Guo Quan (; born 1968) is a Chinese human rights activist, former judge, and a dedicated scholar in philosophy and sociology. He is the founder of the China New Democracy Party, a State-Owned Enterprise cadre, secretary of the Nanjing Economic Restructuring Commission, and Nanjing People's Court cadre. He received a PhD in philosophy and a master's degree in sociology from Nanjing University. From 1999 to 2001, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Nanjing Normal University. In 2001, he was a professor and an advisor to PhD candidates at Nanjing Normal University. He is a researcher at the Nanjing Massacre Search Center.
According to the published constitution of the New Democracy Party of China, the party has 10 million claimed members. Guo claimed that the majority of the New Democracy Party's members are petitioners, with 40 million currently nationwide. He claimed that over 10 million of them have contacted him over the years, representing the first wave of the New Democracy Party.
In early 2008, Guo Quan announced plans to sue Yahoo! (Chief Executive Jerry Yang) and Google in the United States for the censorship of Chinese material for unjustified reasons.
Guo's very public open letters to President Hu Jintao demanding multi-party elections and the depoliticisation of the People's Liberation Army were widely published on the internet and traditional media. Evidently, the Chinese cyber-police began blacking out his blogs.
On 6 February 2008, Guo Quan told Jane Macartney, of The Times, that the Chinese Yahoo! site had blocked his name, prompting his decision to sue Yahoo!
The PEN American Center wrote:
On 13 November 2008, CNews reported that Guo Quan was arrested on Thursday in Nanjing. According to his wife, he was charged with "subversion of state power". Chinese police routinely use the charge of "subversion of state power" to imprison dissidents for years. Based on information obtained by The International Secretariat of MCT SOS-Torture Network, the police reportedly searched Guo's home and confiscated a number of articles. Specific information regarding his detentions also remained unclear.
Guo recently organized the China Xinmin Party, one he established in December 2007, concurrently publishing several articles in criticism of the Nanjing government over its construction of a paraxylene plant in the city. From 17 to 28 May 2008, he was subject to "detention for violation of public order," an administrative punishment practice conducted by the Nanjing police, for reportedly discussing the China Xinmin Party's response to the 12 May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Guo's activism reportedly resulted in him being barred from teaching.
On 17 October 2009, Reuters reported that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He has been described as a political prisoner.
On 31 January 2020, Guo was detained by police in Nanjing. On 20 December 2022, he was sentenced to a further four years in jail for "incitement to subvert state power", the charges stemming from his criticism of officials during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On January 30, 2024, Guo Quan was released from prison after serving his sentence. (https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202402010364.aspx)