WASHINGTON-- As President Obama was welcoming Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping to the White House on Feb. 14, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) was holding a hearing on imprisoned human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has become a cause célèbre for human rights. The Commission heard testimony from two wives—Geng He, wife of disappeared Gao, and Li Jing, wife of imprisoned democracy advocate Guo Quan. Both are seeking United States support in the release of their jailed husbands.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Chairman of CECC, said, “I hope that President Obama doesn’t put human rights last on the agenda—or not at all—as he did when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the White House on January 19th, 2011.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Co-chairman, also noted the high levels meetings in town: “As Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping attends meetings just minutes away with our top officials, we are reminded that the real China is represented by the brave individual whose fate remains a mystery and who is the focus of today’s hearing.”
Sen. Brown was referring to Gao Zhisheng.
Guo Quan
Guo Quan was a professor at Nanjing Normal University, who published an open letter to President Hu calling for multiparty elections. He wrote public letters to top government leaders defending the rights of workers laid off, demobilized soldiers, and displaced farmers. He called for the end to China’s notorious reeducation through labor system.
Because of the letters, Guo lost his university professorship and was expelled from the China Democratic League, a state-approved “democratic” party under the direction of the Communist Party.
“From the first published letter, my family experienced continuous harassment by police. Our lives have been turned upside down for the simple expression of political opinion. Our home was raided several times in the middle of night. They smashed the locks on our door, ransacked our cupboards and chests, and forcibly confiscated our computers and some of my husband’s manuscripts, which were never returned,” testified Li Jing, Guo’s wife.
In Dec. 2007, Guo announced the formation of the China New Democracy Party. “Authorities detained Mr. Guo and sentenced him in Aug. 2009 to ten years’ imprisonment for ’subversion of state power‘ for organizing an ’illegal' political party, for recruiting members for the party, [and other subversive acts], said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.)
Mr. Guo is serving out his sentence in a Nanjing prison. His wife Li Jing and 11-year-old son fled from China, and have been in the United States for only three weeks.
Next:Gao ZhishengGao Zhisheng
In October 2005, Gao wrote a letter to communist leader Hu Jinatao and Premier Wen Jiabao that described the torture of Falun Gong practitioners. The following month, Gao’s law firm was shut down and his lawyer’s license revoked.
“You cannot be a rights lawyer in [China] without becoming a rights case yourself,” said Geng He, Gao’s wife, quoting her husband, in testimony at the hearing.
In Dec. 22, 2006, Gao was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power,” a charge frequently used against government critics, and handed down a three-year suspended sentence; Gao was released home on a five years’ probation.
Gao was really not free, but held under de facto house arrest, was repeatedly taken away for long periods of time, and was frequently tortured, testified Jared Genser, founder of Freedom Now, an independent non-profit organization working to free prisoners of conscience.
Then, on Sept. 21, 2007, Gao was seized again, after writing an open letter to the U.S. Congress. Gao wrote an account of the 50 days he was held and tortured, including tooth picks inserted into his private parts.
“Policemen covered his head with a black mask and took him into a room where they stripped him naked and beat him. They used electric batons to shock him all over his body … turning his skin black … his captors used cigarette smoke to burn his eyes so severely that he could not open them” testified Geng He.
Geng said life was hard at home with the constant surveillance. Their daughter Grace was accompanied by a policeman when she went to school, who sat behind her in class. In order to protect the children, Gao’s wife and two children escaped to the United States in Jan. 9, 2009.
The following month, on Feb. 4, 2009, Gao was abducted by Chinese authorities and “disappeared” for more than a year, without even the pretense of legal process, said Genser, who is serving pro bono as international counsel for Gao. In an interview with the Associated Press, Gao said during this period that he endured the worst beating and that for two days, his life “hung by a thread.”
Gao reappeared on March 28, 2010 for a few weeks and then disappeared again on April 20. No one has seen or heard from him since. Geng testified that the last time she spoke to her husband was on daughter Grace’s 16th birthday on April 17th.
Genser said that on Nov. 19, 2010, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion (Opinion No. 26/2010) finding his ongoing detention to be a violation of international law.
After one year and eight months with information regarding Gao’s location or wellbeing, and just days before the probationary period was to end, Chinese state media announced in December that Gao would have to serve out the three-year prison sentence, said Geng.
A Beijing court said Gao had “seriously violated” his probation but doesn’t say how supposedly Gao violated probation when he was in police custody most of the time. Gao was allegedly taken to the Shaya County Prison in remote Xinjian.
Gao’s brother and Geng’s father traveled 22 hours by train to see Gao, and to verify that he was alive, but prison authorities refused a visit, claiming that Gao didn’t want to see family and that visitation was not permitted during a three-month “education” period, according to Geng and Genser.
“The government has lied so many times that we don’t know what to believe,” said Geng.
“No independent party has been able to confirm Mr. Gao is alive or actually in this prison,” said Genser.
VP Denied Request
Geng testified that she tried to see Vice President Biden to tell him of her family’s sufferings. While Biden met with a number of Chinese scholars and human rights experts, she said, “he intentionally avoided meeting any victims of Chinese human rights abuses to avoid offending the Chinese government.”
Geng explained that such self-censorship gives the green light to the communist regime to act with impunity.
Li Jing said repeatedly in her testimony that her husband “is innocent.” She said that for her husband to be set free, “only the United States can make this case to China.”
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