Famous human rights defender Guo Feixiong (formerly Yang Maodong), sentenced to 8 years, spends his 60th birthday in prison

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On August 2, 2026, this outlet learned: today, August 2, is the 60th birthday of human rights activist and renowned human rights defender Guo Feixiong, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Mr. Guo Feixiong has been imprisoned three times for his human rights work, with prison terms totalling 19 years; Guo Feixiong was previously sentenced twice to a total of 11 years, and on May 11, 2023, he was again sentenced to 8 years for the crime of inciting subversion of state power. He previously staged a sustained hunger strike in prison, and his weight at one point fell to 41.5 kilograms.

Profile of Yang Maodong: Pen name Guo Feixiong, born on August 2, 1966, a native of Gucheng County, Hubei Province; lawyer, independent writer, participant in the New Citizens Movement and the Southern Street Movement, renowned human rights activist, and Chinese political prisoner currently in detention.

In April 2005, he was criminally detained by Beijing police for 15 days after applying to hold a May Fourth protest march opposing the Japanese right wing, on suspicion of “gathering to disrupt social order”; in July of the same year, because he participated in civil rights-defense work in Nanhai, Foshan, Panyu and other areas of Guangdong Province—particularly his participation in the Taishi Village recall incident, provision of legal aid, and publication on his personal website of updates for netizens on developments in the Taishi Village incident—he was criminally detained by police in Panyu City, Guangzhou, on September 13, and was not approved for release until December 27; in August 2006, Gao Zhisheng was arrested for initiating a relay hunger strike, and Guo Feixiong launched efforts to rescue him. Guo was immediately criminally detained by Guangdong police for “the crime of illegal business operations” and subjected to extorted confessions through torture, including “beating his sexual reproductive organs with electric batons”; on May 15, 2007, he was formally indicted by the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate; on November 12 of the same year, he was sentenced by the Tianhe District Court of Guangzhou to five years’ imprisonment for “the crime of illegal business operations” and fined 40,000 yuan.

In 2013, because he participated in organising the January 7–9 protest by workers of Southern Weekly outside the Southern Media Group office building, supporting their protest against the altered New Year’s editorial, and because in April 2013 he actively organised and promoted street sign-holding activities in eight cities urging the National People’s Congress to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the authorities regarded him as one of the organisers and coordinators of the activities. On August 8, 2013, he was again taken away and criminally detained by police in Guangzhou’s Tianhe District; on September 11 of the same year, he was formally arrested and held at the Tianhe District Detention Center in Guangzhou; on November 27, 2015, he was harshly sentenced by the Tianhe District Court of Guangzhou to six years for “the crime of gathering to disrupt public-place order” and “the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” The original verdict was upheld on appeal, after which he served his sentence at Yangchun Prison and Yingde Prison in Guangdong Province; on August 7, 2019, he was released after completing his sentence.

In February 2021, because his wife, Zhang Qing, who had been living in exile in the United States for a long time, was suffering from intestinal cancer and was critically ill, he intended to travel to the United States to care for her, but unexpectedly was intercepted and cut off from contact by Guangzhou police when passing through immigration at Guangzhou International Airport; after his release, when he again travelled to the United States in December of the same year, he was detained and cut off from contact at Guangzhou International Airport by Guangzhou police on the grounds of “endangering national security”; his wife Zhang Qing, who was suffering from terminal cancer, ultimately waited in vain to see her husband again and died in the early hours of January 10, 2022, U.S. Eastern Time, leaving behind a son and a daughter.

On January 12, 2022, he was formally arrested by the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate on suspicion of “the crime of inciting subversion of state power”; on May 11, 2023, his trial was held at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, which announced its verdict in court. Guo Feixiong was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and three years’ deprivation of political rights. Dissatisfied with the verdict, he appealed. On June 26, 2023, his appeal was rejected and the original verdict upheld. Guo Feixiong had previously been detained at the Guangzhou No. 3 Detention Center. He was later transferred to Zhaoqing Prison in Guangdong Province. Address: Prison Administration Section, Zhaoqing Prison, No. 1 Wentang Road, Chengbei Community, Chengzhong Subdistrict, Sihui City, Guangdong Province, to be received by Yang Maodong. Postal code: 526200; telephone: 0758-3173339. His health deteriorated in prison.

This outlet will continue to follow Mr. Guo Feixiong’s situation.