Guo Quan Explained

Guo Quan
Birth Date:	8 May 1968
Birth Place:	China
Spouse:	Li Jing
Children:	Noah Guo
Criminal Charge:	subversion of state power
Criminal Penalty:	10 years in prison (2009) 4 years in prison (2022)

Guo Quan (; 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.

Legal actions against Yahoo and Google

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:

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.^[5] On 17 Oct 2009, Reuters reported that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.^[6] He has been described as a political prisoner.^{[7] [8]}

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.^[9]

See also

• Jiang Lijun
• Shi Tao
• Wang Xiaoning
• Hanfu

External links

• China New Democracy Party
• Chinese reporter targets Yahoo! from prison cell By Chris Williams, 11 June 2007 theregister.co.uk

Notes and References

1. Web site: Yahoo Sued by Chinese Dissidents Again Date:28 Feb 2008 Businessweek . 18 November 2008 . 4 March 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080304014523/http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2008/gb20080228_068897.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business . dead .
2. Web site: Professor Guo Quan's open letter to Chinese leaders requests democracyDate:30 Nov 2007 . 17 November 2008 . 15 June 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080615180319/http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/professor-guo-quans-open-letter-to-chinese-leaders-requests-democracy/ . live .
3. Web site: China dissident held 'for criticising quake response'Date:21 May 2008By Jonathan Watts of The Guardian . 17 December 2016 . 2 December 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161202020115/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/21/china.chinaearthquake . live .
4. Web site: Dissident Chinese professor to sue Yahoo! and Google for erasing his nameDate:6 Feb 2008Reported by Jane Macartney, of The Times, in Beijing . 17 November 2008 . 7 September 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080907121842/http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3319051.ece . live .
5. China democracy activist Guo Quan detained. Reported by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS|Date:13 Nov 2008|Cnews World watch
6. Web site: Reuters – China jails ex-professor 10 years for subversion . 17 October 2009 . 3 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201003222459/https://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-43225420091017 . live .
7. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Political Prisoner Database:Guo Quan .
8. ChinaAid, Wife, Son of Well-Known Political Prisoner & Christian Guo Quan Arrive in US, 24 January 2012.
9. Web site: Nanjing court hands second subversion sentence to critic of Wuhan pandemic cover-up. Jenny. Tang. Gao. Feng. Radio Free Asia. 21 December 2022. 8 May 2023.