Human rights lawyer Zhang Wenpeng, sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, transferred to Hainan Meilan Prison to serve his sentence
(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On September 28, 2026, this website learned that human rights lawyer Zhang Wenpeng, who was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, had once again been transferred to Hainan Meilan Prison to serve his sentence. The mailing address for Zhang Wenpeng at his new prison is as follows. Please call to confirm his prison unit before mailing: Recipient: Zhang Wenpeng c/o New place of imprisonment: Hainan Meilan Prison. Telephone: 0898-65677021.
Because Zhang Wenpeng reported the lawyers' association, he was unable to obtain a lawyer's practising certificate after seven years as a trainee. On September 24, 2024, he was criminally detained on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble after representing a client in the Haiyun Group case and speaking out online on the client's behalf. He was tortured while in detention. He was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months at his first-instance trial. After the verdict, Zhang Wenpeng appealed. On May 26, 2026, Zhang Wenpeng's appeal was rejected, and the second-instance court upheld the original sentence.
Zhang Wenpeng's biography: Born in 1993. After graduating from university at age 23, Zhang Wenpeng passed the bar qualification examination. Under Chinese law, a person can obtain a lawyer's practising certificate after a one-year traineeship, but he has been a trainee for seven years and has still been unable to obtain a practising certificate. The reason is that he has consistently opposed the “officially run lawyers' association” and was placed on the Ministry of Justice's blacklist, so the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Justice has continually made things difficult for him and refused to issue him a practising certificate, stringing him along for seven years. Zhang Wenpeng is hailed by the legal community as a famous trainee lawyer. He exposed corruption in the lawyers' association and denounced lawyers who offered bribes, thereby offending some vested interests, to the extent that he was permanently barred from practising.
In 2022, Zhang Wenpeng posted a real-name report online accusing Wan Zhendong, head of the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Justice, of three major offenses: bribery, squandering public funds, and dereliction of duty.
On March 21, 2024, Zhang Wenpeng, who was a trainee at Shandong Xiaolin Law Firm, posted on Weibo that on March 20 he had been summoned across provincial boundaries in Shenzhen by the Shinan Branch of the Qingdao Municipal Public Security Bureau. His clothes were stripped off, and he was not even allowed to wear underwear. He was questioned for eight hours. The stated reason was disrupting the order of a work unit. Zhang Wenpeng went to a local police station in Shenzhen to inquire and learned that the reason for the cross-provincial summons was that he had “once entered the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Justice without authorization.”
On September 24, 2024, Zhang Wenpeng was again criminally detained by Sanya police on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble because he represented the Haiyun Group case and helped the client speak out about their grievance. Just before his criminal detention, the case's defense lawyer, Peking University PhD Zhang Qingfang, was notified that his lawyer's licence would be revoked. This was clearly retaliation by Sanya police, using public power to target the representatives of Haiyun. Zhang Wenpeng was sentenced on March 16, 2026, to 4 years and 6 months. His sentence runs until: March 22, 2028. In September 2026, it was learned that Zhang Wenpeng had been transferred to Hainan Meilan Prison to serve his sentence.
This website will continue to follow Zhang Wenpeng's situation in prison.
Related Reporting
Oct 2, 2026
Case Details and Profile of Zheng Deliang, Falun Gong Practitioner from Suining, Sichuan, Sentenced to 2 Years
A Rights Defense Network Information Center report dated October 3, 2026, says Zheng Deliang, a Falun Gong practitioner born in 1966 who lives in Gouqiao Village, Yongxing Town, Suining, Sichuan, was sentenced to two years by the Chuanshan District Court on July 8, 2026. Police arrested him and ransacked his home on January 6 over his refusal to sign a house demolition contract. His sentence ends January 5, 2028. In 2015, he was sentenced to three years after an arrest.
Oct 2, 2026
Case Details and Profile of Ms. Liu Dequn, a Falun Gong Practitioner in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, Sentenced to 4 Years
Liu Dequn, a Falun Gong practitioner in her sixties who lived in Honghuagang District, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, was arrested on May 9, 2023, while speaking about Falun Gong at Chuntianbao vegetable market. She was held at Zunyi City No. 2 Detention Center and later criminally detained, formally arrested and indicted. In September 2026, it was learned she had been sentenced to four years. She is held at Guizhou Province No. 1 Women’s Prison, with her sentence running until May 8, 2027.
Oct 2, 2026
Rights Defense Network: Analysis of New Policies and Regulations: The CAC Launches a Special Campaign to “Clean Up the Chaos of Fake Personas in Short Videos” — Rectifying Personas Must Not Become a New Shackle on Freedom of Expression
The Cyberspace Administration of China launched a two-month nationwide campaign on September 30, 2026, targeting fake personas in short videos, including fabricated hardship, disability and relationship stories used to attract traffic or sell goods. The article supports action against fraud and deceptive profit-making but warns that vague standards and platform enforcement could suppress legitimate expression, especially by vulnerable people, and calls for clear rules, appeals and a focus on organized fabrication.
Oct 2, 2026
Case Details and Biography of Yan Wenju, Chongqing Fengjie County Rights Defender Sentenced to 4 Years and 6 Months
Yan Wenju, a rights defender from Fengjie County, Chongqing, was sentenced to four years and six months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sent to Chongqing Daping Prison. The report says she had challenged seizures of her family’s contracted land and previously served prison terms of one year and two months and two years and six months. Detained in September 2024 while hospitalized, she was arrested in October. Her sentence ends March 8, 2029.