70-Year-Old Grandmother Sentenced to Prison for Delivering Bibles in China

According to a special report from China Aid, 70-year-old Wang Honglan was sentenced to four years and ten months for delivering Bibles in China. While in prison, she was tortured to give up information on the church members she had been serving with.

China Aid is reporting that sister Wang Honglan was not alone. Eight other church leaders were also sentenced to prison for their role in distributing Bibles in China’s Inner Mongolian Province.

All nine Christians were convicted of “Illegal Business Operations” on April 10, 2025 after having their sentencing delayed three times. The Christians will also have to pay fines ranging from $700 USD to $136,000 USD. Grandma Wang Honglan was given the harshest sentence of all nine Christians.

China Aid is currently reporting the following sentencing given to each Christian:

• Wang Honglan: 4 years and 10 months, fined 1,000,000 yuan; to be released on February 14, 2026.

• Wang Jiale: 4 years and 6 months, fined 200,000 yuan; to be released on October 14, 2025.

• Liu Minna: 4 years and 6 months, fined 200,000 yuan; to be released on October 14, 2025.

• Yang Zhijun: 4 years and 3 months, fined 150,000 yuan; to be released on July 19, 2025.

• Ji Heying: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.

• Ji Guolong: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.

• Zhang Wang: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.

• Liu Wei: 3 years, fined 20,000 yuan.

• Li Chao: 1 year, fined 5,000 yuan

Wang Honglan and the other Christians who worked with her acted out of love and funded the purchase of Bibles from their own pockets. Wang Honglan is a business owner and used the profits from her business to legally purchase Bibles from the state-sanctioned Three-Self Church and resold them at a low price to fellow believers—without any intent of profit, but purely to help others.

She also printed Gospel booklets titled “The Best Portion” and handed them out to unbelievers.

As a result, authorities charged them as an “organized criminal group,” naming Wang Honglan as the group’s “ringleader,” and identifying Wang Jiale, Liu Minna, and Yang Zhijun as “key members” of the alleged criminal organization.

On April 15, 2021, Wang Honglan was arrested, along with her 73-year-old husband Ji Heying, her son Ji Guolong, her nephew Wang Jiale, and co-workers Liu Wei, Liu Minna, and others—nine individuals in total were detained on the same day.

While in detention, all of them suffered varying degrees of torture and forced confessions.