Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s intransigence has gained a bitter victory: He has forced China’s communist regime to resort to open injustice in order to silence him. Now the United States is challenged to form a policy toward the Chinese regime worthy of the suffering and courage of Gao and the Chinese people.
The regime prefers to subdue high-profile dissidents under the color of law, but that pretense has in Gao’s case now been stretched beyond all limits of credibility.
The regime recently announced that Gao will serve the three-year prison term to which he was first sentenced in a show trial in December 2006. That sentence was originally suspended, with Gao put on five years probation. The sentence is now being enforced on the grounds that Gao is said to have violated the terms of his probation.
Since 2006, Gao has been abducted and detained repeatedly, suffering severe torture. Most recently, Gao was abducted in April 2010 and held since then in an unknown location.
With Gao having been held by the regime for the past 20 months, how could he have violated the conditions of his probation? The prison sentence is the latest move by the CCP in its ongoing contest of wills with Gao.
Had Gao yielded to the CCP, his silence or even publicly expressed repentance would have testified to the effectiveness of the CCP’s terror. His presence would be a warning to all others who might consider defying the Party.
That the CCP has not released Gao, can only mean that Gao has stuck stubbornly to his original beliefs. Releasing an unrepentant Gao would have amounted to an admission of defeat by the Party before the strength of one man’s conscience.
Moreover, in the eyes of the CCP leadership, his release would have been tantamount to a confession that the persecution of Falun Gong was wrong. The CCP must continue to jail Gao in order to avoid admitting responsibility for its crimes.
The new sentence given Gao has been strongly condemned. U.S. State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the United States is “deeply disappointed” by the news and urged Gao be released immediately.
Deputy Asia-Pacific Director of Amnesty International Catherine Baber said, “There is nothing lawful about the way the authorities have handled Gao Zhisheng’s case… The international community must not let up in their condemnation of this travesty of justice.”
European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called for Gao’s “immediate release and for information about his well-being and location.”
Relations with China
This criticism of the CCP’s abuse of Gao is part of the West’s long-standing, principled defense of democracy, freedom, and human rights.
In 1977, President Carter said in his inaugural address, “The passion for freedom is on the rise. Tapping this new spirit, there can be no nobler nor more ambitious task for America to undertake on this day of a new beginning than to help shape a just and peaceful world that is truly humane.”
In December, 1978, commemorating the 30-year anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, Carter said, “Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.”
This concern for human rights is rooted in the American founding—a founding dedicated in the words of Declaration of Independence to the “self-evident truths” that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
After the United States established formal diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979, there existed many fundamental differences, but there were also mutual interests, which made cooperation between the two nations possible. However, human rights have always been a central topic in U.S-China relations.
During the Carter and Reagan eras, there was the defection of the tennis player Hu Na, population polices, Tibet, and other human rights issues.
The Tiananmen Square massacre occurred on the watch of Bush the elder, whose administration led Western countries in imposing political and economic sanctions against communist China.
During the early years of the Clinton administration, human rights and the economy were linked. Later, due to influence of large corporations, human rights and the economy became decoupled, and the United States lost an important bargaining chip for handling human rights issues.
While the younger Bush made important public statements criticizing the Chinese regime’s human rights record, his administration continued the U.S. focus on economic engagement with China and also made a priority of the war against terrorism.
Like George W. Bush, President Obama has talked tough about human rights, but the CCP has not responded to strong words. In the last several years, the CCP has intensified its suppression of dissidents of all kinds.
American Renewal
At the recent APEC meeting, President Obama announced that the United States was returning to Asia, and the United States has taken the lead in multilateral initiatives to restrain the CCP’s influence.
These initiatives will be most effective if they express what Jimmy Carter called the “soul” of America’s foreign policy.
The CCP persecutes those Chinese people with conscience. These are the hope for China’s future, those who will move China toward a humane polity that will no longer threaten the world’s peace and stability.
By supporting with concrete actions those whom the Chinese regime suppresses, America will strengthen itself by remaining true to itself.
At the same time, such a policy would provide real protection for U.S. national interests. It would give nations in East Asia a clear choice between the Chinese regime and the United States, between tyranny and freedom.
By helping China’s dissidents, the United States will help those who seek for China a future that is harmonious with the universal principles America is based on. America will be supporting those who are its true friends and in doing so win the friendship of the Chinese people.
As the new year approaches, the United States has an opportunity for a renewal of its approach to China. The individual who has most boldly criticized the Chinese regime’s violations of basic human rights is Gao Zhisheng. Let an American foreign policy based on the principles and true interests of the United States begin by rescuing Gao.
Read the original Chinese article.
ChinaReports@epochtimes.com
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
