Second-instance ruling in Zhejiang democracy activist Zou Wei’s case upholds original verdict

On May 18, 2026, this outlet learned: the second-instance ruling in Zou Wei’s case upheld the original verdict. In 2024, Zhejiang democracy activist Zou Wei and independent writer Zan Aizong held a sea memorial ceremony for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo at the mouth of the Qiantang River in Haining, Zhejiang. Subsequently, the authorities prosecuted the two on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On February 13, the Hangzhou court held a hearing and sentenced Zou Wei to three years and six months in prison. Zan Aizong was sentenced to three years in prison. Zou Wei, dissatisfied with the verdict, filed an appeal in accordance with the law. On May 18, 2026, his appeal was rejected and the first-instance verdict was upheld.

Zou Wei’s profile: Born in 1968, a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province; an important member of the Zhejiang Committee of the China Democratic Party (commonly known as a Zhejiang democracy activist), a human rights activist, and a political prisoner detained in China.

Because of his persistent pursuit of the ideals of democracy and freedom, he became an active participant in the democratic movement in the Hangzhou area of Zhejiang at an early age; and because democracy movement activists in Zhejiang Province braved the risks of breaking through the suppression and blockades imposed by the Chinese Communist Party’s government to establish the Zhejiang Committee of the Democratic Party, he has always identified himself as a Zhejiang democracy activist, and therefore has repeatedly been summoned and had his home raided by the authorities’ police; on January 12, 2012, because the Wukan incident occurred in Lufeng City, Guangdong Province (that is, during the grassroots elections in Wukan Village, Lufeng City, a collective protest took place in which villagers’ demands rose from economic demands to political demands; because this incident shocked the world, it led the Chinese Communist Party to believe that the domestic political situation was severe), more than a dozen Hangzhou police officers suddenly stormed into his home during this period and conducted a major raid, taking away on the spot his personal computer, address book, USB flash drives, and anything else considered “valuable,” and taking him away for questioning; on November 20, 2023, because dissident Sun Lin in Nanjing, Jiangsu, was allegedly beaten to death by police at home, he held up a sign to speak out, and was also an active signatory of the online “Open Letter to the Nanjing Municipal Government Concerning the Unclear Truth About Sun Lin’s Death,” whereupon he was immediately taken away and criminally detained by police from Hangzhou’s Gongshu District, and both his home and his mother’s residence were searched; on March 17, 2024, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the “death” of Dr. Li Wenliang, the whistleblower during the COVID-19 pandemic, he held up a sign to speak out, and after being forced by police to take a “trip” during the convening of the Chinese Communist Party’s Two Sessions, he went to Huzhou City on business and posted online information about being taken on a “trip” and being subjected to stability maintenance, after which he was again taken away, summoned, and reprimanded by local police; on July 13, 2024, the seventh anniversary of the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, he went with independent writer Zan Aizong, Zhuang Daohe, democracy activist Mao Qingxiang, and four others—a total of seven people—to the mouth of the Qiantang River in Haining City, Zhejiang Province, to hold a sea memorial ceremony for Liu Xiaobo, and posted some photos of the event online. As a result, six people were taken away by Hangzhou police in the early hours of the following day; five were subsequently released one after another after being reprimanded and having statements taken, while he and Zhan Aizong were nevertheless kept in custody and not released because the Third Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was about to be held in Beijing, and were forced to take a “trip”; after returning home, on July 20, he and Zan Aizong were again formally criminally detained on the same day by police from Hangzhou’s Gongshu District on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” over the sea memorial ceremony; on August 29 of the same year, the two were formally arrested by the Gongshu District Procuratorate of Hangzhou on the same charge. They were subsequently prosecuted. The case of Zou Wei and Zan Aizong was heard at a court in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, at 2:30 p.m. on February 13, 2026. Zou Wei was sentenced to three years and six months, and Zan Aizong to three years. Sentence expires: January 19, 2028. He is currently detained at the Gongshu District Detention Center in Hangzhou (also known as the Banshan Detention Center, 342-68 Banshan Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, postal code: 310011).