Zou Wei (邹巍) — Person Profile
Zou Wei (邹巍) is a Hangzhou-based democracy activist. The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders identifies him as a member of the Zhejiang Democracy Party, a loose grouping of pro-democracy activists. A Hangzhou court sentenced him to three years and six months’ imprisonment for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on February 13, 2026, after he took part in a seaside commemoration of Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo. He pleaded not guilty and was represented by a lawyer of his own choosing. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists him in its 3-years-6-months-sentence band, confirming he remains in custody serving his term as of that date.
The case
On July 13, 2024 — the seventh anniversary of Liu Xiaobo’s death — Zou joined six others at the mouth of the Qiantang River in Haining, Zhejiang Province, to hold a sea memorial ceremony for Liu, posting some photographs of the gathering online. In the early hours of the next day, Hangzhou police took six of the seven from their homes. Five were released after reprimands and written statements, but Zou and independent writer Zan Aizong (昝爱宗) were kept in detention — subjected to forced travel while the Chinese Communist Party’s Third Plenum was about to convene in Beijing, according to 维权网 — and, after returning home, were both formally placed under criminal detention on July 20, 2024 by police in Hangzhou’s Gongshu District on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On August 29, 2024, the Gongshu District authorities approved their formal arrest on the same charge. According to the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the trial opened on September 19, 2025 in Hangzhou, with no verdict pronounced at that hearing; Zou pleaded not guilty and was represented by a lawyer of his own choosing, his mother attended the hearing, and several other supporters were denied entry. At the hearing of February 13, 2026, the court sentenced Zou Wei to three years and six months and Zan Aizong to three years. (维权网 describes the February 13, 2026 proceeding as the trial hearing at which sentences were handed down; this profile follows the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders’ two-hearing account, attributing the sentence facts to both sources.)
Status and evidentiary limits
Zou was held at the Gongshu District Detention Center in Hangzhou (also known as the Banshan Detention Center). On May 14, 2026 he was transferred to the Hangzhou Eastern Suburban Prison to serve his sentence. The stated sentence term runs to July 19, 2027, as reported by 维权网. As of the latest available reporting (August 2026), he remains imprisoned. No release date is published — only the reported sentence term, as attributed. The charge and proceedings are documented only through NGO and monitoring sources: the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders and 维权网. No consular or diplomatic attention and no PRC official-source or state-media coverage were located for this case. Zou’s age, occupation, and family details beyond his mother’s court attendance are not established, and the precise current cell or block and his health status in prison are not reported; none are published here. The “forced travel” account and the Third Plenum timing are attributed to 维权网; “member of the Zhejiang Democracy Party,” the plea, counsel, and courtroom-access details are attributed to the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders; the sentence term end date of July 19, 2027 and the prison transfer are attributed to 维权网. Do-not-merge: 邹巍 is not 邹伟 (different characters — do not conflate with any mainland 邹伟), not 邹家成 or 邹华香 (different people in the same sentence band — bands group by sentence length only), and not his co-defendant 昝爱宗 (Zan Aizong), whose published Person and Media pages (FreeChina.live pages 12914 and 12915) name Zou Wei as co-defendant.
Media Profile & Archive: Zou Wei (邹巍) — Media Profile & Archive