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Gao Zhen, a 69-year-old artist and permanent US resident, recently faced a secretive trial in China on charges of \u201cinsulting revolutionary heroes and martyrs.\u201d As detailed by BBC<\/a> and Human Rights Watch<\/a>, the charges stem from sculptures he created over 15 years ago. Gao, who relocated to the United States in 2022, was arrested at his Beijing studio in mid-2024 while visiting with his family.<\/p>\n The trial received limited coverage inside China, with some local media describing him as a \u201cso-called \u2018artist\u2019 who caters to Western political agendas through pseudo-art that vilifies and insults revered figures.\u201d Gao\u2019s brother and longtime collaborator, Gao Qiang, told the BBC that the trial\u2019s message is unmistakable: \u201cEven if a work was made 15 years ago, it can still be turned into a crime if today\u2019s political climate changes.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades, Gao Zhen and Gao Qiang, known collectively as the Gao brothers, built a global reputation through contemporary artworks that frequently challenged China\u2019s authoritarian past and present. Their work often features Mao Zedong, the founder of the People\u2019s Republic of China, whose rule oversaw some of the most traumatic episodes in the country\u2019s modern history.<\/p>\n The prosecution is being called vindictive and legally baseless <\/p>\n Among their most provocative pieces is \u201cThe Execution of Christ,\u201d exhibited in 2009, which depicts Jesus Christ at gunpoint surrounded by rifle-wielding figures resembling Mao Zedong. \u201cMao\u2019s Guilt,\u201d also from 2009, is a life-sized replica of the former leader kneeling in contrition. Their \u201cMiss Mao Series\u201d featured sculptures of him with breasts and a Pinocchio nose. These works, created between 2005 and 2009, have now cost Gao Zhen his freedom.<\/p>\n The charges are particularly troubling because the law under which he is being prosecuted was only introduced in 2021, meaning the artwork in question predates it by over a decade. Debates over the retroactive use of law to punish past conduct have also surfaced elsewhere, including in the US Justice Department\u2019s move to erase Jan. 6 convictions<\/a>. Human Rights Watch has publicly called on China to drop what it describes as \u201cbaseless charges,\u201d stating that the prosecution violates Gao\u2019s fundamental right to freedom of expression. Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, noted that critique of Mao\u2019s legacy, once tolerated, now appears off-limits as President Xi Jinping tightens ideological control.<\/p>\n Mao Zedong remains a complicated figure within China\u2019s state narrative. He founded Communist China in 1949 and presided over a period that included a famine killing tens of millions and the Cultural Revolution, a violent purge of perceived enemies of the state. The Gao brothers\u2019 own father was labeled a class enemy during that period, taken into custody, and later reported to have died by suicide. To challenge Mao\u2019s legacy, in the eyes of the state, is to challenge the legitimacy of the CCP itself.<\/p>\n The space for creative expression in China has contracted significantly since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012. In 2023, standup comedian Li Haoshi faced a political firestorm after making a joke about the People\u2019s Liberation Army, resulting in his employer being fined 14.7 million yuan, roughly $2.1 million. Other prominent figures including artist Ai Weiwei and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo have also faced severe repercussions for challenging state narratives.<\/p>\n Gao Zhen\u2019s arrest in mid-2024 was followed by authorities seizing 118 pieces of artwork from his studio on November 17, 2024. His wife and seven-year-old son, a US citizen, have both been barred from leaving the country. There are also significant concerns about Gao\u2019s health: the 69-year-old suffers from chronic lumbar spine disease, arthritis, eye problems, and chronic urticaria. He has met his lawyer in a wheelchair on multiple occasions, has shown signs of malnutrition, and fainted in September 2025. A doctor at the detention center suggested he may have arteriosclerosis, potentially a precursor to a stroke, yet repeated applications for medical bail have been denied.<\/p>\n China-watchers say the case reflects a CCP that is policing its citizens both transnationally and retroactively. Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, described this as \u201cprobably the darkest period of time in decades\u201d for freedom of expression under the CCP, surpassing even the crackdown that followed Tiananmen in 1989. Sophie Richardson of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders noted that authorities are \u201cextending that reach beyond physical borders\u201d through exit bans and pressure on foreign art institutions, a tactic that draws comparisons to government surveillance of activists<\/a> seen in other contexts as well.<\/p>\n The secrecy surrounding the trial, which was closed to family members, the public, and foreign diplomats, is typically reserved for national security cases. Gao Qiang argued that the closed proceedings reveal the prosecution\u2019s weakness: \u201cIf exposed to public view, the legal weakness, political vindictiveness, and symbolic nature of the prosecution would become impossible to hide.\u201d Melbourne-based cartoonist Badiucao, known for his critiques of Beijing, said he no longer feels safe and believes the Chinese government \u201cdo not care about international reputation anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n The United Nations human rights office, Human Rights Watch, and 181 artists, writers, activists, and scholars have all called for Gao Zhen\u2019s immediate release. Gao Qiang warned that if his brother\u2019s prosecution goes unanswered, it will send a message \u201cthat a state may retroactively redefine the meaning of art and turn satire, reflection, and memory themselves into crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n