Zhou Guixia (周桂霞) — Person Profile
Zhou Guixia (周桂霞) is one of six Christians from a church in Kaili City, Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province, who were formally arrested in May 2026 on charges of fraud and “organizing minors to carry out activities disrupting public order” — the minors-charge basis reported as Sunday school classes, sharing the Gospel with children, and families worshipping together. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists Zhou Guixia in its detained-without-trial category, classified as in custody as of that date.
The case
According to the Rights Defense Network (维权网), via the religious-freedom outlet Bitter Winter, prosecutors charged all six with fraud and “organizing minors to carry out activities disrupting public order.” The other five detained members are Wei Yongqiang (魏永强), He Jinbao (何晋宝), Quan Xiaolong (权小龙), Long Jian (龙剑), and Cheng Yongbing (程勇兵). The reporting outlets describe the church as unregistered. The reporting states that the minors charge rests entirely on the church’s work with children — Sunday school classes and evangelism among minors — and that the Kaili procuratorate approved all six arrests without hearing the legal opinions submitted by the lawyers the families had retained.
Bitter Winter notes that the “organizing minors” provision has traditionally been applied only when minors are incited to fight, steal, or engage in conduct that genuinely threatens public safety, and describes this case as a first-of-its-kind national use of the charge against routine church activity involving children. The report places the case in the context of the revised Public Security Administrative Punishments Law, which lists “illegal religious activities” alongside xie jiao (“heterodox teaching organizations”). The fraud charge follows a pattern in which tithes and offerings are treated as “illegal income” — a local court in Kaili had handed down a twelve-year fraud sentence to an Adventist preacher on that basis in 2021, according to the report. A Chinese-language report from 民生观察 (Civil Society Watch), published May 12, 2026, prints the six detained names as 魏永强、何晋宝、权小龙、龙剑、程勇兵、周桂霞 — confirming Zhou Guixia’s Chinese name — and records the same two charges and the same procuratorate procedure. The aid group ChinaAid described the minors charge as a first-instance national use of the provision against church activity involving children.
Status and evidentiary limits
Zhou Guixia was reported in detention awaiting trial as of August 31, 2026, when the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 monthly report listed 周桂霞 among seven detained prisoners of conscience in Guizhou (in the detained-without-trial, 羁押未判, category). No trial date, judgment, sentence, detention facility, age, sex, occupation, or church role has been reported in any source found. The church’s registration status, the “ordinary church life” basis for the minors charge, the procuratorate’s refusal to hear the families’ lawyers, and the legal-novelty analysis all come from advocacy and monitoring outlets and are presented here as their reporting and analysis, not independently verified fact. No court document has been located. Do-not-merge: the other five co-defendants — Wei Yongqiang (魏永强), He Jinbao (何晋宝), Quan Xiaolong (权小龙), Long Jian (龙剑), Cheng Yongbing (程勇兵) — belong to the same case but are different people; 季风 (Ji Feng) is listed elsewhere in Issue 131 as a separate Guizhou case and is not one of the six church defendants; 周桂香 is a different person (a Guiyang elderly practitioner who died in October 2024), not 周桂霞.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhou Guixia (周桂霞) — Media Profile & Archive