Gao Yu

Gao Yu (February 3, 1944 -) was born in Chongqing. His ancestral home is Gaozhuang Village, Jiaoyuan Township, Changyuan County, Henan Province (now part of Dongming County, Heze City, Shandong Province). He is a journalist, newspaper and online columnist. He graduated from the Department of Language and Literature of Renmin University of China with a major in literary theory. He once worked at China News Service and served as the deputy editor-in-chief of Economic Weekly in 1989. The newspaper was soon suspended and he was arrested on June 3 of the same year. Released on August 28, 1990. On October 2, 1993, he was arrested again. On November 9, 1994, he was sentenced by the Beijing Intermediate People's Court to six years in prison for "revealing state secrets", deprived of political rights for one year, and confiscated his "illegal money" of RMB 800. He was released on February 15, 1999 on medical parole. Arrested again on April 24, 2014. On April 17, 2015, he was sentenced to 7 years in prison. On November 26 of the same year, the Beijing Higher People's Court changed the 7-year sentence of the first-instance verdict to 5 years in the second instance, and the period of deprivation of his political rights was still one year. After Gao Yu's application, and based on the hospital certification documents, the court decided to grant Gao Yu supervised release because Gao Yu suffered from serious illness.