Guo Feixiong, a leading advocate of China’s civil rights movement, posted an open letter to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi, saying that his wife, Zhang Qing, had just undergone major surgery in the United States and needed urgent care, and that he hoped that Li and Zhao would order the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau to return his passport to him.
In the letter, Guo pointed out that his wife, Zhang Qing, who is currently living in Maryland, just had a major operation yesterday to remove colon cancer with liver metastasis. He said that after his wife came to the United States with their children in 2009, she has been working hard for many years, and the couple has been separated from each other for a long time, and the psychological pain and long-term depression has led to serious illness, making him feel guilty and sad, and he must immediately go to the United States to do his best to take care of his wife.
Guo Feixiong said his passport is currently being held by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, which said last year that he would need the bureau’s approval if he wanted to fulfill his right to freedom of travel abroad. Guo hopes Li Keqiang and Zhao Kezhi will “take the time to fulfill their responsibilities and use their enforcement power in accordance with the principles of heaven and humanity” to help him resolve his difficulties.
He also expressed his hope that Li Keqiang, Zhao Kezhi and all those with a conscience in the Chinese government will do more to promote human rights in China in the new year, so that all citizens’ freedom to travel abroad and other basic freedoms can be effectively protected.
According to public information, Guo Feixiong, formerly known as Yang Maodong, born in 1966 in Gucheng County, Hubei Province, is a well-known independent Chinese writer and a leading figure in the Southern Democracy Movement. He graduated from the Philosophy Department of East China Normal University in Shanghai in 1988, and has been involved in the Chinese democracy movement since 2001, planning, organizing and participating in a series of major events in the history of China’s pro-democracy movement, including the Tai Shi Village strike in Panyu, Guangdong, the Southern Weekend event, and the Eight Cities flash mob, and is one of the key participants and leaders of China’s New Civic Movement and the Southern Democracy Movement, and is known as “the pioneer of the civic movement”.
Since 2005, Guo Feixiong has been imprisoned four times by the authorities and sentenced twice to a total of 11 years in prison.
In June 2009, while he was detained in Meizhou Prison in Guangdong Province, he was ordered by a prison guard (police number 4427328) to beat him up for reporting the death of a Falun Gong practitioner in custody.
When Guo Feixiong’s open letter was issued, many pro-democracy activists expressed their support for Guo Feixiong’s reasonable request for a passport from the public security authorities, while others believed that Guo Feixiong was a “thorn in the side” of the CCP and worried that his wish might not come true. Other netizens reminded Guo Feixiong to pay attention to his safety, saying that the Chinese Communist Party is extremely vicious and they hope he can flee China while paying more attention to his safety.
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