Zhou Guoqiang (pen name A Qü Qiangba), editor of Today during the Democracy Wall era, former legal adviser to the Beijing “Workers’ Autonomous Federation,” and Beijing poet, has been released after his arrest
(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On September 13, 2026, this outlet learned that Zhou Guoqiang (pen name A Qü Qiangba), editor of Today during the Democracy Wall era, former legal adviser to the Beijing “Workers’ Autonomous Federation,” and Beijing poet, who had been arrested, has been released. The specific length of his prison sentence is not yet known.
Zhou Guoqiang was criminally detained by Beijing police on October 14, 2023, for commenting on the assassination of an Israeli diplomat, and was formally arrested after being detained for one month. It was recently learned that he has completed his sentence and been released.
Zhou Guoqiang: Pen name A Qü Qiangba. Beijing poet, editor of Today during the Democracy Wall era, and former legal adviser to the Beijing “Workers’ Autonomous Federation.” In 1989, he was imprisoned for seven months for organizing a strike; in 1994, he was sentenced to three years of reeducation through labor for engaging in labor-movement propaganda activities, and after an unsuccessful escape attempt the following year, an additional year was added to his sentence; he was released from prison in 1998.
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