SAN FRANCISCO (AUGUST 7, 2025) – On August 27, 2024, well-known Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), a permanent resident of the United States, was detained on a family trip to China. He was accused of “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs,” a law that came into effect in 2018. Gao and his brother, Gao Qiang – known collectively as the “Gao Brothers” – had created works mocking China’s leadership in the 1990s to 2009, long before the law against slandering heroes and martyrs came into effect.
At the same time as Gao Zhen was taken into custody, his wife, Zhao Yaliang (赵雅良), and son, Gao Jia (高嘉), were placed under exit bans. Gao Jia is an American citizen, born in the U.S. and living in New York. He has been unable to attend school for a full year. He is seven years old. No charges have been filed against him.
Like Gao Zhen, Zhao Yaliang is a permanent resident of the United States.
Neither the mother nor the son has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. Neither are needed for cooperation with a criminal investigation undertaken by the Chinese authorities.
China’s treatment of Gao Jia is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a party. More generally, exit bans violate the United Nations Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provisions regarding freedom of travel.
The treatment of Gao Jia represents a setback to China’s efforts to reform the country’s juvenile justice system, an effort that Dui Hua has supported with multiple expert exchanges with Chinese judges over the course of many years.
Gao Zhen is expected to be tried and sentenced in the coming weeks. The implications for freedom of expression in China are big. The world will be watching.
Gao Zhen has refused to plead guilty, and, despite the efforts of famed defense lawyer Mo Shaoping, he will likely be given a long sentence. “Charging someone with a crime that was not a crime at the time the alleged offense took place, ” said John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, “is a violation of a fundamental principle of justice, the principle of non-retroactive application of the law.”
“It’s one thing to slap exit bans on adult Americans like bankers or government employees, it’s an entirely different matter to impose an exit ban on a young child,” remarked Kamm. “The Chinese government must stop persecuting the Gao family. It must free Gao Zhen and lift the exit bans on Gao Jia and his mother and allow them to return to the United States.”