Guo Quan ( zh, c=郭泉, p=Guō Quán; born 1968) is a Chinese

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

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 Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The univers ...

. From 1999 to 2001 he was a post-doctorate researcher at

Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University (NJNU; zh, p=Nánjīng Shīfàn Dàxué, c=, s=南京师范大学) is a provincial public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated with the Province of Jiangsu, and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Educati ...

. 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 The Nanjing Massacre, or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly Chinese postal romanization, romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and surrendered prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanji ...

Research Center.

Legal actions against Yahoo and Google

In early 2008, Guo Quan, announced plans to sue

Yahoo Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...

! (Chief Executive Jerry Yang) and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

in the United States for censorship of Chinese material for unjustified reasons.

Open letters to Hu Jintao

*On 14 November 2007, Professor Guo Quan published an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

to Chinese communist leaders

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the president of China from 2003 to 2013, and chairman of the Central Military Comm ...

and

Wu Bangguo Wu Bangguo (22 July 1941 – 8 October 2024) was a Chinese politician who served as the second-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 2002 to 2012, and as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the ...

, calling for a "democratic government based on multi-party elections that serves the interests of the common folks."

Police harassments and arrests

Guo's very public open letters to President

demanding multi-party elections and the depoliticisation of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

, 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

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 On 6 February 2008 Guo Quan told Jane Macartney, of

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

that the Chinese

! site had also blocked his name, and as a result was planning on suing Yahoo! as well. The PEN American Center wrote: On 13 November 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. On 17 October 2009, Reuters reported that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He has been described as a political prisoner. 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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

References

External links

China New Democracy PartyChinese reporter targets Yahoo! from prison cell By Chris Williams, 11 June 2007 theregister.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guo, Quan 1968 births Living people Chinese dissidents Chinese democracy activists Chinese human rights activists Prisoners and detainees of China Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China

Legal actions against Yahoo and Google

Open letters to Hu Jintao

Police harassments and arrests

See also

References

External links