Zhou Xiuhua (周秀华)
Zhou Xiuhua (周秀华) is a resident of Wuhan City in Hubei Province and a practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. She was arrested at home on July 15, 2020, at the age of 71, and the Hanyang District Court sentenced her to six years in prison with a 7,000-yuan fine in December 2021. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists her in its 6-year-sentence band, confirming she remains in custody serving her term as of that date.
The case
At 7 a.m. on July 15, 2020, police arrested Ms. Zhou at her home. She and her husband were taken to the Wujiashanjie Police Station for interrogation while officers spent hours searching their home with no family member present. When the couple was released the next day, they found that Falun Gong books and two valuable stamp-collection books were missing. At Ms. Zhou’s insistence, police produced a list of confiscated items — but it did not include the stamp books, and it carried no officer signatures, no police seal, and no date.
On January 28, 2021, Ms. Zhou was summoned to the police station and taken for a physical examination, which she failed four times in a row. According to Minghui.org, a Falun Gong-affiliated news site, police nonetheless forced the Wuhan City No. 1 Lockup to accept her. Her case was transferred from the Dongxihu District Procuratorate to the Hanyang District Procuratorate in February 2021, and she was moved to the Wuhan City No. 1 Detention Center. She was indicted on June 2, 2021, and the Hanyang District Court accepted her case on December 10.
On December 22, 2021, Ms. Zhou was tried in a video hearing that lasted twenty minutes. Her family had asked that a family member be allowed to defend her, but the presiding judge, Deng Wei, insisted on appointing a lawyer who was instructed to enter a guilty plea. The next day, the court sentenced her to six years in prison with a 7,000-yuan fine. The family learned of the verdict on January 26, 2022; Ms. Zhou appealed that same day, and her family filed complaints against the judge the day after.
On March 14, 2022, the Wuhan City Intermediate Court upheld the original sentence without holding a hearing — five days after the lawyer hired by Ms. Zhou’s husband submitted his defense statement.
Status and evidentiary limits
As of August 31, 2026, the Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 report lists Zhou Xiuhua in its 6-year-sentence band with an in-custody classification. No release date has been stated in any public source; none is given here. The case facts come from Minghui.org (three reports, 2022) and the Falun Dafa Information Center’s February 2022 sentencing roundup — all Falun Gong-affiliated; no independent international-media coverage and no PRC official record (verdict, court notice, or state-media report) has surfaced, so case details carry single-outlet-family attribution throughout. The husband’s account (statements used as prosecution witness without his knowledge; postal workers refusing his complaint letters) is family-reported and independently unverified. The exact release date and current facility are not established and are not inferred. No reporting on her case has been found after August 2024.
Media Profile & Archive: Zhou Xiuhua (周秀华) — Media Profile & Archive