WASHINGTON—The Chinese regime has been notorious for using detention to stifle dissent and advance the state’s agenda. Over the last two years, these abuses have worsened, with more detentions and longer sentences being meted out.
Testimony before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) discussed both high profile cases of dissenters being imprisoned and lesser known cases of persons not particularly critical of the regime—such as a Uyghur journalist and a geologist who happens to be a U.S. citizen employed by a U.S. company.
“What is the trend towards the greater imprisonment of people for exercising their right of free speech?” asked Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who chaired the hearing held on Aug. 3 on Capitol Hill. He expressed concern for those sending an “innocent e-mail” through the Internet being arrested and put “in some dark cell for 10 or 20 years.”
Sen. Dorgan said he was concerned secondly for the lawyers and human rights defenders inside China whom the regime is clamping down on for defending “house church people, AIDS activists, Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, and Tibetans.”
Dissidents Jailed
Sen. Dorgan expressed particular indignation at the way the regime has handled Gao Zhisheng, saying it was perhaps the “most outrageous” and “cruel” example of physical and psychological abuse of one of China’s greatest human rights lawyers.
