Guo Feixiong (a.k.a. Yang Maodong, born on 2nd August 1966 in Hubei Province), graduated from the Department of Philosophy of East China Normal University in July 1988 and was appointed to work as a lecturer of philosophy in Wuhan City Employee Institute For Medicine (which later became a part of Jianghan University). Here, he participated in the student-led pro-democracy movement in 1989, after which, he moved to Guangdong Province in 1991.

From 1993 to 2001, he ran a publishing firm and made a living as a writer. However, since 2001, he has been involved in the rights defense movement, first becoming the legal assistant of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. In late July 2005, he provided legal consulting services to villagers in Taishi Village of Guangdong Province, who called for an election of village representatives. During this time, he updated his personal blog constantly to tell his readers the progress of the movement and was subsequently detained, followed, harassed and beaten by the police on numerous occasions.

In 2006, he publicly condemned the authorities' crackdowns against Falun Gong members and the lawyer Gao Zhisheng. The authorities then detained him for "illegal business operations", accusing him of illegal publication when he was a bookseller in 2001 - however, the interrogations instead focused on Gao Zhisheng and Taishi Village. On 15 May 2007, the Guangzhou City Procuratorate formally charged Guo Feixiong. On 12 November 2007, the Tianhe District Court of Guangzhou City convicted him of "illegal business operations" and sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of 40,000 yuan. He was sent to Meizhou Prison in Guangdong Province. 

Human rights organisations strongly condemned this conviction, accusing Guangzhou City Procuratorate of political persecution against dissidents under the guise of economic crimes. Guo was released at the end of his sentence on 12 September 2011.

After his release, Guo participated in the New Citizens’ Movement and the Southern Street Movement in 2012 and 2013. In April 2013, citizens raised placards in the streets in eight cities across China, asking the communist party officials to disclose their wealth. Guo Feixiong was viewed as one of the coordinators of the action, and so on 8 August 2013, Guo Feixiong was criminally detained on the charge of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order". His lawyer Chen Guangwu was denied the right to meet his client until 14 November 2013. The two major “accusations” Guo faced were: first, organizing street protests related to the “Southern Weekly” in early 2013; second, the placard action in eight Chinese cities to demand officials disclose their wealth and urge the National People’s Congress to ratify the the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

On 27 November 2015, Guo Feixiong was convicted of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order" and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" by the Tianhe District Court in Guangzhou City, and sentenced to six years in prison. Guo Feixiong issued a statement, stating "the sentence is unjust and illegal. It is a despicable political persecution of me and Sun Desheng [another dissident] by the anti-democratic dark forces in China. We are entirely innocent." Since his release on 7 August 2019, he has been placed under surveillance and taken away by the authorities on numerous occasions.

His wife, Zhang Qing, and two children fled to the United States via Thailand in 2009. They have been calling on China to release Guo Feixiong since then.

His wife, Zhang Qing, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2020.

On 28 January 2021, when Guo Feixiong was about to board a plane to visit Zhang, he was detained at the Shanghai Airport on the grounds of "endangering national security". On 29 November 2021, Guo wrote an open letter to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang demanding freedom of movement so that he could visit his wife, who was critically ill. He received no reply and was detained again a week later. On 10 January 2022, Zhang Qing passed away. The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau formally arrested Guo on 12 January on the charge of "inciting subversion of state power". He has been deprived his right to see a lawyer as the authorities claimed his “crimes” are related to national security, until mid June this year. The case was transferred to the Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court on 8 July.