Guo Feixiong and Freedom of Expression in China

Today's hearing will focus on China's detention of writer, activist, and self-trained legal advocate Guo Feixiong. A veteran of China's rights defense movement, Mr. Guo was criminally detained on August 8, 2013; he was not formally arrested until early September 2013. Mr. Guo's detention appears to be a reprisal for his support of government transparency and calls for accountability. In recent months, Beijing has cracked down harshly on dozens of similarly minded advocates seeking political reforms. Mr. Guo is not a newcomer to public advocacy nor to suffering, punishments and sacrifice for his work. A former novelist and businessman, he first became widely known in 2005 for organizing protests of land seizures on the outskirts of Guangzhou. In 2007, a Chinese court sentenced the outspoken Mr. Guo to 5 years' imprisonment on charges of illegal publishing. In late 2011, he was released. Since that time, he has continued to participate in China's rights defense movement, and to express himself freely in the hopes of advancing human rights.