A court in China’s Gansu province has sentenced Li Huifang, the de facto operator of a private kindergarten in Tianshui, to life imprisonment at first instance over the lead poisoning of children and staff, China Daily reported.
The Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court handed down the sentences in a public first-instance ruling on the afternoon of Friday 16 October, Xinhua News Agency said, according to China Daily.
The kindergarten, Heshi Peixin Kindergarten, is in Tianshui’s Maiji district. The court also deprived Li of her political rights for life and ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan of her personal assets, China Daily reported.
Zhu Jinglin, the kindergarten’s executive principal, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan. Four kitchen staff received prison terms of six to eight years, along with fines, according to China Daily.
All six were found guilty of producing and selling toxic and harmful food under particularly serious circumstances, China Daily reported.
What the Court Found
The court found that Li and Zhu had instructed and arranged for kitchen staff to add toxic and harmful non-food substances to meals served to children and employees, China Daily reported.
Xinhua said the pair instructed and organised the addition of toxic materials to food to make it look more colourful and attractive for marketing. It said the four kitchen workers were jailed for carrying out those instructions.
According to the provincial investigation report released in July 2025, the tainted pastries had been served to children and staff every month since May 2024, Xinhua reported. ABC News said media reports at the time described the school adding inedible pigments containing lead to the food for visual appeal.
How the Case Came to Light
The privately run kindergarten opened in August 2022 in a residential compound in Maiji district, China Daily reported. According to a Xinhua report on 20 July 2025, 247 of its 251 children and 28 of its 34 staff members had been found with abnormal blood lead levels, China Daily said.
The same report said that, at the time, all 247 children had received hospital treatment or nutritional support at home. Of the 235 who were hospitalised, 234 had completed a first course of treatment and been discharged. As at July 2025, experts had found that blood lead levels fell by an average of 40.21 percent after treatment, and one child remained in hospital.
Xinhua said the July 2025 investigation report recorded that provincial disciplinary authorities had investigated 10 local officials, including the provincial health commission director and Tianshui city leaders. Xinhua also said the Gansu government had pledged full support for the children’s medical care.
A Wider Warning on Lead
High levels of lead exposure can damage a child’s brain and nervous system, ABC News reported. On Thursday 15 October, the day before the sentences, the World Health Organization urged countries to do more to prevent lead exposure, which it said could occur through paint, cookware, cosmetics, spices and industrial contamination.
“Lead poisoning is one of the world’s most serious yet overlooked environmental health threats,” Bruce Gordon, head of the WHO’s environment department, said that day, ABC News reported. The WHO said hundreds of millions of children are affected by lead exposure internationally.
Other court reports are in our Crime & Courts section.
Sources: China Daily, “Gansu kindergarten operator sentenced to life in lead poisoning case”, 16 October 2026 (https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202610/16/WS6ad217fee4b06d4aa0563409.html); ABC News, “Kindergarten owner and staff jailed for poisoning 200 children in China”, 17 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-17/kindergarten-staff-jailed-over-lead-poisoning-in-china/107278660); Xinhua, “Kindergarten head sentenced to life imprisonment over lead poisoning of 247 children in NW China”, 17 October 2026 (https://english.news.cn/20261017/408c3ac9790b4a50bf06f02d221dfaa2/c.html)
Photo: 颐园居, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Mist settles over temple roofs on the hills of Tianshui, in Gansu province, in September 2026; the picture does not show the kindergarten.
