Beijing’s Bureau of Justice ordered Gao Zhisheng to come to its 404 Office for a conversation at 10 am on February 23. This is the first official “invitation” Gao Zhisheng has received since he sent three open letters to appeal for Falun Gong, which subsequently led to the forceful closedown of his law firm. Mr. Gao said, for this type of so-called conversation, “Anything could happen. Both Attorney Zheng Enchong and Guo Guoting were arrested after they were summoned for a conversation by the Bureau of Justice.”
Given the Chinese authority’s long-standing suppression and persecution of people who dare to speak up, given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s use of violent and base means to illegally monitor and arrest civil rights activists and hunger strike participants such as Gao Zhisheng, Hu Jia and Qi Zhiyong, we strongly urge people and organizations from both China and overseas to pay careful attention to what will happen in the next few hours. In the mean time, we ask you to take action in support of Gao Zhisheng:
1. Make phone calls of query to Beijing Bureau of Justice and Beijing Lawyers Association, expressing our concern for Mr. Gao and the result following his conversation in the Bureau. We cannot sit around and wait for Mr. Gao to be further persecuted.
2. We urge overseas media to conduct around the clock follow-up report and let the main media of all countries know what is happening in China, raising their concerns.
3. We ask concerned people from overseas to do all you can to notify different governments, human rights organizations, congresspeople and VIPs of various circles, seeking their help and support.
4. We ask all overseas organizations to unite our efforts, go to the consulates and government buildings of different countries, telling them the current situation of the Chinese people, and letting them hear our strong voice opposing the CCP’s use of any excuse to arrest Gao Zhisheng. We strongly protest the CCP’s act of severing outside communications of human rights activists, and , through participation in the Global Relay Hunger Strike, we use our physical bodies to protest the CCP’s violent control.
5. All overseas Chinese, please use your phones, fax machines, mail, short messages, flyers, hands and word of mouth to tell every Chinese person throughout the worldabout the persecution that is happening in China. Let us expose the CCP’s evil nature, which is the source of the persecution. The freedom of the Chinese people relies on us, and our dignity of life depends on ourselves to uphold.
These are the united appeals by hunger strike teams from four continents.
Europe Hunger Strike Team
North America Hunger Strike Team
Asian-Pacific Hunger Strike Team
Australia Hunger Strike Team
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