The Case of Renowned Artist Gao Shen Will Be Tried Behind Closed Doors at Sanhe City Court on March 30, 2026; Authorities Bar Family Members from Attending

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On March 26, 2026, this publication learned that the case of renowned artist Gao Shen will be tried behind closed doors at 9 a.m. on March 30, 2026, at Sanhe City Court, and that the authorities will not allow family members to attend.

On August 26, 2024, renowned artist Gao Shen (the elder brother of the Gao brothers) was criminally detained while returning to China to visit relatives on suspicion of infringing the reputation of heroes and martyrs. He was subsequently formally arrested and prosecuted. On December 14, 2025, a lawyer’s application for bail pending trial in Gao Shen’s case was rejected, and the procuratorate recommended a three-year sentence.

After Gao Shen was arrested, the writer Ma Jian, who lives in the United Kingdom, launched a global petition in support of him, calling on the authorities to release Gao Shen immediately. The petition has received the signatures and support of nearly 200 writers and artists. His wife is still subject to border-control restrictions and, for purported reasons involving “national security,” cannot leave China. Their seven-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, still cannot return to New York to attend school.

Gao Shen biography: Renowned artist and the elder brother of the “Gao brothers.” On August 27, 2024, his family received a detention notice from the Sanhe Public Security Bureau; the charge was suspicion of infringing the reputation of heroes and martyrs. The works allegedly involved are the sculptures Execution of Christ, the Miss Mao series, and Mao Kneeling in Repentance, among others, created many years ago by the Gao brothers (Gao Shen + Gao Qiang). At present, his wife and son have been implicated and are unable to travel abroad.

The Gao brothers—the elder brother Gao Shen was born in 1956, and the younger brother Gao Qiang was born in 1962—and both are from Jinan, Shandong. The Gao brothers are among the most renowned Chinese artists to emerge during China’s reform and opening-up period, and their firm political stance has left its mark on their work.

The Gao family suffered a devastating catastrophe during the Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong. Their father, who came from Jinan, the provincial capital on the Shandong coast, was persecuted to death in 1968, at the height of the “Cultural Revolution”; the two brothers were then only 6 and 12 years old, respectively. It was not until 25 days after Gao’s father died that their mother and six children learned of the news of his purported “suicide,” which they have always viewed with suspicion. Later, the Gao family went to Beijing to protest this injustice to the central government. In the end, all they received was a negligible amount of compensation.

Beginning in 1985, the Gao brothers collaborated in painting, installation, performance, photography and other artistic activities. Their sculptures and paintings in particular often address sensitive political issues. But the Gao brothers have never considered themselves dissidents; they say they are simply expressing their views on society in the course of engaging in art, which may touch on China’s current system.

In February 1989, while participating in an art exhibition in Beijing, the Gao brothers happened to sign Fang Lizhi’s open letter to Deng Xiaoping. As a result, they were treated as dissidents and placed under the authorities’ control. From 1989 to 2003, they were prohibited from traveling abroad and were not freed from that restriction until 2004.

In recent years, the Xi Jinping authorities have continuously tightened controls over the speech of domestic dissidents and public intellectuals. In April 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs, aimed at holding citizens legally responsible for insulting or defaming the names, likenesses and reputations of heroes and martyrs, among other acts; it took effect on May 1 of the same year. Gao Shen was arrested under this charge.

This publication will continue to follow Mr. Gao Shen’s situation.