Zhuang Xiachang (庄虾昌) — Person Profile
Zhuang Xiachang (庄虾昌) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Shanwei, Guangdong Province, who began practicing Falun Gong in 1998. On November 19, 2021, Judge Huang Weiqun of the Cheng District Court sentenced him to 5 years and 6 months in prison with a 20,000-yuan fine; his appeal was rejected by the Shanwei City Intermediate Court on February 21, 2022. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists him in its sentenced-to-5-years-and-6-months band, confirming he remains in custody serving his term as of that date.
The case
On February 5, 2020, Zhuang, then 64, was reported to police for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in a Shanwei neighborhood. On the evening of April 9, 2020, police entered a home where Zhuang was studying Falun Gong teachings with four other practitioners — Huang Shengwei, Chen Xianzhen, Wu Yiguo, and his wife Zeng Shaolan — and arrested them. Three more practitioners were detained in the same operation. The Cheng District Procuratorate approved the arrests on May 31, 2020, and Zhuang was later indicted. On November 19, 2021, Judge Huang Weiqun of the Cheng District Court sentenced Zhuang to 5 years and 6 months in prison with a 20,000-yuan fine. His appeal was rejected by the Shanwei City Intermediate Court on February 21, 2022. Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) is a spiritual practice that has been banned and suppressed by Chinese authorities since 1999; practitioners have been detained under offenses including “using a cult organization to undermine the implementation of the law.”
Earlier targeting
Zhuang was detained on May 8, 2002, in Shanwei, and held four months at the district detention center. In the summer of 2003 he was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months and transferred to Sihui Prison in Guangdong on January 15, 2004. Minghui’s 2010 profile describes beatings, forced labor, and brainwashing attempts during his imprisonment, and says he was released on May 8, 2005.
Status and evidentiary limits
The Rights Defense Network’s monthly in-custody report for August 2026 lists Zhuang Xiachang among people sentenced to 5 years and 6 months and counted as in custody. No detention facility or later status update has been located. None is inferred. The arrest, sentencing, and earlier-imprisonment narrative comes from Minghui, a Falun Gong-affiliated reporting network, and the Falun Dafa Information Center’s re-report; the case facts are recorded as they report them. No court judgment, official charging document, or state-media report on Zhuang Xiachang’s case has been located. His occupation, detention facility, and any status after August 2026 are unreported. Spelling note: the middle character is 虾 as printed in both the Issue 131 Chinese edition and Minghui’s 2010 case profile (“Name: Zhuang Xiachang (庄虾昌)”); it is the established documentary spelling, not a typo to be corrected to 夏. Do-not-merge: the Guangdong Jieyang “Ms. Zhuang” in a 2022 Minghui report and the Longkou, Shandong practitioner Zhuang Shuhua (庄淑花) are different people — different provinces, cases, and name forms.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhuang Xiachang (庄虾昌) — Media Profile & Archive