at the Shandong Women’s Labor Camp, to which she was admitted on November 10, 2012. She was tortured until she was in critical condition and was then released on parole.
After another arrest on October 25, 2018, Ms. Zheng was sentenced to three and a half years and fined 20,000 yuan on July 24, 2019. Her husband, Mr. Zhao Qisen, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested and sentenced with her. He was admitted to the Shandong Province Prison on October 24, 2019, to serve a two-year term. Ms. Zheng was allowed to serve time outside of prison due to health reasons, but her pension was suspended. It is unclear if it was ever reinstated.
See the related reports for the couple’s 2018 arrests and 2019 sentencing.
Related Reports:
61-Year-Old Retired Hospital Worker Sentenced to 3 Years for Practicing Falun Gong
Couple Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith, Wife's Pension Account Frozen
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