Guo Quan
Born (1968-05-08) 8 May 1968
China China
Criminal chargesubversion of state power
Criminal penalty10 years in prison (2009)
4 years in prison (2022)
SpouseLi Jing
ChildrenNoah Guo

Guo Quan (Chinese: 郭泉; pinyin: Guō Quán; born 1968) is a Chinese human rights activist and a dedicated scholar in philosophy and sociology. He founded the China New Democracy Party. He is a State Owned Enterprise cadre, secretary of the Nanjing Economic Restructuring Commission and Nanjing People's Court cadre.

He received both a PhD in philosophy and a master's degree of Sociology from Nanjing University. From 1999–2001 he was a post-doctorate researcher at Nanjing Normal University.

In 2001 he was a both a professor and a PhD candidate advisor at Nanjing Normal University. He is also a researcher in the Nanjing Massacre Research Center.

In early 2008, Guo Quan, announced plans to sue Yahoo! (Chief Executive Jerry Yang) and Google in the United States for censorship of Chinese material for unjustified reasons.[1]

Open letters to Hu Jintao

  • On 14 November 2007, Professor Guo Quan published an open letter to Chinese communist leaders Hu Jintao and Wu Bangguo, calling for a "democratic government based on multi-party elections that serves the interests of the common folks."[2]

Police harassments and arrests

Guo's very public open letters to President Hu Jintao demanding multi-party elections and the depoliticisation of the People's Liberation Army, were widely published in the internet blogosphere as well as the traditional media. Since then the Chinese cyber-police had begun to black out his blogs.

  • On 21 May 2008 Jonathan Watts of The Guardian reported: Chinese police have detained Guo Quan, a political dissident who criticized the government's handling of the Sichuan earthquake. Guo was seized outside his home by seven or eight police officers on 17 May 2008. They searched his house and confiscated his computer [3]

On 6 Feb 2008 Guo Quan told Jane Macartney, of The Times that the Chinese Yahoo! site had also blocked his name, and as a result was planning on suing Yahoo! as well.[4]

The PEN American Center wrote:

Writer and former professor of literature at Nanjing Normal University, detained November 13, 2008 on “suspicion of subverting state authority.” The reason for his arrest is not yet known, but is believed to be related to his writings. He had been detained for ten days in May 2008 following seven articles he published on mainland Chinese web sites that criticize the government’s emergency response to the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the safety of certain infrastructures.[5]

On 13 Nov 2008 cnews reported that Guo Quan, was arrested Thursday in the city of Nanjing. According to his wife, the police's charge was "subversion of state power". Chinese police routinely uses the charge of "subversion of state power" to imprison dissidents for years.[6] On 17 Oct 2009, Reuters reported that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.[7] He has been described as a political prisoner.[8][9]

On 31 January 2020, Guo was detained by police in Nanjing. On 20 December 2022, he was sentenced to a further four years in jail for "incitement to subvert state power", the charges stemming from his criticism of officials during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Yahoo Sued by Chinese Dissidents Again Date:28 Feb 2008 Businessweek". Archived from the original on 4 March 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  2. ↑ "Professor Guo Quan's open letter to Chinese leaders requests democracy|Date:30 Nov 2007". Archived from the original on 15 June 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
  3. ↑ "China dissident held 'for criticising quake response'|Date:21 May 2008|By Jonathan Watts of The Guardian". Archived from the original on 2 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "Dissident Chinese professor to sue Yahoo! and Google for erasing his name|Date:6 Feb 2008|Reported by Jane Macartney, of The Times, in Beijing". Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
  5. ↑ Pen America Center Archived 12 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ China democracy activist Guo Quan detained. Reported by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS|Date:13 Nov 2008|Cnews World watch
  7. ↑ "Reuters – China jails ex-professor 10 years for subversion". Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
  8. ↑ Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Political Prisoner Database:Guo Quan Archived 16 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ ChinaAid, Wife, Son of Well-Known Political Prisoner & Christian Guo Quan Arrive in US Archived 16 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 24 January 2012.
  10. ↑ Tang, Jenny; Gao, Feng (21 December 2022). "Nanjing court hands second subversion sentence to critic of Wuhan pandemic cover-up". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
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