On 8 July 2022, the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate decided to indict and prosecute human rights defender Yang Maodong, who is known by his pen name Guo Feixiong, for “inciting subversion of State power”. The case has now been transferred to the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court, which may decide to accept the indictment and prepare for a trial or send the case back to the procuratorate for supplementary investigation.

On 5 August 2022, the human rights defender’s two lawyers conducted a video call with him. The defender is being accused of inciting subversion by authoring articles which were posted online, setting up a website focusing on constitutional democracy where his own and others’ pro-democracy writings are posted, and giving an interview to the US-based media outlet Radio Free Asia on 27 January 2021 when he was barred from flying to the US to see his dying wife.

According the defender’s family, the prosecutors consider Guo Feixiong’s offences to be “major crimes” under article 105 of the Criminal Law. If convicted, the defender faces a minimum of five years in prison. In a letter to the Chinese government in April 2021, UN human rights experts have criticised the vagueness of the term “major crimes” in article 105, which allows the judiciary to hand down long and harsh sentences.