Dissident Guo Feixiong goes missing at Shanghai airport
He wanted to join his sick wife in the US, but was taken away by the police. He is accused of endangering national security. As a student, Guo participated in the Tiananmen protests. During his imprisonment he was subjected to torture. Human rights lawyers are targeted by China’s regime.
Shanghai (AsiaNews) – Renowned human rights lawyer Guo Feixiong went missing on 28 January when security officials at Shanghai Pudong International Airport prevented him from boarding a plane, his sister Yang Mouping said.
Guo was on his way to the United States where his wife is critically ill with cancer. Guo’s wife, Zhang Qing, has had colon surgery and is now undergoing chemotherapy.
To protest the travel ban, Guo went on a hunger strike, and now faces charges of endangering national security.
He has been fighting for human rights in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, when China’s ruling regime massacred thousands of students demanding freedom and democracy.
First arrested in 2006, Guo spent 11 years in prison since then. In 2013 the authorities jailed him for asking the government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In December 2015, he issued a prophetic statement against the Chinese Communist Party. “Our movement for freedom and democracy will only grow stronger in the crucible of your repression.” This will speed up the fall of the regime.
The dissident was released from prison in August 2019, but placed under permanent police surveillance.
To escape persecution, Guo's wife moved to the United States with their two children in 2008. She had repeatedly denounced the tortures inflicted on her husband in prison: Chained hands and feet to the bed for days, he was subjected to electric shocks to the genitals and sleep deprivation.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities continue their relentless crackdown against dissidents. Yesterday, lawyer Ren Quanniu lost his licence to practise.
Together with colleague Lu Siwei, who also lost his licence, Ren represented some of the 12 Hong Kong pro-democracy activists arrested in Guangdong in August 2020.
Henan authorities justified their action claiming that Ren had repeatedly refused to describe the Falun Gong movement as an "evil cult”, which is how it is officially designated by the Chinese government.
In 2018, he represented some members of the movement, which is banned in China.
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