Zou Huaxiang (邹华香) — Person Profile
Zou Huaxiang (邹华香) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Weihai City, Shandong Province. Minghui.org, a Falun Gong community publication, reports that she was arrested on November 24, 2022 while handing out Falun Gong calendars, re-arrested at home on April 10, 2023, tried by the Rongcheng City Court on September 28, 2023, and sentenced to three and a half years in prison on October 23, 2023; an intermediate court later affirmed the sentence without a hearing, denying her appeal. At that time she was reported to be held at the Wendeng No. 2 Detention Center, with a planned transfer to Zhangqiu Prison. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists her in its 3-years-6-months-sentence band, confirming she remains in custody serving her term as of that date.
The case
According to Minghui.org, on November 24, 2022 Ms. Zou was arrested while handing out calendars carrying information about Falun Gong at a community market in Weihai. Officers from the Huancui District Domestic Security Office broke into her home at noon, seizing her printer, computer, cellphone charger, and 14,000 yuan in cash. She was released on bail that evening after interrogation and a blood draw; the police kept 11,000 yuan of the cash as her bail bond, and the remaining 3,000 yuan was never returned or accounted for, the publication reports. Her family lost contact with her on April 10, 2023, and learned from police that she had been arrested at home that day; she was held at the Wendeng Detention Center. An officer of the Huancui District Domestic Security Office told her family he planned to seek a prison sentence and submitted her case to the Rongcheng City Procuratorate, which indicted her. She was tried by the Rongcheng City Court on September 28, 2023, where, the publication reports, she defended herself and pleaded not guilty. She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on October 23, 2023 and filed an appeal. In February 2024, Minghui.org reported that an intermediate court had affirmed the sentence without a hearing, denying her appeal; at that time she was held in the Wendeng No. 2 Detention Center and was to be transferred to Zhangqiu Prison after the Chinese New Year. Falun Gong (法轮功), also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline combining meditation exercises with moral teachings centered on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance; it has been suppressed in China since July 1999, and practitioners detained for their faith are commonly prosecuted under the charge of “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement.”
Earlier targeting
Minghui.org reports that Ms. Zou, who was 68 at the time of her 2023 sentencing, took up Falun Gong in March 1996 after years of poor health. After the suppression began in 1999, she was detained repeatedly for advocating the practice: she traveled to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice on December 30, 1999, was arrested there, and, the publication reports, was beaten and tortured before being transferred back to Weihai for 15 days of detention. She was arrested four more times between March and August 2000. In October 2000, she was sent to the Zhangqiu Forced Labor Camp for three years, where, the publication reports, she was shocked with electric batons and forced to do long hours of sitting, standing, and unpaid labor. Minghui records further arrests — in September 2009 (held more than 20 days), in February 2012, May 2015, and December 2018 (brief detentions) — and an arrest on February 25, 2020 after she was reported for speaking about Falun Gong to a young person; she was released the same day and her home was ransacked the next.
Status and evidentiary limits
The Rights Defense Network’s Issue 131 monthly report (August 31, 2026), which lists 1,638 reported current-custody political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, places 邹华香 in its 判刑3年6个月，126人 (sentenced to 3 years and 6 months, 126 people) group; the English edition confirms “Zou Huaxiang” in the parallel band. The band is a national aggregation of same-sentence-length cases, not a joint case; its neighbors are not co-defendants. No detention-location update after the February 2024 report has been found, and no release date is computed here, because the exact sentence-commencement date, detention credit, and any reduction are unknown. The case chronology rests on Minghui.org, a Falun Gong community publication whose reporting is partisan — presenting detentions as persecution and reflecting the Falun Gong community’s perspective; its factual claims are recorded as reported by that publication, with no court document, state-media account, or independent international-media reporting found. Zhangqiu appears twice in her history: the October 2000–2003 Zhangqiu Forced Labor Camp term and the planned post-2024 transfer to Zhangqiu Prison — these are distinct facilities and are kept separate here. Names of police and prosecuting personnel appear in Minghui’s reporting; this profile names institutions and case facts only and withholds personal contact details. Do-not-merge: 邹华香 is not 邹伟 (Zou Wei, the Huancui District official named in Minghui’s reporting on her case — different characters, a local official, not a prisoner), not 邹巍 (Zou Wei, the Hangzhou democracy activist), and not any of her surname-index neighbors (邹斌, 邹飞宇, 邹家成, 邹幸彤).
Media Profile & Archive: Zou Huaxiang (邹华香) — Media Profile & Archive