Guo Feixiong, a mainland human rights activist who was sentenced to six years in prison for expressing solidarity with the Southern Weekend newspaper and demanding that officials disclose his assets, has been obstructed by authorities in his bid to leave the country after his release from prison in 2019. Recently, Guo’s wife confirmed that she is seriously ill, prompting him to send a letter to Premier Li Keqiang requesting that authorities order him to return his passport so that he can reunite with his family in the United States.
Guo Feixiong, who has been living in seclusion in China since his release from prison and rarely appears in public, was interviewed by Radio Free Asia by phone on Monday (11). He said he learned a few days ago that his wife, Zhang Qing, was suffering from colon cancer in Maryland and that it had spread, and that she had undergone surgery last Saturday.
Zhang Qing moved to the United States with her children in 2009. Guo believes the couple’s long separation and his wife’s bitterness and depression contributed to her serious illness.
Guo Feixiong: “I went to jail twice for freedom and democracy. She brought up her two children after more than a decade of hardships and hardships outside the country, and she had to struggle alone, encountering all kinds of difficulties that one would not expect. She suffered countless and numerous hardships and appealed everywhere to rescue me. The hardships she suffered caused her great physical trauma and great mental stress. In all conscience, I feel very, very guilty. The other reason for that great physical gravity was the bitterness and chronic depression that led to the development of the worst case scenario underneath the internal organs. If I could visit her for two or three months after I came out last August, this definitely would not have happened.”
Officials had asked Guo Feixiong to never return to China after he left far away
For the past decade or so, Guo Feixiong’s passport has been held by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, and authorities have long made it clear that the major prerequisite for leaving the country is never to return.
Guo Feixiong: “My passport has been stuck in the hands of the State Security Bureau for 15 years since 2006. We have never had the opportunity to leave the country without the permission of the state security. Before I was released from prison, they already said so, and after I got out, they told me face to face that I must not come back if I want to leave the country. I gave up the opportunity to go there to look after my family in order to stay in my own land.”
Guo Feixiong, who has always kept an extremely low profile, took a high profile on Sunday by posting an open letter online to Premier Li Keqiang and Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi, urging the two to order the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau to return the passport.
Guo Feixiong: “The first thing is to ensure that my departure from the country will not be obstructed. I will be able to get a new passport as soon as possible. I also hope that not only I myself will be given the right to travel freely abroad, but I also hope that the Chinese government will reflect on its conscience and change this inhumanity so that all of us Chinese citizens can be guaranteed the basic right to travel freely.”
Kaian, a researcher for the international human rights organization Amnesty International, condemned the authorities’ use of exit restrictions as a means of punishing and threatening dissidents.
“QIAN: “Their aim is also to stop these human rights defenders from defending their rights. Guo Feixiong has actually been very active since more than a decade ago, and has persisted as a human rights activist even after many sentences. The authorities have used many different methods, including sentencing, warning and harassing his family, and so on. This time is no exception, and I hope he will not come back and carry out his activities against the government in the country.”
She is not optimistic that the authorities will break the unspoken rule so that Guo Feixiong can come back after leaving China.
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