Guo Quan
Detained: November 13, 2008.
Charges: Subversion of state power.
Sentence: Ten years in prison.
Biography: Guo Quan is a former professor who has been in prison since 2008 under a ten-year sentence for calling for political reform. In 2008, Guo played a leading role in a campaign to protect the rights of demobilized military officers. He also published criticism about the government's response to the Sichuan earthquake and exposed international human rights violations committed by the Party. He wrote letters to the government throughout 2007 calling for reforms and in December 2007, he announced that China People's Livelihood Party, an opposition party established by Guo, was renamed as the "New People's Party of China." On December 6, 2007, Quan was stripped of his associate professorship at Nanjing Normal University and relocated to the university library to serve as a data management officer.
On November 13, 2008, he was taken into custody by Nanjing police, who also raided his home, where Guo and his wife hosted regular Protestant "house church" activities. His family was informed that he was being criminally detained on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power." On June 10, 2009, Guo's case was recorded on the docket of the Suqian Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu province, and his trial was held on August 7, 2009. On October 16, 2009, the court convicted Guo of "subversion of state power" and sentenced him to a ten-year prison term. Guo's wife and son fled to the United Sates on January 23, 2012, where they are appealing for international help in winning his early release.
Guo Quan was RELEASED on November 12, 2018 upon the completion of his sentence.
Advocate: Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX, Ret.)
Updates:
- Guo Quan has been released at the end of his 10-year jail term. (November 14, 2018, Radio Free Asia)