Update on the Prison Conditions of Zhejiang Independent Writer Zan Aizong, Sentenced to 3 Years

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On August 3, 2026, this outlet learned that Zan Aizong, a Zhejiang independent writer sentenced to 3 years for holding a sea memorial for Liu Xiaobo, was transferred on May 14, 2026, from the Gongshu District Detention Center in Hangzhou to Hangzhou Dongjiao Prison to serve his sentence. However, because Zan Aizong refused to sing revolutionary songs and preach the Gospel to other inmates at Dongjiao Prison, the prison deemed him unwilling to submit to reform and has kept him in the prison admission unit.

In July 2024, Zan Aizong was arrested for participating in a sea memorial for Liu Xiaobo held by Zhejiang citizens at the mouth of the Qiantang River; in February 2026, he was sentenced to 3 years for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” with his sentence ending on July 19, 2027. He had previously been detained at the Gongshu District Detention Center in Hangzhou.

Zan Aizong’s biography: Born in October 1969, a native of Taihe County, Anhui Province, a citizen of Gongshu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, a Christian, an independent writer, using the online pseudonyms “Electronic Sentiment,” “Patient with Aphasia,” “Jiangnan Express,” and others, recipient of the 2006 Lin Zhao Memorial Award, a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (CIPC), a pro-democracy dissident, and a political prisoner held in China.

In the early period, he was a reporter for China Ocean News, head of its Zhejiang reporter station, and a columnist for Sina.com. He was known as a free writer who used his real name to write online; because he advocated free writing and basic civic rights such as freedom of the press, and because his works and book projects covered a wide range of subjects, he published articles in media outlets including Southern Weekly, China Youth Daily, and Window of the South; but precisely because of his persistent pursuit of the concept of freedom, he often expressed opinions on human rights issues in China and consequently became an object of stability maintenance that received the local government’s special attention and needed to be suppressed; every year when the Chinese Communist Party’s so-called sensitive dates arrived, such as the convening of the Chinese Communist Party’s “Two Sessions,” the anniversary of June 4, and the period surrounding the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023, he was either forced to take a trip or closely followed by police for stability maintenance; from February to March 2024, because the Chinese Communist Party’s “Two Sessions” were about to convene, he was frequently harassed, questioned, and taken on trips by Gongshu District police wherever he was, whether at home or attending worship and gatherings at church, causing enormous pressure and distress in his life, to the extent that he had no choice but to issue a public statement affirming his convictions, stating: “I obey the law and hope for basic freedoms and basic rights protected by law, including freedom of speech and expression, freedom of publication, freedom of belief, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and so on, as well as respect for these freedoms. These freedoms and rights all have boundaries, and I hope to act within those boundaries”; on July 13, 2024, as it was the seventh anniversary of the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, he and seven others, including Democrat Zou Wei, went to the mouth of the Qiantang River in Haining, Zhejiang Province, to hold a sea memorial mourning Liu Xiaobo’s death, and posted some photographs of the event online. Consequently, at dawn the following day, six of them were taken from their homes by Hangzhou police. Five were subsequently released and allowed to return home after being reprimanded and having statements taken, but he and Zou Wei continued to be held and were forcibly taken on trips because the Third Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee was about to convene in Beijing; after returning home, on July 20, he and Zou Wei were again formally criminally detained on the same day by Gongshu District police in Hangzhou on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in connection with the sea memorial; on August 29 of the same year, the two were formally arrested by approval of the Gongshu District in Hangzhou on the same charge. They were subsequently prosecuted. The case of Zou Wei and Zan Aizong was heard at 2:30 p.m. on February 13, 2026, in a court in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Zou Wei was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months, and Zan Aizong was sentenced to 3 years. His sentence ends on July 19, 2027. He had previously been detained at the Gongshu District Detention Center in Hangzhou (also known as Banshan Detention Center, 342-68 Banshan Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, postal code: 310011). On May 14, 2026, he was transferred to Hangzhou Dongjiao Prison to serve his sentence.