(Beijing – July 5, 2025) Gao Zhen, a prominent artist and the older brother of the “Gao Brothers,” was criminally detained on August 27, 2024, and later formally arrested. His case has now entered the prosecution stage. As of July 4, Gao has been imprisoned for 311 days. Additionally, his wife and son have been barred from leaving the country and were detained at the border.
Aged 69, Gao Zhen’s arrest prompted a global petition calling for his immediate release, which has garnered nearly 20,000 signatures from writers, artists, and supporters worldwide.
Details of the Arrest and Related Artwork
Gao Zhen is one half of the well-known Gao Brothers art duo. On August 26, 2024, while returning to China to visit family, Gao Zhen, his wife, and son were in his studio in Yanjiao Town, Sanhe City, Hebei Province, when approximately 30 police officers raided it. Authorities photographed his artworks, confiscated and sealed several sculptures (most of which were created over a decade ago), and subsequently sealed off the entire studio, seizing over 100 pieces.
The next day, Sanhe Public Security Bureau notified Gao Zhen’s wife that he had been detained. He was held at the Sanhe City Detention Center on charges of “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs,” a crime that carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
The implicated works reportedly include sculptures created years ago by the Gao Brothers (Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang), such as Execution of Christ, the Miss Mao pieces, and Mao’s Guilt. The Gao Brothers are known for using satire and humor to expose the absurdities of the Cultural Revolution and criticize the authoritarianism of the Mao Zedong regime.
Family Background and Artistic Career
Gao Zhen (born 1956) and his younger brother Gao Qiang (born 1962) are from Jinan, Shandong Province. Their father was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution in 1968, when Gao Zhen was 12 and Gao Qiang was just 6. The family only learned the news of their father’s so-called “suicide” 25 days later, a claim they doubted. The Gao family once traveled to Beijing to petition the central government over the injustice, ultimately receiving only a meager compensation.
Starting from 1985, the Gao Brothers began to collaborate on painting, installation, performance, and photography. Their sculptures and paintings often attract attention for confronting politically sensitive themes.
Political Censorship and Civil Rights
In February 1989, during an art exhibition in Beijing, they by chance signed an open letter from Fang Lizhi to Deng Xiaoping, which led authorities to label them as dissidents and were monitored. From 1989 to 2003, they were banned from leaving the country, a restriction only lifted in 2004.
In recent years, under Xi Jinping’s leadership, the Chinese government has intensified control over dissenting voices and public intellectuals. In April 2018, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed the “Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs,” which holds citizens legally accountable for defaming or insulting the names, portraits, and reputations of heroes and martyrs. This law, effective from May 1, 2018, is the legal basis under which Gao Zhen was arrested.
Gao Zhen and his wife are Chinese citizens; Gao Zhen has also been a U.S. permanent resident since 2011. Due to her association with him, his wife has been barred from leaving China on grounds of “endangering national security,” and their 7-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, has been unable to return to New York for school.
Gao Qiang revealed that Gao Zhen suffers from a chronic recurring lower back condition, which has worsened since his arrest, at times so severe that he requires a wheelchair to meet with his lawyer. Their 7-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, remains unable to return to school in New York, reportedly impacting U.S.-China relations.
In a society increasingly marked by mutual distrust, Gao Zhen once promoted “embrace” as a form of performance art. Now, he himself has been deprived of the opportunity to embrace his own family.
ChinaAid calls on the Chinese government to immediately and unconditionally release Gao Zhen. His arrest for exercising freedom of expression stands in direct contradiction to the Chinese Constitution’s guarantee of citizens’ freedom of speech.
(Reported by Special Correspondent Gao Zhensai of ChinaAid)
