The Chinese government should drop the baseless charges against the artist Gao Zhen (高兟) and allow him and his family to return to the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. Gao's family said the 69-year-old artist, a permanent US resident, is in poor health and had fainted in September 2025.
Chinese authorities are prosecuting Gao for the crime of "slandering China's heroes and martyrs" for sculptures created over a decade ago that portray the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in a provocative manner. The charges violate Gao's fundamental right to freedom of expression, which is protected under international human rights law. If convicted, Gao faces up to three years in prison.
"The Chinese authorities' prosecution of Gao Zhen both violates his basic rights and indicates a step back toward China's painful past," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Critique about Mao's brutal legacy, once tolerated, now seems to be off-limits as President Xi Jinping tightens his ideological control."
Gao was visiting family members in China on August 26, 2024, when police took him into custody in Yanjiao town, Sanhe city, Hebei province. The authorities have since been holding Gao in the Sanhe City Detention Center. The Chinese authorities have barred Gao's wife from leaving the country, where she remains with their seven-year-old son, a US citizen.
Sanhe police took away 118 pieces of artwork, including sculptures, paintings, and photographs, from Gao's studio in China on November 17, 2024, according to Gao Zhen's brother and collaborator, Gao Qiang. The authorities allege that some of the Gao brothers' works, including the "Miss Mao Series," sculptures of Mao with breasts; "The Execution of Christ," depicting a Chinese firing squad aiming at Jesus Christ; and "Mao's Guilt," a sculpture of Mao kneeling on the ground and expressing remorse, "distort and vilify former national leaders."
The crime of "slandering China's heroes and martyrs" was introduced in 2021. Gao created the artwork in question between 2005 and 2009, long before the law came into effect.
Under President Xi, the Chinese government has tightened ideological control and increasingly cracked down on speech deemed "unpatriotic." In 2023, a standup comedian, Li Haoshi (李昊石) made a joke about the People's Liberation Army that led to a political firestorm when the authorities fined the company he worked for 14.7 million yuan (about US$2.1 million) for having slandered "China's heroes and martyrs," though he was not arrested.
The authorities have not yet announced a trial date for Gao, though it is expected to be in the next few months, according to a source knowledgeable about the situation.
Gao's family said that after Gao fainted, a doctor at the detention center said he may have arteriosclerosis, a hardening of the arteries, and that it could be "a precursor to a stroke." Gao also suffers from a chronic back problem and had to sit in a wheelchair in previous meetings with his lawyer. He has been held in a crowded 40-square-meter cell with 14 other detainees. Despite his health problems, the authorities rejected his application for medical bail.
In China, few criminal suspects are given bail while awaiting trial, contrary to international human rights standards. Most suspects awaiting trial are held in overcrowded detention centers, receive poor food and rudimentary health care, and are not allowed to see their families.
Gao Zhen and his brother are originally from Jinan city, Shandong province. During the Cultural Revolution, their father died after being taken into custody for being a "counter-revolutionary." The family was told that he had committed suicide.
The Gao brothers were able to exhibit their work in the 2000s, despite harassment from the authorities. Gao Zhen relocated to the United States in 2022 as he became increasingly concerned over the government's deepening repression.
Following his arrest, 181 artists, writers, activists and scholars from China signed a petition calling for his release. In that letter, they drew parallels between Mao's and Xi's China: "The Gao Brothers' father tragically lost his life during that time, and their family has yet to receive any explanation or justice. Today, the Sanhe Public Security Bureau has labeled Gao Zhen's artistic creations as evidence of a crime, repeating the persecutions of the Cultural Revolution."
Concerned governments should publicly raise Gao Zhen's case with the Chinese government and press for his immediate and unconditional release. The US embassy in Beijing should seek access to Gao and urge the Chinese authorities to allow him to return to the United States.
"Gao Zhen is facing years in prison for holding up a mirror to China's past," Pearson said. "The Chinese government should break away from its abusive past practices, drop the charges against Gao, and immediately release him."
