Zhou Guihua (周桂花) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Linqu County, Weifang City, Shandong Province, reported to be serving a two-year prison term that runs to September 4, 2027.
Born in January 1954, Zhou took up Falun Gong in August 1997. After the Chinese government banned the practice in July 1999, she was detained repeatedly. According to the prisoner database maintained by Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), she was held once in a brainwashing class, once at a police station, twice in administrative detention, and served a one-year term of re-education through labor. In March and October 2000 she traveled to Beijing to petition on behalf of Falun Gong and was detained on both occasions.
In January 2016, Zhou was arrested in a Linqu County park while distributing Falun Gong materials. The Linqu County Court tried her three times and, on June 7, 2016, sentenced her to two years in prison with a 5,000-yuan fine; she appealed. She was not imprisoned at the time on health grounds and left home, returning in 2019. Between her return and 2025, the court and police made repeated attempts to take her into custody; each failed on medical grounds.
On September 5, 2025, despite another failed medical examination, personnel from the county court, the domestic-security police, and other units took her into custody and transferred her to the women's prison in Jinan, listed in the CHRD database as Shandong Provincial Women's Prison. The available sources do not state the criminal charge.
As of the most recent dated records — a CHRD database entry recorded on October 15, 2025, and the August 31, 2026 monthly roster of mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, which places her in the two-year-sentence group — Zhou Guihua is reported to be in custody.
Status: current — in custody (reported; latest dated record August 31, 2026).
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