Ms. Zhang Rongxiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Tianjin’s Beichen District sentenced to five years, dies with grievances unresolved just four days after release from prison

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On April 26, 2026, this outlet learned that Ms. Zhang Rongxiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Tianjin’s Beichen District who was sentenced to five years, died with grievances unresolved just four days after release from prison.

Zhang Rongxiu: A female Falun Gong practitioner from Tianjin’s Beichen District, she lived in Xiditou Village, Beichen District, Tianjin, and was in her 60s in 2025. She began practicing Falun Gong in February 1999. On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party began its frenzied persecution of Falun Gong. She was sentenced three times by CCP courts and was detained and persecuted for a cumulative total of 15 years.

She was arrested and framed on the evening of August 10, 2021; on December 9, she was tried online at the Nankai District Court in Tianjin and sentenced to five years. On August 24, 2022, she was detained at Tianjin Women’s Prison, where she was persecuted.

Approximately six months earlier, Zhang Rongxiu had developed severe symptoms as a result of the persecution. The prison hospital diagnosed her with advanced-stage uterine cancer. Her family requested “medical parole,” but prison authorities repeatedly delayed it, saying that the prison was providing treatment. By April 7, when prison authorities had her daughter take her mother Zhang Rongxiu home, she was already on the verge of death. Four days later, on April 11, 2026, she died with grievances unresolved, at the age of 60-plus.