Zhou Huajian (周华建)
Zhou Huajian (周华建) is a resident of Maoming, Guangdong Province, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023 in connection with his practice of Falun Gong.
Born in March 1951, Zhou lived in Datian Village, Nanxiang, Yangjiao Township, Maonan District, Maoming, where he worked as a security guard. According to monitoring reports, he began practicing Falun Gong in 1997.
On the morning of March 26, 2020, Zhou was detained in Maoming after authorities located him while he was distributing Falun Gong materials using a portable communications device at a market in Meihua Township, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) prisoner database and Minghui, a Chinese-language outlet covering Falun Gong cases. He was placed under criminal detention the following day by the Maonan branch of the Maoming Public Security Bureau; his arrest was approved by the Maonan procuratorate in April 2020, and he was indicted that July.
Zhou was held at the Maoming City No. 1 Detention Center. His case went through several court hearings: an initial hearing in April 2021 that was suspended after a dispute over his lawyers' equipment, a second hearing in January 2022, and a further hearing in April 2023 held inside the detention center. On July 10, 2023, the Maonan District People's Court in Maoming sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment and imposed a 20,000-yuan fine. The charge was not identified in the available reporting.
According to the CHRD record, his sentence runs through March 25, 2029. The Rights Defense Network's monthly report on political prisoners (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists Zhou among those in custody.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders prisoner-of-conscience database; Minghui, July 15, 2023; Rights Defense Network, Monthly Report on Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience in Custody in Mainland China, Issue 131.
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