Guo Quan (; born 1968) is a Chinese

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist. He founded the

China New Democracy Party The New Democracy Party of China (NDPC; ) is a political party that started in the People's Republic of China, and is banned by the Chinese government.Gittings, John. ''The Changing Face of China: From Mao to Market''. (2005). Oxford University Pre ...

. He is a State Owned Enterprise cadre, secretary of the Nanjing Economic Restructuring Commission and Nanjing People's Court cadre. In 1996 he earned a master's degree from

Nanjing University Nanjing University (NJU; ) is a national public research university in Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is a member of C9 League and a Class A Double First Class University designated by the Chinese central government. NJU has two main campuses: the Xian ...

's Sociology Department. In 1999 he received a PhD in philosophy from Nanjing University. From 1999–2001 he was a post-doctorate researcher at

Nanjing Normal University Nanjing Normal University (NNU or NJNU; ) is a public research university in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1902 as Sanjiang Normal School, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher normal schools in China, and has become a research-intens ...

. In 2001 he was retained as a professor and PhD candidate advisor at Nanjing Normal University. He is also a researcher in the

Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...

Research Center.

Legal actions against Yahoo and Google

In early 2008, Guo Quan, announced plans to sue

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

! (Chief Executive Jerry Yang) and

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

in the United States for having blocked his name from search results in China.

Open letters to Hu Jintao

*On 14 November 2007, Professor Guo Quan published an

open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...

to Chinese communist leaders Hu Jintao and Wu Bangguo, calling for a "democratic government based on multi-party elections that serves the interests of the common folks."

Police harassments and arrests

Guo's very public open letters to President Hu Jintao demanding multi-party elections and the depoliticisation of the People's Liberation Army, was widely published in the internet blogosphere as well as the tradition media. Since then the Chinese cyber-police had begun to black out his blogs. *On 21 May 2008 Jonathan Watts of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

reported: Chinese police have detained Guo Quan, a political dissident who criticized the government's handling of the Sichuan earthquake. Guo was seized outside his home by seven or eight police officers on 17 May 2008. They searched his house and confiscated his computer On 6 Feb 2008 Guo Quan told Jane Macartney, of

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

that the Chinese

! site had also blocked his name, and as a result was planning on suing Yahoo! as well. The

PEN American Center PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of liter ...

wrote: On 13 Nov 2008 cnews reported that Guo Quan, was arrested Thursday in the city of Nanjing. According to his wife, the police's charge was "subversion of state power". Chinese police routinely uses the charge of "subversion of state power" to imprison dissidents for years. On 17 Oct 2009, Reuters reported that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He has been described as a political prisoner.ChinaAid
Wife, Son of Well-Known Political Prisoner & Christian Guo Quan Arrive in US
, 24 January 2012.

References

External links

China New Democracy PartyChinese reporter targets Yahoo! from prison cell By Chris Williams, 11 June 2007 theregister.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guo, Quan 1968 births Living people Chinese dissidents Chinese democracy activists Chinese human rights activists Prisoners and detainees of China Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China

Legal actions against Yahoo and Google

Open letters to Hu Jintao

Police harassments and arrests

See also

References

External links