Two Shandong Women Face Prison Sentences for Their Shared Faith in Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Two Jinan City, Shandong Province, residents are facing prison sentences for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Song Zonglan, 78, and Ms. Zhang Yuxiang, in her 50s, were recorded by surveillance cameras around February 2023 while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Officers from the Qixian Police Station raided their homes on March 7 and later submitted their case to the Changqing District Procuratorate. The Changqing District Procuratorate and Changqing District Court were designated to handle Falun Gong cases in Jinan.

Ms. Song and Ms. Zhang were given a year bail by the Shizhong District Police Department on March 29, 2024. The Changqing District Procuratorate further extended its bail condition by another year on August 20, 2024. Prosecutor Cheng Li and her assistant Zhang Rui were assigned to work on the case.

Two staffers from the Changqing District Court harassed both women at home on September 14, 2024. The mental pressure caused both of them to experience dangerously high blood pressure, with Ms. Song’s at 250/130 mm Hg and Ms. Zhang’s rat 260/170 mm Hg (the normal level is 120/80 mm Hg).

On September 27, 2024, Ms. Song and Ms. Zhang were notified that a court date was set for 9 a.m. on September 30 and that the joint trial would be held at one of their homes. It’s not clear whether the session indeed took place.

The court staffers harassed both women again in May 2025. Despite both of them having dangerously high blood pressure, they were taken to the Jinan City Detention Center. The court threatened to take them to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison soon.