Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demands the release of Chinese political commentator Guo Feixiong, who was recently given an eight-year jail term after serving more than twelve years in the past.
Yang Maodong, a Chinese political analyst and human rights attorney best known by his pen name Guo Feixiong, was found guilty of “incitement to subvert state power” and sentenced to eight years in jail by a Guangzhou (southern China) court on May 11, 2023. Guo, 56, was covertly detained on 5 December 2021, and two days after his wife passed away from sickness, he was formally brought into jail on 12 January 2022.
Guo was found guilty by the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court for posting articles on his website that were critical of the Chinese government. Diplomats from the US, UK, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands were allegedly prohibited from attending the trial, according to a Reuters media report.
The Chinese government has shown its intention to suppress one of China’s most outspoken advocates for press freedom by once again handing down a lengthy jail sentence to Guo Feixiong. We urge the international community to exert more pressure on the Beijing dictatorship in order to achieve Guo’s release along with that of all other arrested journalists and supporters of press freedom in China. Guo Feixiong was previously detained in 2006–2011 for alleged “illegal business activity” after the publication of a book in which he examined government corruption, and in 2013–2019 for “gathering crowds to disturb social order” after he delivered a speech in favor of press freedom at a local newspaper’s anti–censorship protest. Guo experienced mistreatment while incarcerated, which included electric shocks.
Recently, Chinese authorities have intensified their campaign against political critics. Xu Zhiyong was given a 14-year jail term in April 2023 for writing an opinion article that was critical of the government. Ruan Xiaohuan, a blogger better known by the online alias “Program Think,” had already received a 7-year jail term two months before for “inciting subversion of state power.”
China is the world’s biggest host of journalists, holding at least 114 of them at this time, and is ranked 179th out of 180 countries in the 2023 RSF World Press Freedom Index.
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