Zhejiang Democracy Party member Zou Wei, sentenced to 3 years and 6 months, spends his 56th birthday in prison

On October 23, 2026, this outlet learned: Zhejiang Democracy Party member Zou Wei, sentenced to 3 years and 6 months, is spending his 56th birthday in prison today. He was transferred to Hangzhou South Suburban Prison to serve his sentence on May 28, 2026.

Zou Wei’s profile: Born October 23, 1970, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province; an important member of the Zhejiang Committee of the China Democracy Party, a human rights activist, and a political prisoner in China.

Because of his persistent pursuit of the ideals of democracy and freedom, he became an early and steadfast participant in the democratic movement in the Hangzhou area of Zhejiang; also, because democracy activists in Zhejiang Province broke through pressure and obstruction by the Chinese Communist government to establish the Zhejiang Committee of the Democracy Party, he has consistently identified himself as a Zhejiang Democracy Party member, and has therefore repeatedly been summoned by police and had his home searched; on January 12, 2012, he was targeted after the Wukan incident took place in Lufeng, Guangdong Province (that is, during grassroots elections in Wukan Village, Lufeng, villagers engaged in a collective protest in which demands concerning the economy escalated into demands concerning politics. The incident shocked the world and led the Chinese Communist Party to believe that the domestic political situation was severe. At this stage, more than a dozen Hangzhou police officers suddenly broke into his home and conducted a major search, seizing his personal computer, address book, USB drives, and anything else they considered “valuable,” and taking him away for questioning; on November 20, 2023, he held up a sign and spoke out after dissident Sun Lin in Nanjing, Jiangsu, was apparently beaten to death by police at home, and was also an active signatory of the open letter published online, “The Truth About Sun Lin’s Death Remains Unclear—An Open Letter to the Nanjing Municipal Government.” He was immediately detained by police from Hangzhou’s Gongshu District on suspicion of a criminal offense, and both his home and his mother’s residence were searched; on March 17, 2024, he held up a sign and spoke out on the fourth anniversary of the death of COVID-19 whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang. After police forced him to travel during the Chinese Communist Party’s Two Sessions, he went to Huzhou on business and posted online that he had been forced to travel and subjected to political stability maintenance measures, after which local police took him away for questioning and reprimanded him; on July 13, 2024, the seventh anniversary of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo’s death, he and independent writers Zan Aizong and Zhuang Daohe, as well as Democracy Party member Mao Qingxiang and four others, went to the Qiantang River estuary in Haining, Zhejiang Province, to hold a sea memorial for Liu Xiaobo, and posted some photos of the event online. As a result, Hangzhou police took six people away in the early hours of the following day. Five were later reprimanded, questioned, and released in succession. He and Zhan Aizong, however, remained in custody and were forced to travel because the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee Third Plenum was about to convene in Beijing; after returning home, on July 20, he and Zan Aizong were again formally criminally detained by Gongshu District police in Hangzhou in connection with the sea memorial, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”; on August 29 of the same year, the Gongshu District Procuratorate in Hangzhou formally approved the arrest of both men on the same charge. They were later indicted. The case against 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 3 years and 6 months, and Zan Aizong to 3 years. Sentence ends: January 19, 2028. He was previously held at the Hangzhou Gongshu District Detention Center (also known as the Banshan Detention Center, 342-68 Banshan Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province; postal code: 310011). He was transferred to Hangzhou South Suburban Prison to serve his sentence on May 28, 2026.

This outlet will continue to follow Zou Wei’s conditions in prison.