According to reports, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities are currently making up excuses to arrest and imprison Attorney Gao Zhisheng. In order to prevent the CCP authorities from carrying out such insane actions, we have established the “Global Federation to Support Gao Zhisheng.” Attorney Gao is wholly dedicated to non-violent forms of pro-democracy movements. Gao is the symbol of human rights in China and he is also China’s conscience. Without fear, he stands united with the people to strengthen justice. Gao uses law to persistently, peacefully, and rationally resist the CCP authorities. To support Gao and protect his and his family’s safety, activities, and freedom of speech are the same as protecting the Chinese people’s basic human rights. This will help China to go from tyrannical dictatorship to democratic rule.
Attorney Gao was once a coal miner and a soldier. He later became an outstanding lawyer through independent studies. In 2001, he was named one of the top ten attorneys in the country. For an extended period of time, attorney Gao defended and provided free legal assistance to those who were persecuted under the CCP’s system. Attorney Gao’s law firm appealed a series of cases with significant impact, including the oil field incident in north Shaanxi Province, the Guangdong Province Taishi village incident, and cases that involved tortured Falun Gong practitioners. Among these cases, the Taishi village incident that exposed corrupted officials is considered a touchstone for China’s democracy. Gao and renowned attorney Guo Feixiong voluntarily provided villagers with legal assistance and risked their own lives to stand firm against the evil forces of the CCP in Guangdong Province.
In recent years, attorney Gao has taken on more and more Falun Gong cases because he was shocked by the severity of the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners that were carried out by the CCP’s machinery. Gao stated clearly in his letter that the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong was “systematic, extensive, and an organized act of brutal violence.” The Chinese people “cannot accept the fact that this type of openly inhumane act of violence is happening in the 21st century and is happening in today’s China in the presence of a government.” He urges Chinese leaders to respect the law and rebuild a new China “on the basis of democracy, law and order, and a constitutional government.”
With extraordinary courage, attorney Gao Zhisheng is challenging the CCP’s despotism, and is trying to get the CCP to obey its own law. He is the symbol for human rights and justice in China. Gao is very clear about the danger he is facing. In his open letter, Gao said, “I will not avoid any of the real problems I saw, even if this means I may be immediately arrested when this letter is publicized.” In his third open letter, Gao wrote, “I hereby warn those who still endorse violence to cease their barbaric acts against those who reveal the truth; you should stop your damage to the Chinese nation, since this is your last chance!”
Attorney Gao’s rightful actions have won more and more people’s support, yet this angered the CCP. It has exerted various pressures and escalated its suppression on Gao. The CCP dispatched national security and public security secret agents to monitor Gao’s every action and every movement. They have repeatedly attempted to stage accidents and tried to frame Gao with money and sex. When Gao was on his way to meet with Manfred Nowak, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, the CCP secrete agents tried to stage a car accident but failed. Despite the danger, every day Gao still continues to work on upholding human rights, receive many people who are making appeals, participate in various human rights activities, and encourage people to continue striving for basic human rights.
Attorney Gao’s family is facing threat and life danger from the CCP all the time. To support and protect Gao is to protect the last conscience of the Chinese people, and to uphold the Chinese people’s right to strive for freedom of speech and freedom of belief. This is also the common wish of Chinese people inside and outside of China and what we should make an effort for.
Hereby, the federation is making the following solemn declarations:
1. We sternly warn the CCP authority not to play with fire, and not to arrest or imprison attorney Gao Zhisheng. If the CCP continues to act willfully, it will certainly meet with intense resistance from the Chinese people and be brought to justice; it will be unanimously condemned by people with a sense of justice around the world; and it will encounter resistance and sanction from democratic governments.
2. We firmly request the Chinese government to respect fundamental human rights, the freedom of speech and the freedom of belief based on its constitution, immediately stop its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and stop its threat to the safety of human rights lawyers.
3. We appeal for nominating attorney Gao Zhisheng for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
4. A copy of this statement will be sent to the Chinese leaders, the United Nations, the United States Congress, the President of the United States, the European Union member countries and other democratic governments and human rights organizations
139 organizations including the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, the Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice, and China Affairs, etc.
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