Chinese artist detained for 'insulting' Mao sculptures

Dissident Chinese artist Gao Zhen has been detained on suspicion of "insulting revolutionary heroes and martyrs," his brother and artistic partner Gao Qiang has said.

The Gao Brothers are known for their provocative sculptures, which critique the founder of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, and his regime.

Gao Zhen left China two years ago to live permanently in the United States, but had been visiting family when he was taken by authorities in Hebei province, his brother said in a post on Facebook.

Chinese authorities have not responded to the allegations by Gao Qiang, who said about 30 police officers stormed the brothers’ art studio in Sanhe City on 26 August.

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Since the 1980s, the brothers have been drawing international acclaim for works such as Mao’s Guilt, a bronze statue of the former Communist dictator kneeling remorsefully.

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Mao Zedong, often called Chairman Mao, helped found Communist China in 1949 and led it through a tumultuous period in the 1960s and 1970s known as the Cultural Revolution, in which more than a million people are believed to have died.

During this period, the Gao Brothers' father was labelled a class enemy and dragged off to a place that was “not a prison, not a police station, but something else”, where he died, Gao Zhen told The New York Times in 2009.

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Spoofing or insulting China's revolutionary "heroes and martyrs" was made a crime in 2021, as part of a newly amended criminal code, under a campaign by China’s leader, Xi Jinping. It carries a penalty of up to three years' imprisonment.