Joint Letter Calling for Gao Zhen’s Launch: Upholding Human Rights and Freedom of Expression
We’re writing to specific our deep concern relating to the arrest and detention of Gao Zhen, a outstanding artist within the up to date Chinese language artwork world and a member of the well-known Gao Brothers, the collaborative artist duo.
On Aug. 26, Gao Zhen, 68, was detained whereas touring in China together with his spouse and son. Roughly 30 law enforcement officials carried out a raid on the artist’s studio in Yanjiao, a city within the small metropolis of Sanhe, within the Northern province of Hebei. Cops requested him handy over his cell phone, and when he refused, they handcuffed and arrested him. The police photographed the artworks and confiscated and sealed a number of sculptures from the studio, most of which have been remodeled a decade in the past, earlier than sealing his studio.
The next day, Gao Zhen’s spouse was knowledgeable by the Sanhe Metropolis public safety bureau that he was detained. In line with his brother, Gao Qiang, Gao Zhen’s spouse was warned by police to not communicate to the media about her husband’s detention.
He has since been held on the Sanhe Metropolis Detention Heart on costs of “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs” — against the law punishable by as much as three years in jail. Sanhe Metropolis Procturate has additionally accredited the formal arrest of Gao Zhen, and seized his condo in Jinan, the capital metropolis of Shandong province, in accordance with his brother. Gao’s spouse and their 6-year-old son, a United States citizen, have been additionally barred from leaving China once they tried to return to New York from Beijing. Gao Zhen himself is a US inexperienced card holder.
Because the Nineteen Eighties, the Gao Brothers have been dedicated to exposing the horrors of the Cultural Revolution via satirical humor that pushes the boundaries of social commentary. These works embody “Mao’s Guilt” (2009), depicting Mao on his knees and confessing his sins; “The Execution of Christ” (2009), exhibiting a gaggle of figures within the likeness of Mao pointing weapons at Jesus; and “Miss Mao” (2006), a group of statues of Mao with a female determine and a protruding, Pinocchio-like nostril.
His works are daring critiques of the Cultural Revolution and former Chinese language Communist Social gathering (CCP) chief Mao Zedong and his authoritarian rule of the nation. These are delicate matters thought-about taboo in right now’s CCP-controlled China, however that are extremely essential to educating the world on the reality of Mao’s dictatorial legacy.
HRF and the undersigned organizations under acknowledge that the Gao brothers’ inventive expression challenges the CCP’s revisionist model of historical past, through which Mao is revered as a sanctified nationwide hero, and any views that query or problem his legacy are criminalized underneath the 2018 Heroes and Martyrs Safety Regulation. Furthermore, HRF reaffirms each individual’s proper, underneath the Common Declaration of Human Rights, to freely specific their ideas in any kind.
The modification to the Felony Regulation relating to “infringing on the fame and honor of heroes and martyrs” has turn into a software for silencing the inventive and mental expression of Chinese language artists. Gao Zhen’s arrest for his creation that reminds the general public of the brutal realities of communist dictatorship reveals the CCP’s relentless drive to erase inconvenient truths and preserve an uncontested narrative devoid of accountability to its revisionist telling of historical past. That is one other instance that exposes Beijing’s hypocritical declare of constructing a “group with a shared future for mankind,” signaling a “future” constructed on suppression, coercion, and management slightly than on mutual respect, safety, and the celebration of free expression.
The Human Rights Basis and the undersigned organizations under are gravely involved by the arrest of Gao Zhen and name for his unconditional and fast launch. His detention is not only a violation of his rights however a blatant abuse of energy and an assault on the basic human freedoms of all Chinese language individuals who have the suitable to study the reality about dictator Mao Zedong.
We name for Gao Zhen’s fast and unconditional launch in order that he could reunite together with his household. We additionally demand that the CCP repeal the Heroes and Martyrs Safety Regulation to safeguard inventive freedom in China and stop political censorship from additional stifling inventive expression.
Undersigned (in alphabetical order):
Creative Freedom Initiative
Artists at Threat Connection (ARC)
Artists at Threat
Chinese language Human Rights Defenders
Citizen Energy Initiatives for China
Human Rights Basis
Human Rights in China
Humanitarian China
Index on Censorship
NGO DEI
Author Ma Jian (马建)
