[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TWO YEARS LATER: THE ONGOING DETENTIONS OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE
LIU XIAOBO AND HIS WIFE LIU XIA
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
DECEMBER 12, 2012
__________
Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov
_____
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
78-598 PDF WASHINGTON : 2013
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC
area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC
20402-0001
CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
House
Senate
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, SHERROD BROWN, Ohio, Cochairman
Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana
FRANK WOLF, Virginia CARL LEVIN, Michigan
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
TIM WALZ, Minnesota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine
MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio JAMES RISCH, Idaho
MICHAEL HONDA, California
EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
SETH D. HARRIS, Department of Labor
MARIA OTERO, Department of State
FRANCISCO J. SANCHEZ, Department of Commerce
KURT M. CAMPBELL, Department of State
NISHA DESAI BISWAL, U.S. Agency for International Development
Paul B. Protic, Staff Director
Lawrence T. Liu, Deputy Staff Director
(ii)
CO N T E N T S
----------
Page
Opening statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, a U.S.
Representative from New Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-
Executive Commission on China.................................. 1
Brown, Hon. Sherrod, a U.S. Senator from Ohio; Cochairman,
Congressional-Executive Commission on China.................... 4
Gershman, Carl, President, National Endowment for Democracy...... 6
Yang, Jianli, President, Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for
China.......................................................... 8
Griffith, Patrick, Program Attorney, Freedom Now................. 10
Yu, Jie, independent author and associate of Liu Xiaobo.......... 12
Liu, Min, wife of Yue Jie; friend of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia...... 13
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements
Gershman, Carl................................................... 26
Yang, Jianli..................................................... 27
Griffith, Patrick................................................ 29
Yu, Jie.......................................................... 31
Liu, Min......................................................... 34
Smith, Hon. Christopher.......................................... 35
Brown, Hon. Sherrod.............................................. 37
TWO YEARS LATER: THE ONGOING DETENTIONS OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE
LIU XIAOBO AND HIS WIFE LIU XIA
----------
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2012
Congressional-Executive
Commission on China,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 10:12
a.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building,
Representative Christopher Smith, Chairman, presiding.
Also present: Senator Sherrod Brown, Cochairman.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, A U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-
EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
Chairman Smith. The Commission will come to order. Welcome
to everyone.
Two years after the independent Nobel Committee awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese intellectual and democracy
activist Liu Xiaobo, little has changed. Liu Xiaobo remains
isolated in prison. He remains thousands of miles away from his
wife, Liu Xia, who authorities have now held under house arrest
for some 26 months.
Chinese authorities continue to defend their imprisonment
of Liu Xiaobo and to deny his wife is under de facto house
arrest. Despite global calls for the release of the Nobel Peace
Prize laureate and his wife, Chinese authorities remain
resolute in their will to silence them.
It has now been a year since we last convened a hearing to
discuss this outrageous and senseless violation of Liu Xiaobo
and his wife's rights. A year later we ask the same questions
and express the same concerns.
Liu Xiaobo's ordeal is well known. In December 2010, the
Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for
``his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human
rights in China.'' A year earlier, Chinese authorities
sentenced him to 11 years in prison for ``inciting subversion
of state power,'' the longest known sentence for that so-called
crime, simply because he exercised his internationally
recognized right to free expression.
Liu's condition, according to court documents, was based on
Charter 08 and six essays that he wrote. Mr. Liu's trial,
conviction, and sentence once again demonstrated the Chinese
Government's failure to uphold its international human rights
obligations and its failure to abide by procedural norms and
safeguards that meet international standards.
Liu Xiaobo co-wrote and signed Charter 08 and treaties
urging political and legal reforms based on constitutional
principles. Charter 08 states that freedom, equality, and human
rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and
constitutional government are the fundamental framework for
protecting these values.
In response to this public call for rights and reform,
officials blocked access to, and censored all mention of,
Charter 08. They questioned, summoned, or otherwise harassed
hundreds of Chinese citizens for contributing to or signing the
document.
To many of us it was reminiscent of Charter 77, that great
document written by many people in the former Czech Republic,
Czechoslovakia at the time. That document, like so many others
around the world, including Charter 08, articulates what we all
believe is enshrined in the universal declaration of human
rights. Every person, man, woman, or child, is deserving of
those fundamental human rights.
Today we have little news about Liu Xiaobo's current
condition. Liu remains in prison. There is little doubt that
the Chinese continue to treat him unmercifully. Sadly, we do
have some news. While we knew authorities continued to hold
Liu's wife under a de facto form of house arrest with little
contact from the outside world, we have recently learned more
about her unbearable circumstances and detention.
Last week, two Associated Press journalists were able to
briefly interview Liu Xia while the guards that kept watch over
her were away for a midday break. Upon opening the door, the
journalists found a woman shocked by the rare opportunity to
communicate with those outside her prison. She wept and decried
the injustice and absurdity of her detention.
She told them of her poor health and of the outrageous
abuses that she has suffered. Her ongoing plight has been
referred to by some as the most severe retaliation by a
government given to a Nobel winner's family. In violation of
Chinese law, Liu Xia remains detained, a victim of the
government's contempt, its paranoia, and its weakness. Angered
by Liu's award and his global support, Chinese authorities have
unjustly detained this innocent woman as well.
The targeting of wives and children, grandparents and
associates, however, remains a common practice for the Chinese
Government. A few weeks ago, a nephew of Chen Guangcheng, the
blind activist who escaped to the United States earlier this
year, was sentenced to 39 months in prison after defending
himself from thugs who had attacked his family. As with Liu
Xiaobo's case, the trial was marred by procedural
irregularities and gross violations.
In recent months, the wife and child of a Mongolian
activist, Hada, have been illegally confined to their home and
blocked from communicating with others. Today we will hear
moving first-hand accounts of how families suffer when
courageous individuals speak out against the Chinese
Government, especially its human rights abuses.
This, of course, is not a new tactic by the Chinese
authorities. In recent years we have heard how Chinese
officials, and those operating under their authority, have
interrogated children or harassed acquaintances. Chinese guards
have shouted expletives at school-aged children, sons and
daughters, and enforced economic reprisals against relatives
and loved ones.
Liu Xia is not alone, but she remains a symbol of these
often overlooked collateral victims. Why target family members
and friends? The Chinese Government fears the free thinkers
they love and support. It acts in ways to silence those free
thinkers who promote the best ideals and seek the greatest good
for China.
In China, free thinkers represent a threat to the
government's so-called stability, while representing new hopes
for the Chinese people. This threat of reform is China's
greatest concern. Recently after the sentencing of Chinese
official Bo Xilai's wife for intentional homicide, leading
human rights and China experts suggested that she might receive
a medical pardon after nine years. Nine years for murder, as
compared to 11 for Liu Xiaobo's call for freedom?
This is the China we are dealing with, one in which
premeditated murder is viewed with less concern than calls for
non-violent political reform, a China in which Chinese
officials are sentenced to reclusive, plush prisons while wives
and children and parents of rights advocates are doomed to a
Kafkaesque existence, languishing in domestic prisons without
opportunities for appeals or pardons.
A year after our last hearing on the subject, little has
changed. Mr. Liu Xiaobo remains in prison and his wife under an
extralegal form of house arrest. Our resolve, however, has not
changed. In fact, it has grown even stronger. Today we are more
concerned about the current conditions for Liu Xiaobo and his
wife. We are more outraged at the lack of humanity demonstrated
by those perpetrating these crimes, for the thugs guarding Liu
Xia's door, and the newly appointed leadership in Beijing.
Today, our resolve and the resolve of free-minded people
is, without question, stronger. A few years ago, we called on
China to immediately and unconditionally release Liu Xiaobo and
his wife. Today we similarly demand China end this absurdity
for these noble citizens and for all who remain detained in
China for their political or religious beliefs.
We have not forgotten Liu Xiaobo and his wife. We commit to
seeking their release from confinement and detention. We will
not forget them next year, or any year thereafter, regardless
of the circumstances. We will continue to demand their freedom
and continue to demand that all Chinese citizens enjoy the
fundamental freedoms under international law.
It is with this resolve and concern that we are joined
today by a panel of extraordinary experts on these cases and on
China more broadly, and I would like to thank them for their
advocacy, for their tireless efforts on behalf of freedom,
democracy, and human rights in China, especially for their deep
concern and abiding love for Liu Xiaobo and his wife, and for
being here today to share those thoughts with us.
I would like to now yield to the Cochair of the Commission,
my good friend and colleague, Senator Brown.
[The prepared statement of Chairman Smith appears in the
appendix.]
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHERROD BROWN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM
OHIO; COCHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA
Senator Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for hosting this
hearing. The Chairman and I stand united behind this cause and
I am grateful for his efforts.
We stand with our government, we stand with governments
around the world, and the 134 Nobel laureates, led by
Archbishop Tutu, to urge incoming Chinese President Xi Jinping
to immediately and unconditionally release Liu Xiaobo and his
wife Liu Xia.
Let me be clear, there is no question that China has made
progress on many fronts, but we know that the Chinese people
are not, and should not, be satisfied with economic progress in
the absence of justice. We know that Chinese citizens, like
women and men around the world, want and deserve basic human
rights. They deserve freedom, justice, and equality of
opportunity. They deserve to voice their opinions without fear
of oppression.
That is why we are here today. For decades, Liu Xiaobo has
been one of the most passionate and thoughtful advocates for
freedom and justice and human rights in China. He was a leader
who returned to his country from New York during the 1989
Tiananmen democracy protest. He has written nearly 800 essays
advocating human rights and peaceful reform. He was one of the
co-authors of Charter 08, a document released four years ago
calling for an end to authoritarian rule and respect for human
rights.
For this, Liu has been censored. He has endured three years
in a labor camp and now he is serving the 4th year of an 11-
year prison sentence. That is why, when the Nobel Committee
awarded Liu the Peace Prize in 2010, they noted his long and
non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
They understood, the world understood, just as many in
China understand, that freedom and human rights are not freely
given. It takes courage and commitment. It takes people like
Liu who are willing to sacrifice for their neighbors, their
families, their fellow citizens, and the next generation.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Nobel laureate himself of
course, popularized this struggle as the fierce commitment to
building the ``beloved community.'' Liu follows in the
tradition of Peace Prize winners like Dr. King who labored to
build a better world brick by brick.
In 1991, as we know, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize
to Aung San Suu Kyi for her democratic opposition to a brutal
regime. All of these activists have fought oppression with a
message of non-violence at terrific personal sacrifice and an
unwillingness to give up.
Liu spoke about the efficacy of non-violence in 2006 when
he wrote ``the greatest of non-violence resistance is even as
man is faced with forceful tyranny . . . the victim responds to
hate with love . . . and to violence with reason.'' Each day
China denies citizens like Liu basic freedoms, China loses out
on the diversity of opinions that lead to better government
policies, a better country, and a more just society.
Imprisoning Liu is not the act of a nation serious about
earning a place of respect at the global table. It is an act of
an authoritarian state afraid, afraid of the strength of its
own people. When Aung San Suu Kyi was finally able to give her
Nobel acceptance speech 20 years later in June of this year,
more than two decades after being awarded the prize, in her
speech she said everyone is capable of contributing to peace.
Liu exemplifies the courage needed to cultivate justice. We
urge China to release the Liu family. They should not have to
wait two decades. He should not have to wait two decades to
give his own acceptance speech. We look forward to that day.
[The prepared statement of Senator Brown appears in the
appendix.]
Chairman Smith. Thank you, Chairman Brown.
I would like to now introduce our very distinguished panel
of witnesses, beginning first with Carl Gershman, President of
the National Endowment for Democracy. Mr. Gershman joined us
last year for our hearing on Liu Xiaobo and we are happy to
welcome him back. Mr. Gershman has presided with extraordinary
effectiveness and balance over the Endowment's grants program
in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the former
Soviet Union, and Latin America, and it is great to see him
again. I know that the work he does has had a profound effect
worldwide.
We will then hear from Dr. Yang Jianli, who is the
President of Initiatives for China. Dr. Yang is a distinguished
scholar and democracy activist, internationally recognized for
his efforts to promote democracy and human rights in China.
Forced to flee China after 1989, Dr. Yang returned in 2001
and was imprisoned by Chinese authorities. Following his
release in 2007, Dr. Yang founded Initiatives for China, also
known as Citizen Power for China, a nongovernmental
organization that promotes China's peaceful transition to
democracy.
I would note parenthetically that it was my honor to join
him in Oslo when Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
He was one of the leaders of the Chinese activists who was
there and played a very prominent role in Liu Xiaobo receiving
that award in the first place. I just want to thank him for his
leadership on all of these issues, but especially for that. It
was an honor to be with him.
Our next witness is Mr. Patrick Griffith, a program
attorney at Freedom Now, a Washington, DC-based legal advocacy
organization that works to free prisoners of conscience around
the world, including Chinese citizens Liu Xiaobo and Gao
Zhisheng.
A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Mr.
Griffith currently serves as co-international pro bono legal
counsel to Liu Xiaobo and his wife, Liu Xia. So, thank you as
well for that great advocacy.
We will then hear from Mr. Yu Jie, a best-selling author in
China and a close associate and biographer of Liu Xiaobo. Yu is
one of the co-authors and co-signers of Charter 08. In January
2012, Yu and his family fled China after being released from
extralegal home confinement. Yu and his family later received
political asylum in the United States.
Finally, we will hear from Liu Min, Yu Li's wife and a
close associate of Liu Xia. Because of her husband's activism
and outspokenness, Ms. Liu was likewise subjected to
unfortunate reprisals and de facto house arrest. We thank her
for her participation here today, as well as the ordeal that
she has personally endured. I look forward to her discussion on
how Liu Xiaobo and other family members, especially his wife,
have suffered under official abuses.
Mr. Gershman, please proceed.
STATEMENT OF CARL GERSHMAN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR
DEMOCRACY
Mr. Gershman. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, Senator
Brown. Thank you so much for inviting me to testify today.
I would like to take this opportunity to address, briefly,
three issues: the dangerous instability of China's political
system and its immense human costs; the importance of a
peaceful democratic transition as the best way to ensure
progress and stability in China, and finally, the recognition
that Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia and Charter 08 are part of a broad
popular movement within China which represents the best hope
for a democratic future.
The recent scandals around Chongqing Party secretary Bo
Xilai and his failed bid for power in the Party leadership
transition provide a valuable glimpse into the way the Chinese
Government is operating. We see how brutal struggles,
unconstrained by formalized rules and due process, are still
the norm for the Party from the top to the bottom. This
vulnerability of the Party echoes throughout the political
system. I guess the Chinese state is brittle and unstable. Many
inside China worry the country is headed for a social
explosion. According to the well-known Chinese scholar Yu
Jianrong, for example, ``the government sees the expression of
people's legitimate interest as a threat to the social order.
Land rights of peasants, food safety for children, wages for
workers, residency rights for rural migrants in the urban
areas, and minority rights for Tibetans and Uyghurs, all are
undermined by government repression.
The law, meanwhile, provides little refuge. While there
have been modest gains in the legal system, whatever gains were
made are now backsliding. The blind activist, Chen Guangcheng,
who we were together with, Mr. Chairman, as you remember, at
the end of October here in Washington, whose brave escape from
the security apparatus earlier this year highlights the level
of repression, calls the Chinese system lawless and this
lawlessness is at the root of the instability.
The number of collective protests has been rising steadily
from 9,700 in 1993 to 90,000 in 2006, to over 200,000 in 2011,
an average of about 500 a day. In Tibet, the government
controls are so tight that comparisons have been made to a war
zone.
To protest the lack of religious and political freedom, 95
Tibetans, 82 men and 13 women, have self-immolated since 2009.
Constant repression of Uyghur culture and a lack of opportunity
because of open discrimination of Uyghurs has resulted in deep
resentment and a hardening of ethnic tension.
Across China, demolitions and land appropriations deprive
many of their hard-earned property and livelihood. Increasing
desperation and the inability of the current system to provide
long-term guarantees of rights and liberties lead to more
protests and the vicious cycle spirals downward.
Even under these bleak conditions, a social movement has
arisen in which ordinary people seek to use the law on behalf
of China's people. It takes corrupt officials, police, and the
government to court for malfeasance and injustice. It organizes
peaceful demonstrations to educate other citizens and rally
support for their cause. It posts messages about rights
violations on the Internet when the press turns them away.
They call the secret police on behalf of human rights
defenders and show up at police stations and black jails for
advocacy and rescue. Chen Guangcheng's moral resistance and
ultimate escape were the focus of such a human rights campaign,
one of the largest since the founding of the People's Republic.
The voices are growing. Tens of millions of Internet users
gather and gawk online at stories of corruption and human
rights violations to show support for their fellow citizens and
create pressure for more accountability. Again, the human costs
are high. These human rights defenders receive no help from the
establishment, intellectuals, or lawyers from their localities.
The courts either refuse to take their cases; they are
defenseless against police violation; or they are often
illegally detained, tortured, and sentenced to a labor camp
without anyone hearing about it. Human rights lawyers and
public intellectuals join them at considerable risk to
themselves to address China's lawlessness.
The writings of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08
should be seen in this context. Liu has tirelessly pushed for
political change by asking the state to live up to its own laws
and obligations. The charter calls for gradual political
reform, the rule of law, the separation of powers, and a multi-
Party system. Its signatories, over 10,000, are a diverse body
comprising both prominent figures within the system and
ordinary people at the grassroots, and they are united behind a
common vision of a democratic China.
It is part and parcel of the broad bottom-up movement for
popular constitutionalism and gradual change. To date, the
Chinese Government has chosen a path different from the one
envisioned by these civil society activists. To keep widespread
dissatisfaction at bay, the government encourages nationalism
and stokes popular anger in order to bolster its legitimacy.
In September, the government encouraged a wave of anti-
Japanese demonstrations, which turned violent in many places.
It correctly gauges that nationalism serves as a powerful
instrument in impeding public demand for democratic change.
Simultaneously, the Party's proactive repression has kept
civil society fragmented, fragile, beset by doubt, and still
largely unable to mount meaningful monitoring of the
government's performance and adherence to both domestic and
international obligations.
Such a strategy, however, may open China to great danger
with grave implications for the entire world. The instability
of the current system may eventually end in large-scale and
bloody repression or, equally disastrously, in violent
upheaval. China may decide to step up an aggressive stance
abroad to consolidate support and distract criticism by
fomenting nationalist antagonism.
By so doing it can inadvertently provoke conflict. Given
China's geopolitical significance and the vital role it plays
in the international economic order, all these outcomes would
create disruptions that travel far beyond the region. Most
importantly, the human costs for the Chinese people would be
unthinkable.
We have reason to believe then that civil society's fight
to open up the political system to the Chinese people
represents the only desirable alternative to the current status
quo. The movement can help bridge the vast ideological income
and social divisions splintering China through political
liberalization, the protection of basic rights, and the pursuit
of social justice.
Congress and the administration, as well as the American
public, have a golden opportunity to act in a bipartisan manner
in calling for Liu Xiaobo's release, not only as a matter of
justice and human rights, but also to enable him to take part
in civil debate on the challenge of the democratic
transformation of China.
Let us hope that the new Chinese leadership will recognize
this historic opportunity. In doing so, they would avert the
profound crisis facing their country and open up the prospects
for China, whose power and prosperity would be strengthened
through democracy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Gershman, for your
testimony and your leadership.
Dr. Yang?
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gershman appears in the
appendix.]
STATEMENT OF YANG JIANLI, PRESIDENT, INITIATIVES FOR CHINA/
CITIZEN POWER FOR CHINA
Mr. Yang. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator Brown. Thank
you for hosting this important hearing. Liu Xiaobo and his
wife's plight is well known. I will not repeat the facts about
it today.
Instead, I want to focus on Liu Xiaobo's significance for
democracy in China. Liu Xiaobo's Nobel honor reflects the
international recognition of the Chinese democracy movement as
represented by him. He has become the symbol of democracy in
China. And simply because of such symbolism, today, his
continued imprisonment has become a footnote to the vow made by
Hu Jintao in his political report at a recent Party's 18th
Congress. He stated that China's leadership would never take
``the evil road of changing flags and banners,'' code for
abandoning one-Party rule. This pledge dispelled any doubts
about the Party's resolve to keep its political monopoly.
But we must remember that the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]
does not have the only say about China's future. Liu Xiaobo
represents another force that also will help shape the future
of China, pushing China to take an alternative road, the ``evil
road,'' in Hu Jintao's words. This force is becoming
increasingly viable.
The most important sign of this movement is the recent
intellectual awakening, evidenced by the return of the
democracy debate, which has occupied a central place in the
public discourse around China's leadership change. More and
more intellectuals, who were generally co-opted by the regime
not long after the Tiananmen massacre and acted as its
defenders for many years, have come to realize and acknowledge
Liu Xiaobo's contributions, ideas, and beliefs, which are
embodied in Charter 08. Recognition by intellectuals that the
status quo is unsustainable is always the first, and vital,
step toward changing it.
Two other most important factors helping move toward
democratic change in an autocratic country are coming together
in China, namely a robust plurality of disaffected citizens and
a split in the leadership.
Let me elaborate.
Since the Tiananmen massacre, corruption has become one of
the CCP's important strategies to survive because no Party
officials at any level would be loyal to the regime if they
were not given the privilege to corrupt. Such a predatory
regime has caused unprecedented infringement of the basic
rights of the ordinary people, resulting in increasing frequent
protests.
To keep these self-motivated protests from becoming a
conscious movement by demanding an overall change, the Chinese
Government has built a monstrous stability-sustaining system.
This gigantic system treats every citizen as a potential enemy,
and it has successfully made them enemies--dissidents,
independent intellectuals, land-lease peasants, victims of
forced demolitions and eviction, victims of forced abortion,
veterans, migrant workers, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians,
Christians, and Falun Gong practitioners, you name it.
Perhaps the only achievement in China's political system in
the past 30 years is the establishment of the ``2-term, 10-
year, 1-generation'' term limit system. Many observers
predicted that such a system would ensure long-term stability
for the CCP regime, wishfully believing that this system helped
the CCP find a way out of the pit of power discontinuity that
has plagued all dictatorships in history. The Bolshevik-like
event, however, mercifully burst that bubble. People within the
Party have begun to challenge this power succession system. The
cracks are only widening.
As nongovernmental forces grow and civil protests escalate,
the struggle for power among different factions within the
regime will become more pronounced. Once external pressures
reach critical mass, rival affections within the regime will
have no choice but to take the voices of citizens seriously and
seek their support to survive.
That said, I want to emphasize that we need an overall,
viable pro-democracy movement to force the dictatorship to
crack open. A long-term resilient movement will reach critical
mass when idealists like Liu Xiaobo join forces with the self-
motivated public or the disaffected with the status quo.
A milestone to meet that objective would be the formation
of a group of civil leaders able to represent the general
public and to at least partially disrupt the current political
order--a group that would catch attention and support of the
international community and carry out and call for effective
negotiations with the government.
What happened in Guangdong, Wukan Village a year ago is a
good example. Liu Xiaobo, as a widely accepted leader both at
home and abroad, will surely play a unique role in forming such
a group. Therefore, working toward his freedom is vital for
democratic change in China. I am particularly encouraged by the
strong support of Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 from world leaders
like Senator Brown and Congressman Smith and other world human
rights leaders and activists.
Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November
2010. For the first time, there is hope for reform in Burma. In
seeking Liu Xiaobo's release, we hope and struggle for the same
in China.
Thank you.
Chairman Smith. Dr. Yang, thank you very much for your
testimony and for your insights.
Mr. Griffith?
[The prepared statement of Mr. Yang appears in the
appendix.]
STATEMENT OF PATRICK GRIFFITH, PROGRAM ATTORNEY, FREEDOM NOW
Mr. Griffith. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Mr.
Cochairman, and thank you for the opportunity to join you here
today. As an activist, this Commission is an essential source
for information about human rights violations in China, and I
want to begin by thanking both the Commissioners and their
staff for their unwavering support for prisoners of conscience.
As an attorney with Freedom Now and international pro bono
counsel to the Lius, my testimony today will focus primarily on
why their detention is a flagrant violation of China's
obligations under international law. I am also going to briefly
explain, in our view, what steps the United States can take to
lead a growing international movement to free the Lius.
The circumstances of Dr. Liu's detention are widely known
and largely undisputed, even by the Chinese Government itself.
At the time of his arrest in 2008, as was noted, Dr. Liu was
leading an initiative called Charter 08, which is a political
manifesto that calls for peaceful democratic reform and respect
for human rights.
Dr. Liu was detained in an unknown location for six months
without charge or any legal process whatsoever, and was
ultimately accused of inciting subversion. The prosecution's
indictment, like the court's judgment sentencing him to 11
years in prison, specifically relied on his participation in
the production of Charter 08 as evidence of his guilt.
Shortly after Dr. Liu was announced as the 2010 Nobel Peace
Prize laureate, the government placed his wife, Liu Xia, under
house arrest. Two years later, she remains cut off from the
outside world without even the pretense of legal process.
In a rare interview, she recently confirmed that she has
been under house arrest, unable to communicate with the outside
world except for brief weekly trips to buy groceries and visit
family. Frequently confined to bed due to back pain, she
described this continued detention as ``painfully surreal.''
The prosecution of Dr. Liu is a clear violation of
international law which specifically protects the right to
peaceful freedom of expression. Such international protections
apply regardless of whether Chinese domestic law punishes
peaceful political expression of subversion, and the
government's constant refrain that Dr. Liu's imprisonment is
the result of a criminal prosecution is simply irrelevant.
Further, as internationally protected rights, their violation
is the proper concern of the international community and not
merely an issue of domestic judicial sovereignty.
Liu Xia's case is even more appalling. Despite a mountain
of evidence to the contrary, the Chinese Government has claimed
repeatedly that no legal enforcement action has been taken
against her. This claim is either a lie or an admission of
guilt. Nothing under domestic or international law authorizes
the indefinite detention of a person without any due process
whatsoever for the mere crime of being married to a Nobel
laureate.
In response to petitions filed by Freedom Now on behalf of
Dr. Liu and Liu Xia, the United Nations Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention found their continued detention a violation
of international law and called for their immediate release.
Despite this finding by the United Nations, the situation for
Dr. Liu and Liu Xia remains largely unchanged.
However, recently an international movement to free the
Lius has been gathering cohesion and momentum. Last week, the
International Committee for Liu Xiaobo, a coalition of 6 Nobel
Peace Prize laureates and 15 nongovernmental organizations,
released a letter from 134 Nobel laureates calling for the
immediate and unconditional release of the Lius.
The letter was signed by laureates from across all six
Nobel disciplines, not just Peace prize winners. A
corresponding petition online has gathered over 300,000
signatures from at least 82 countries.
In light of this growing movement, we believe that there
are three ways that the United States can redouble its efforts
and change tactics in support of the Lius. First, as a Nobel
Peace Prize laureate himself, we believe President Obama has a
unique opportunity to take a leading role in this growing
citizens' movement. Initiatives such as the laureate letter
provide Mr. Obama with a ready-made platform to highlight the
continued detention of the Lius.
While the President did call for Dr. Liu's release shortly
after he was announced as the recipient of the 2010 Peace
prize, he has not publicly reiterated that call nor personally
called for Liu Xia's release. Without the President's continued
public engagement, we fear that Beijing will receive the
message that it can continue to detain Dr. Liu and Liu Xia
without suffering any additional consequences.
Second, the United States should consistently and publicly
hold the Chinese Government accountable. Because the ultimate
measure of success, from our perspective, is the Lius' freedom,
this anniversary presents an opportune moment for the United
States to reassess its approach.
Practices such as beginning bilateral meetings, regardless
of topic, by raising political prisoners would send a clear
message that the Chinese Government's refusal to comply with
international law is unacceptable.
Finally, the United States should take a leading role in
multilateral efforts to support the Liu's. For example, a
letter from other G-8 countries highlighting the continued
detention of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize
laureate could remind the incoming Chinese leadership that if
it wants to join the community of nations as a full partner, it
must do more than merely talk about human rights and the rule
of law.
Admittedly, these are among the hardest cases in one of the
most difficult countries, but the growing citizens' movement
gives us reason to hope. While relations between the United
States and China are necessarily complex, respect for
fundamental human rights must remain at the center of that
relationship and the continued detention of the Liu's is an
important bellwether indicating that more must be done.
Thank you for your time. I would welcome the opportunity to
answer any questions.
Chairman Smith. Mr. Griffith, thank you very much.
We would like to now hear from Yu Jie. Mr. Yu? Could you
put on your microphone, please?
[The prepared statement of Mr. Griffith appears in the
appendix.]
STATEMENT OF YU JIE, INDEPENDENT AUTHOR AND ASSOCIATE OF LIU
XIAOBO
Mr. Yu. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very
much to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China for
giving me this opportunity to speak to you here.
For the last 10 years, I have been close friends with Mr.
Liu Xiaobo. In January of this year I came to the United States
and finished a memoir for Mr. Liu Xiaobo which covers over 500
pages. This memoir has been published in Hong Kong in its
Chinese version, and its English version will be published next
year.
As a close friend of Liu Xiaobo, I see his growth in four
stages. The first stage is in the 1980s, when the intellectual
atmosphere in China was relatively liberal. At that time Mr.
Liu Xiaobo started from literary criticism and aesthetics to
critics of Chinese traditional culture, Chinese intellectuals,
and the political system.
In the spring of 1989 while Liu was a visiting scholar in
the United States, student protests began in Beijing. Liu was
determined to return to China and dedicate himself to the
students' movement, and that was a life-changing experience for
him. After that, he was imprisoned and persecuted and he has
been thrown into prison for six years in the last decade.
Even during this very difficult condition, Liu Xiaobo
continued his cause. He drafted and organized the signatories
to a number of open letters addressing issues such as
implementing democracy, protecting human rights, and
overturning the official verdict on the Tiananmen massacre.
However, because of the lack of the Internet era at that time,
this movement was still limited within a small intellectual
circle in China.
Throughout the 1990s we see the broad and wide use of the
Internet in China and that allowed Liu Xiaobo's voice to be
heard by the Chinese public. At the same time, he was
diligently writing articles while going outside to participate
in democratic movements.
Two of the major activities that he participated in during
that period were, one, Liu Xiaobo served two consecutive terms
as the president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center. You
know that the freedom of association is written in the Chinese
Constitution, however, in reality it does not exist.
Liu overcame the authorities' restrictions on independent
organizations and made the Chinese PEN center the first
independent organization that protects freedom of expression
and promotes Chinese literature in mainland China.
The second main activity that Liu was involved in was
drafting and organizing the signatories for Charter 08. Of the
over 300 signatories of Charter 08, one-third of them were
introduced by Liu Xiaobo to this cause. By doing that, he has
become a leader in the Chinese civil society movement.
In 2008, Liu Xiaobo was arrested. In 2010, he was awarded
the Nobel prize. The honor of the Nobel Peace Prize had
elevated Liu Xiaobo to a new status. Although Liu's
contributions cannot be measured solely through his prize, this
honor nevertheless places him directly at the heart of any
future sociopolitical transitions in China.
The Chinese Communist Party's totalitarianism has created
severe social crisis. No matter if the regime admits it or not,
it is inevitable for China to have democratic reform. Liu
Xiaobo, an intellectual who has fought for China's human rights
for over 20 years since Tiananmen as an advocate for beliefs
such as non-violence and non-enemy and as the only Nobel
laureate that is still living in China, will be sure to play an
essential role in this transformation.
China's democratization will not only relieve 1.3 billion
Chinese people from a totalitarian regime and ensure legal
protection for basic human rights, it will also generate a new
round of global democratization and will speed up the
transformation for authoritarian countries like North Korea,
Iran, and Cuba. In this regard, the impact Liu Xiaobo has on
the progress of human society should be no less than Mandela of
South Africa, Havel of the Czech Republic, Kim Tajume of South
Korea, and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Similar to Mandela, Havel, Kim Tajume, and Aung San Suu
Kyi, Liu Xiaobo should have the support from both his
countrymen and people of the rest of the world. So here I would
like to call for the leadership of the United States,
especially the forward-looking leadership such as President
Obama, to support Liu Xiaobo's cause.
Thank you.
Chairman Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Yu.
Liu Min?
[The prepared statement of Mr. Yu appears in the appendix.]
STATEMENT OF LIU MIN, WIFE OF YU JIE; FRIEND OF LIU XIAOBO AND
LIU XIA
Ms. Liu. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Liu
Min. My husband Yu Jie and I met Liu Xiaobo and his wife in
1999. Shortly after, we became very close friends. Liu Xiaobo
and Liu Xia began their romantic relationship in the early
1990s. After the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Liu Xiaobo
was imprisoned for the first time.
After his release, Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia fell deeply in
love. During this time, Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned for a second
and then a third time. In the period when Liu Xiaobo was sent
to Dalian to be reeducated through labor, Liu Xia went to see
him every month from Beijing, traveling back and forth 38 times
over three years. The trip between Beijing and Dalian was 1,250
miles.
Then after fighting for time again, they had a wedding in
prison. Their only celebration was a simple lunch in the labor
camp cafeteria. In these three years, it was the only time they
had eaten at the same table.
The pressure faced by Liu Xia was even greater than that of
Liu Xiaobo. She was originally a proud painter and photographer
who kept her distance from politics. Simply by being Liu
Xiaobo's wife, she was included on the list of enemies of the
state.
Permanently unable to live a normal person's life, she
developed eye problems, endocrine disorders, insomnia, skin
illnesses, and severe depression. She had to take large doses
of sleeping pills to fall asleep every night.
After Liu Xiaobo was arrested, a friend asked her about how
she was sleeping. She said, ``Now that Liu Xiaobo is gone I can
actually sleep more peacefully. A shoe had fallen down from the
ceiling long ago. For many years, I was like the person waiting
for the other shoe to drop. Now the shoe has finally dropped
and I can finally feel at peace.
Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo have been married for many years and
they have never had children. Liu Xia said, ``A long time ago
we agreed not to have children. Having a father in prison in
any case is the cruelest thing to a boy or a girl.''
In December 2008, Liu Xiaobo was arrested. On Christmas
2009, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was
later sent to the prison in Jinzhou to serve his term. If Liu
Xiaobo is to serve his term in full, Liu Xia will have traveled
back and forth between Beijing and Jinzhou more than 100 times.
The trip between Beijing and Jinzhou is about 600 miles. In
total, her trek will have been more than 8,000 miles.
In January 2012, our family of three finally escaped China
and came to America. Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia's predicaments were
on our minds constantly, especially Liu Xia being under house
arrest and isolated from the world for over two years. We worry
about her physical and mental state.
In my own personal experience when my husband and I were
put under house arrest for two months, we were together but
alive. All of our means of contact were cut off where we could
not take one step out of our own door, where we could not see a
single other person on the outside and drove us nearly insane.
Liu Xia is alone. Under house arrest for more than two years,
that kind of suffering is unbearable. I hope that the American
Government can help her. I hope you can help her.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Liu appears in the
appendix.]
Chairman Smith. Thank you so much for your testimony.
Thank you all for bearing witness on behalf of a man, Liu
Xiaobo, and an equally courageous woman, his wife, Liu Xia,
that cries out for even stronger voices being raised in the
West, and really everywhere else in the world. I often am
concerned when it comes to human rights that some people get
compassion fatigue or fatigue of some kind, and while they
raise their voice initially in the beginning, the dictatorship,
wherever it may be--and that includes the Beijing
dictatorship--they believe that if they just wait it out, that
the concern, the anger, the outrage will just simply dissipate
and go away.
At least three of you have made an appeal to President
Obama to raise the issue. Mr. Griffith, you pointed out that he
raised it initially. I would note parenthetically that when Hu
Jintao came to town I put together a very strong group of
dissidents who asked the President to raise the issue boldly,
visibly, overtly in a public setting, not just perhaps behind
closed doors, and to raise the case of a fellow Nobel Peace
Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, and to do so in a way that the world
would be energized and know that the United States of America
cares about this man, and everyone else in China who is
suffering under the cruelty of this dictatorship.
Sadly, he did not. It was so bad that the Washington Post,
in an editorial after the joint press conference, wrote,
``President Obama Defends Hu Jintao on Rights.'' When asked by
the Associated Press reporter about human rights, Hu Jintao had
some trouble understanding what the question was, some
technical problem which was nonsense.
The President said they have a different culture and they
have a different political system, which I thought was an
insult, frankly, to the Chinese people, including some of the
leaders and people who have suffered at our witness table
themselves, and to everyone else, like Chen Guangcheng and Gao
Zhisheng and so many others, and everyone else who was at
Tiananmen Square.
The culture fully understands that everyone deserves
fundamental human rights, and Dr. Yang, you certainly know it
because you paid the price as well. So my hope springs eternal
that the President will find it within his heart to speak out
publicly on behalf of Liu Xiaobo. I waited this week to hear
something from the President. Human Rights Day came and passed.
Through your requests again today, we will convey that to
the White House in the hope that he will find the courage to
speak out to Beijing, and to do so in a way that is
unmistakable not just to Beijing and to the new president
there, unelected as he is, but also to the world. So if any of
you would like to speak to that issue--Patrick, you did
certainly raise it in your comments--because I have been
disappointed.
I thought, as did everyone else, if not us, who? We can
have hearings. Congress, Speaker Boehner, Nancy Pelosi. People
could raise these issues. But there is only one President of
the United States. He is the leader of the free world. When you
have a Nobel Peace Prize winner who languishes and a wife who
is treated so cruelly by a dictatorship, it seems to me that it
is time to find our voice and that voice needs to be in the
White House.
Mr. Griffith?
Mr. Griffith. Thank you, Chairman Smith. I would agree with
that sentiment. I know that frequently there is a discussion,
particularly among human rights activists, about whether it is
best to be publicly critical or just privately critical, and
what the appropriate combination of tactics is. I think that is
a legitimate debate. But from our perspective, it has now been
two years and our ultimate goal is the release of Liu Xiaobo
and Liu Xia.
So far, what has been done has unfortunately not been
sufficient to bring their release about, and I think that in
light of that, in light of the two-year anniversary, from our
perspective, in light of a closing window of a time where we
have someone who is both a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the
President of the United States, I think it is a great
opportunity now to publicly confront the Chinese authorities
about their continued detention and to do so in a way that
forces a real dialogue, instead of two ships passing in the
night or two sequential monologues, to confront them about the
facts of the case, to confront them about the continued
detention of Liu Xia.
When the government says she is not under detention, then a
visit by the Ambassador, perhaps, or a visit by somebody from
the embassy perhaps before that meeting trying to meet with her
so that the response can be forceful and can say, ``No, you are
not telling us the truth.''
We believe that that kind of increase in tactics would
hopefully bring about a release. We know that Dr. Yang--for
example, his case was repeatedly raised at a high level and
that is ultimately what it took to obtain his freedom.
Chairman Smith. Would anyone else like to address that?
[No response].
Chairman Smith. Let me ask, you, Mr. Gershman, talked about
the Chinese Government. ``Brittle and unstable,'' I think, were
the words you used. One of the most under-appreciated in terms
of its enormous impact that it is having and will have on China
is the one-child-per-couple policy. Perhaps any one of our
panelists might want to speak to it.
But the Chinese Government prides itself on the idea of
stability, and perhaps the most destabilizing current event
that is heading toward a catastrophic implosion of Chinese
society is the one-child-per-couple policy, particularly the
missing girls. There is an estimation of perhaps as many as 100
million girls that are missing. Nobody knows for sure.
But the fact that Chinese society has been so altered by
the coercive population control, the forced abortion. As you
mentioned, Dr. Yang, in your statement when you mentioned a
litany of abuses occurring, forced abortion is among the most
egregious. It certainly has malaffected virtually every woman
in China, witness the fact that they have 500 suicides per day
of females in the People's Republic of China.
There is even a book. I recently, a little over a year ago,
chaired a hearing. We heard from a woman who wrote the book,
``Bare Branches,'' and talked about how destabilizing forced
abortion is. Not only is it inhumane and equivalent to what the
Nazis did against Polish women during World War II with forced
abortion--so the outrage from a human rights and women's rights
point of view cannot be overstated, as well as the missing
children who are destroyed, and missing girls in particular.
But the destabilizing effect it is going to have, and this
author pointed out that it could ultimately lead to war and the
projection of power. It will lead to gangs, it will lead to all
kinds of destabilization. You mentioned, Mr. Gershman, about
how there are 500 protests per day of some sort, so there is
already a fomenting of unhappiness that is now matriculating
into an ability to go out on the streets and actually show it
with less fear, although there is fear of what the secret
police might do to them.
So if you could, Patrick, or maybe Dr. Yang, speak to that
issue. It seems to me that it is only a matter of time before
there is an implosion economically, as well as societally,
because of the one-child-per-couple policy.
Mr. Gershman. Well, Mr. Chairman, first of all, you
mentioned human rights fatigue. I really want to pay tribute to
you. I mean, there has just been nobody--as I look around this
room at Ben Gilman, Henry Hyde, Dante Fascell, and Tom Lantos,
I mean, you belong in that company, you really do. You have
done really heroic work and I want to congratulate you for it.
As I look at the situation, it has changed fundamentally in
China. Liu Xiaobo has written about that. One of his really
most important essays for which he was imprisoned was called
``Changing the Regime by Changing Society.'' He talked about
the way the pillars of totalitarianism in China, the ideology,
the economy, the organizational control, even the Party
political control, either have broken down completely or are in
the process of breaking down.
The one point he emphasized most strongly, which is
something you just said, is the issue of fear. There was a time
when, if people protested, they were isolated and ostracized.
``Today,'' he said in that essay, ``such people become the
civic conscience of society and heroes of truth.'' So it has
turned this issue on its head. There is no stopping this. Yes,
Mr. Chairman, I think the President and others need to speak
out much, much more strongly.
China, because it is such a big country, gets off scot-free
on a whole host of issues. You have pointed to some of the most
critical, but there are many other issues that we have not even
spoken about today and it gets off from this criticism.
But I think our leadership, the leadership of other
countries, have to realize that China is indeed unstable. This
is not just rhetoric at a congressional hearing. The numbers of
protests, which have increased so dramatically, are increasing
approximately 12 percent every year: less than 10,000 less than
20 years ago, and we are now over 200,000 a year.
There is profound discontent. The Internet has just
revolutionized the situation where it has transformed the
consciousness. We know from someone like Chen Guangcheng and
his work that this is a grassroots movement. It is a movement
that has now spread outside the major urban centers and exists
throughout the country in the rural areas.
China has to find a way to deal with this. Its fundamental
flaw, Mr. Chairman, its fundamental flaw, is that it does not
have real legitimacy as a government. Governments can't survive
without legitimacy. It has never been elected. It is either
going to have to make this transition or the world is in very
serious trouble.
I think that it is extremely important that you keep the
issue at the center, that we quote from Liu Xiaobo, his essays,
at every opportunity, that we educate about what he said,
because his message really represents the hope for China's
future.
I think everyone here wants to see China have a strong,
healthy, and successful future, but the only way it is going to
do that is if it addresses the kinds of issues that Liu Xiaobo
has raised, especially having to do with reconciliation,
especially having to do with respect for individual human
rights.
Chairman Smith. Dr. Yang? Thank you.
Mr. Yang. It usually takes four factors to be present at
the same time to change a country from an autocratic country to
a democratic one: (1) the robust, general disaffection from
people; (2) split in the leadership in the autocratic regime;
(3) viable opposition, viable democracy movement; and (4)
international support.
Now, looking at what is happening in China, as I said in my
opening remarks, the intellectuals are weakening, evidenced by
the return of democracy debate around China's leadership
change. The intellectuals' renewed demand for democracy is, at
least in part, based on their understanding of the reality of
China's state crony capitalism. This state crony capitalism has
spanned the long period of economic growth, which has become
nearly the only one source of legitimacy for CCP's rule in
China.
However, such an economic system has extracted incalculable
costs from its people by tolerating human rights abuses,
environmental deterioration, and morality collapse. That system
has come almost to a dead end. We all know from the news that
the Chinese economy is taking a downturn. The slowing economy
will lay bare already-existing conflict between the people and
the government.
Regarding viable opposition, I mentioned in my opening
remarks that Liu Xiaobo will play an important role in
integrating the idealists such as himself with the self-
motivated protests on a grassroots level to form that
necessary, viable opposition in China. He will play a pivotal
role in forming a group of leaders who are able to represent
the people, who are able to disrupt the political order, who
are able to call for international attention and support, and
who are able to engage with the Chinese Government effectively,
either through resistance or negotiations.
As to the issue of international support, about which I
have some doubt because I am able to speak from personal
experience. In the past several years, I have been advocating
for human rights for China within the international community
and have been amazed by a well-trenched myth believed by world
leaders and policymakers and scholars.
This myth goes as follows--that because China will punish
those taking a strong stance on human rights with its growing
economic power, affecting their all-important trade relations
with China, the human rights issue should take a backseat.
But this myth is anything but tested. So I just want to
repeat the questions I asked at last Thursday's hearing in the
European Parliament: What are we afraid of? This is a myth. We
have to test it. The questions we should ask are: What do you
think China will do in response to a strong human rights
stance? Do we really believe that China will quit trading with
a country whose goods it needs because that country demands
better treatment of its citizenry? There is no past evidence in
our relationships with China to support this myth.
How much will it affect your economy, the United States'
economy for example, and are you willing or able to accept this
outcome? How much will it affect China's economy and what does
it mean to the political system? Will China be willing or able
to accept the cost? So let us calculate how much we spend on
the Iraq war, which toppled a dictator.
If China really retaliates against this country with its
economic power, how much are we willing to pay to topple
China's dictatorship? We all know the only source of
legitimacy, for this regime to continue is economic well-being.
So I think that is the least thing that they would try to
jeopardize, so I think some fear--Mr. Carl Gershman talked
about fear that works in China, but fear also works in the
international community. I found this to be self-imposed fear.
We have to test this myth to break it. Thank you.
Chairman Smith. Dr. Yang, I think your point is extremely
well taken. The Chinese Government relies on an export
strategy. Our balance of trade is approximately $300 billion in
their favor. Where would Beijing find markets, the likes of
which would be the United States, if we found our voice at
every level, especially at the White House level, on human
rights?
We would see, at least on the margin if not even more than
that, I believe, the release of prisoners, including Liu
Xiaobo, if we took seriously our obligation and did not act out
of fear, which has led to a muting of our concern. So your
point, I think, was extremely well taken.
Those who argue that our debt, I would just say for the
record, $1 trillion out of $16 trillion worth of debt. The
Chinese also need to rely on our continual solvency and well-
being for their own economist interests, not just from an
export strategy. So it is such an ill-conceived form of fear,
not based on reality.
Frankly, it goes back to the early 1990s. Bill Clinton
linked human rights with trade and I, as a Republican,
applauded that Democrat in the White House robustly, with press
conferences and statements on the House floor.
Before the year was out, he delinked most-favored-nation
status on May 26, 1994, late on a Friday afternoon. That sent a
signal to Beijing that profits trump human rights. My hope is
that we will finally, some day--hopefully soon--find our voice
to say we do not even have to fear the economic negatives. That
trading relationship will be robust no matter what.
What we do fear is a dictatorship that grows, expands its
bad form of governance and exports it to Africa and to other
countries and forms alliances that are antithetical to
democracy and human rights. So we do not act in our own
interest, not to mention the Chinese leaders like the three of
you who have done so much as China's best, and bravest, and
brightest who are now abroad, speaking out on behalf of those
left behind.
So I think your point is extraordinarily well taken. It is
a myth. I would concur with you on that. Rather than a
backseat, I would say we often take a ``no seat'' when it comes
to human rights. We are nowhere to be found. We are AWOL as a
government, and we need to do more.
Mr. Yu, you, in your testimony, really went into some
wonderful length as to who Liu Xiaobo is as a man, his courage.
You talked about his activism, that he refused to give up, to
be discouraged, or even to feel a hint of anxiety about the
increasingly marginalizing position that he had within society,
even after being held in prison. How is Liu Xiaobo doing now?
Do we have any good sense, any sense whatsoever how he is
holding up under the strain, under this terrible oppression
that he faces? I would ask Liu Min if you could speak to Liu
Xia's well-being as well. We know of the most recent
conversation she had with the AP reporters.
I mean, Cochairman Brown and I were talking as this hearing
got under way how in awe we are of those who suffer in prison,
and their loved ones. Frankly, both he and I, and I would say
that for most of us, do not know how we would react. If we were
put under this iron fist policy of a dictatorship that can beat
and torture at will, hoping someday to be free, sticking to
your convictions, it is incredible. Dr. Yang, obviously you
faced it personally when you were imprisoned. But if you could
speak to Liu Xiaobo, how he is faring now, if we know.
Mr. Yu. From the information that I obtained, I understand
that Liu Xiaobo was not imposed with physical torture in
prison. However, he was not given enough nutrition and since
the prison is located in the northern part of China, the
heating system is very bad so he is feeling extremely cold in
that situation. So it is not very comfortable for him.
His wife, Liu Xia, could visit him, could bring books to
him. However, these books need to be very seriously inspected
first. These books have to be only published within China.
These books cannot be published in Hong Kong or elsewhere
outside China. In terms of the category of books he is allowed
to read, he is allowed to read fiction and poems. Anything that
is related to political science is not allowed.
Liu Xiaobo once said no matter how long he was put in
prison he would not leave China. This has become a reason for
what China is doing, a Chinese conspiracy that is going on now.
The Chinese Government is now trying to detain Liu Xia and
trying to impose pressure on her in order to make Liu Xiaobo
give up. So I think what we can do right now is to try to get
freedom for Liu Xia.
In terms of what the United States can do in this cause, I
call for President Obama to openly call for the freedom of Liu
Xiaobo, and also I hope President Obama could sign his name on
the joint signatories, along with the other 135 Nobel Peace
Prize laureates. Also, I hope that the Ambassador to Beijing
from the United States could have opportunities to visit Liu
Xia. These are the things that we can do immediately.
Liu Xiaobo has a very well-known writing which is called,
``The Future of the Free China Lies in its Civil Society.''
This book tells us that when we are looking at the changes of
China, this is the thing for both Chinese people and people of
the world, we do not only look at the change in its high
leadership level, we also look at the change in civil society,
which includes the development of the Internet, the situation
of the house churches, and the situation of the rights
defenders lawyers.
However, what we see recently is, after the 18th Chinese
Congress, the Western media, the Western think tanks are all
putting their focus on the leadership transition, pinning their
hopes on the potential reforms that the new president, Xi
Jinping, can bring about to the society. I think this is a
repeated mistake that we saw 10 years ago when President Hu
Jintao took office.
So by saying this, I hope that the Western world, the
Western media, could get themselves familiarized with the idea
expressed by Liu Xiaobo that the hope lies in the Chinese civil
society.
Chairman Smith. Did you want to speak?
Ms. Liu. No, thank you.
Chairman Smith. Okay.
Mr. Griffith, you mentioned in your testimony that the U.N.
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had found that Liu
Xiaobo's detention was arbitrary under international law.
What does that mean in terms of, what is the consequence
for that? What has the U.N. Human Rights Council done, if
anything? We know Manfred Nowak, some years ago--the Special
Rapporteur on Torture--did an excellent expose of the systemic
use of torture in China against prisoners. But the Human Rights
Council is an institution that has at least the broad power to
expose--not enforce much, but expose--abuse.
What did the U.N. Arbitrary Detention Unit do in followup,
and what about the Human Rights Council?
Mr. Griffith. With respect to the Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention, as a non-treaty body they do not have a
binding effect, even technically binding effect, on China,
unfortunately. They are best thought of, I think, as a body of
independent experts. They speak, I think, with great authority,
both on what China's obligations under international law are--
of course they are a signatory but not party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR],
unfortunately--but their opinion does, we believe, carry a
great deal of weight and they do, in some respects, speak on
behalf of the United Nations. Insofar as they do have that
authority, it then becomes the job of the activists to enforce
that opinion. Unfortunately, it is not self-enforcing, so it is
then our job to hold it up and to use it to hold the Chinese
Government accountable.
With respect to the Human Rights Committee, unfortunately,
because China is not a party to the ICCPR and therefore not a
party to the optional protocol, the Human Rights Committee does
not have jurisdiction to hear the individual case of Liu with
respect to the human rights.
Chairman Smith. But they do a periodic review.
Mr. Griffith. My understanding is the Human Rights Council.
Chairman Smith. That's what I meant. I said the council.
Mr. Griffith. Oh, I apologize.
Chairman Smith. Yes.
Mr. Griffith. There are too many bodies. The Human Rights
Council does the periodic review. My understanding is, they
have looked at and discussed Liu Xiaobo's case in the context
of that review and will be considering China once again coming
up. I believe the submissions are due in just a few months, and
they will certainly be receiving a submission from at least our
organization, and I believe a number of others.
Chairman Smith. Dr. Yang?
Mr. Yang. When it comes to the EU--to the United Nations; I
just came back from the EU--we should remember the fact that
China is a member of the United Nations, a member of the Human
Rights Council. China is a leading human rights violator. It
has sat on that Council. So inevitably, the international human
rights standards will become substandards based upon China's
own actions toward its people.
We have joined efforts with many rights groups from all
past wars to stop China's bid to be reelected to the Human
Rights Council in about a year. China's membership will expire
at the end of this year because it has already served its full
two terms and it has to wait for another year, for one year, to
become eligible to be reelected. So we have a joint effort now
to stop China from being reelected.
Here, I call on the U.S. Congress to pass a resolution to
direct the State Department to at least come up with
conditional support of China's membership on the U.N. Human
Rights Council. The condition can be that the United States
should not support China's membership at the U.N. Human Rights
Council, but only when China releases Liu Xiaobo and all of the
political prisoners.
I want to echo what Yu Jie just said about Liu Xiaobo's
situation. I want to point out that usually the family members
suffer more than the prisoners. The dissidents, to a certain
degree, are prepared to be prisoners in China. We discussed
this. Liu Xiaobo and I discussed this issue in 2007, not long
after I was imprisoned. He literally said that he was feeling
guilty about his family members, the torment they underwent,
and that he had a very strong sense he would be detained again
very soon. He expressed that regret and guilty feeling to me
toward family members.
So on the subject of the wife of Liu Xiaobo--Liu Xia's
situation. Everybody knows how she is suffering. I just want to
echo Patrick and Yu Jie's call. Actually, that has been our
call for two months, for the world ambassadors and diplomats in
China to make a visit with Liu Xia.
Liu Xia is a normal citizen. The Chinese Government has
never brought any charges against her. Legally, she is just a
regular citizen. It is alright for a diplomat in Beijing to
make such a request. I just want to repeat what we said in the
petition calling for the ambassadors to visit Liu Xia.
``When history's pen writes about your time, represents
your country in China, you will want its ink to clearly
underline your having made the case for Dr. Liu's release and
his wife's freedom. Rather than showing a stain of
indifference, don't miss an opportunity to make this moral
gesture. Place this visit on your calendar. Insist on necessary
arrangements.''
Thank you.
Chairman Smith. Dr. Yang, thank you. That is something we
will follow up as a Commission as well. It is a point very well
taken.
Coming to the conclusion, and I would ask if you have any
final statement you would like to make, or comments or
insights, but I would note, Mr. Griffith, that the Chinese
Government counts on, I believe, naivete and the ability to
manipulate U.S. media.
You made an excellent point, I think, about how everyone is
concerned about the transition and they are all caught up in
this transition to the new president--unelected, again, but the
new president--rather than missing the house churches, and all
the other daily abominations committed by this dictatorship
against very good people who just want to practice their faith
or express themselves on the Internet, or do something that
freedom-loving people can do in most other places of the world.
But this naivete--I will never forget when top Chinese
officials were making their way to the United States. Maybe a
week, five days, four days before they arrived here there would
be a buzz about how they were about to sign the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that they were moving
toward that signature. Of course it has not been ratified yet.
But they milked that for years.
Those who look askance when it comes to human rights in
this country, including some of the most powerful interests,
including a number of politicians, would cling to that and say,
``See, they are about to sign the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, so cut them a break, you critics.''
Meanwhile the people in the prisons, meanwhile the women
subjected to the cruelty of forced abortion. Meanwhile, the
religious practitioners of Falun Gong, and all the other
believers, the Uyghurs, the Buddhists, the underground
Christians, continue to be savaged by this dictatorship. It is
amazing to me. I have been here 32 years as a Member of
Congress and I've been working on China since I got here on
human rights.
Of course, it went to an accelerated mode post Tiananmen
Square when we all realized that the lid was lifted as never
before, that there were possibilities. But how naive, how
naive. Maybe it is purposeful naivete, but it is nevertheless a
naivete that enables, however unwittingly, the dictatorship and
this cruelty. So thank you for bringing those points up.
We will contact our Ambassador, ask that he visit the wife
of Liu Xiaobo. And why hasn't he to date? But past does not
have to be prologue; we will encourage him to go and do just
that. Again, hope springs eternal that the President will find
his voice on this as well and sign the letter, as was
mentioned, Dr. Yang, of the Nobel laureates on behalf of Liu
Xiaobo. He is a Nobel laureate. Sign the letter.
So any final comments that any of our distinguished
witnesses would like to make before we adjourn?
Mr. Gershman. No. Again, Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank
you for being a leader on this issue. It is just of
extraordinary importance and you are really having an impact.
Thank you.
Chairman Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Yang. I want to echo Mr. Carl Gershman to thank you. I
first testified at a hearing hosted by you back in 1995 on
Tiananmen Square. On that occasion, China's Defense Minister
Chi Haotian was visiting here in Washington, DC.
I do have a few comments. I think the world democracies
have run into a collective action dilemma. Unilaterally dealing
with China may not be as effective as a multilateral mechanism.
So I urge the U.S. Government to take the lead in forming a
multilateral approach of governments dealing with China's human
rights crisis, the Tibetan crisis, and the political
prisoners-- i.e., all of the human rights crises. I think that
will work more effectively than unilaterally dealing with
China.
I believe that the Chinese Government is paying great
attention to this hearing. So, I have a special message to Xi
Jinping: Mr. Xi Jinping, since you are now just taking over the
helm of Chinese leadership, you well may be spared the blame
for the repressive policies adopted and implemented by your
predecessors. But, if you wait too long to make important
changes, all blame will rightly be placed upon you as well. I
understand that implementing a systemic political change in
China will be very complex, and I cannot expect anybody to
finish it overnight, but one can begin with such small, simple
things as returning freedom to Liu Xia.
Thank you.
Mr. Griffith. Thank you, Chairman Smith. The only thing
that I would add is to reiterate your comment about human
rights fatigue, particularly in high-profile cases like Liu
Xiaobo's, and to thank you again. These hearings are essential
from an activist perspective in continuing to garner attention
about these cases and I would only thank you again for inviting
me to speak today.
Mr. Yu. Also, I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving
this opportunity to attend this hearing. My final remarks are,
although recently we have heard some kind of sentiment
regarding nationalism in China where you hear some kind of
opposition to Western ideas inside the country, but here I want
to assure you that most Chinese people really like America,
really like America's values. So if America wants to elevate
its reputation in China it should persist in its values of
human rights and freedom instead of putting business profits on
top of everything.
We recently heard Wal-Mart has established a Party
secretary department in its office in Beijing. This would
really damage the American image inside China an that is not a
good idea. So I hope once again that the American leadership
could keep its voice for human rights and let this idea spread
even more. Thank you.
Ms. Liu. No, thank you.
Chairman Smith. Thank you.
On that note, the hearing is adjourned. Thank you so much.
[Whereupon, at 11:49 a.m. the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
=======================================================================
Prepared Statements
----------
Prepared Statement of Carl Gershman
december 12, 2012
I want to thank Chairman Smith and Cochairman Brown for inviting me
to testify today. I would like to take this opportunity to address
briefly three issues: The dangerous instability of China's political
system and its immense human costs; the importance of a peaceful
democratic transition as the best way of ensuring stability; and
finally, the recognition that Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 are part of a
broad popular movement within China which represents the best hope for
democratic transition.
The recent scandals around Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai and
his failed bid for power in the Party leadership transition provide a
valuable glimpse into the way the Chinese government operates. We see
how brutal struggles unconstrained by formalized rules and due process
are still the norm for the Party, from top to bottom. And this
vulnerability of the Party echoes throughout the political system. The
Chinese state is brittle and unstable, and many inside China worry the
country is headed for a social explosion. According to the well-known
Chinese scholar Yu Jianrong, for example, the government sees the
``expression of people's legitimate interests'' as a threat to the
social order. Land rights for peasants, food safety for children, wages
for workers, residency rights for rural migrants in the urban area, and
minority rights for Tibetans or Uyghurs--all are undermined by
government repression. The law, meanwhile, provides little refuge. What
modest gains the legal system had made have seen a back-slide. The
blind activist Chen Guangcheng, whose brave escape from the security
apparatus early this year highlights the level of repression, calls the
Chinese system ``lawless.''
Lured by extraordinary profiteering opportunities, the Party
bureaucracy has become increasingly predatory. Consequently, the number
of collective protests has been rising steadily: from 9,700 in 1993, to
90,000 in 2006, to 180,000 in 2010, to over 200,000 in 2011, an average
of about 500 a day. As the government ramps up its security budget to
``maintain stability,'' human costs mount.
In Tibet, government controls are so tight that comparisons have
been made to a war zone. To protest their lack of religious and
political freedom, 95 Tibetans, 82 men and 13 women, have self-
immolated since 2009. Constant repression of Uyghur culture and a lack
of opportunity because of open discrimination of Uyghurs have resulted
in deep resentment and hardening ethnic tension. A level of government
control unlike anywhere else in China has become the norm in Xinjiang,
with forced disappearances of Uyghurs after the June 2009 unrest and
long prison terms for Uyghur journalists and bloggers providing a
narrative at odds with the official one.
Across China, demolitions and land appropriations deprive many of
hard-earned property and livelihood. Chinese economist Wu Jinglian
estimates that the government has deprived farmers of $500 billion in
property value during the drive for development. News and photos of
people self-immolating in protest have become a staple of social media.
Increasing desperation and the inability of the current system to
provide long-term guarantees of rights and liberties lead to more
protests, and the vicious cycle spirals downward.
Even under these bleak conditions, a social movement has arisen in
which ordinary people seek to use the law on behalf of China's people.
It takes corrupt officials, police and the government to court for
malfeasance and injustice. It organizes peaceful demonstrations to
educate other citizens and rallies support for their cause. It posts
messages about rights violations on the Internet when the press turns
them away. Individuals associated with the movement either run as
independent candidates or work as campaign volunteers in sham local
elections, trying to lend the process legitimacy. They call the secret
police on behalf of human rights defenders, and show up at police
stations and black jails for advocacy and rescue. Chen Guangcheng's
moral resistance and ultimate escape were the focus of such a human
rights campaign--one of the largest since the founding of the People's
Republic. And their voices are growing. Tens of millions of Internet
users ``gather and gawk'' online at stories of corruption and human
rights violations to show support for their fellow citizens and create
pressure for more accountability.
Again, the human costs are high. These human rights defenders
receive no help from establishment intellectuals or lawyers from their
localities. The courts either refuse to take their cases or put on mock
trials. They are defenseless against police violence. They are often
illegally detained, tortured and sentenced to labor camp without anyone
hearing about it. Human rights lawyers and public intellectuals join
them, at considerable risk to themselves, to address China's
lawlessness.
The writings of Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08
should be seen in this context. Liu has tirelessly pushed for political
change by asking the state to live up to its own laws and obligations.
The Charter calls for gradual political reforms: rule of law, the
separation of powers, and a multi-party system. Its signatories, a
diverse body comprising both prominent figures within the system and
ordinary people at the grassroots, are united behind its common vision
of a democratic China. It is part and parcel of the broad bottom-up
movement for popular constitutionalism and gradual change. As we have
seen in the success stories of South Korea and Taiwan, such social
movements are among the best guarantors of peaceful transition to a
robust democracy.
To date, the Chinese government has chosen a path different from
the one envisioned by civil society. To keep widespread dissatisfaction
at bay, the government encourages nationalism and stokes popular anger
in order to bolster its legitimacy. In September, the government
encouraged a wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations, which turned violent
in many places. It correctly gauges that nationalism serves as a
powerful instrument in impeding public demand for democratic change.
Simultaneously, the party's proactive repression has kept civil society
fragmented, fragile, beset by doubt, and still largely unable to mount
meaningful monitoring of the government's performance and adherence to
both domestic and international obligations.
Such a strategy however, may open China up to great danger, with
grave implications for the entire world. The instability of the current
system may eventually end in large-scale and bloody repression or,
equally disastrously, in violent upheaval. China may decide to step up
an aggressive stance abroad to consolidate support and distract
criticism by fomenting nationalist antagonism. By so doing, it could
inadvertently provoke conflict. Given China's geopolitical significance
and the vital role it plays in the international economic order, all
these outcomes would create disruptions that travel far beyond the
region. Most importantly, the human costs for the Chinese people would
be unthinkable.
We have reason to believe, then, that civil society's fight to open
up the political system to the Chinese people represents the only
desirable alternative to the status quo. The movement can help bridge
the vast ideological, income, and social divisions splintering China
through political liberalization, the protection of basic rights, and
the pursuit of social justice. Congress and the Administration, as well
as the American public, have a golden opportunity to act in a
bipartisan manner in calling for Liu Xiaobo's release, not only as a
matter of justice and human rights, but also to enable him to take part
in civic debate on the fraught challenge of democratic transformation
of China.
Let us hope that the new Chinese leadership will recognize this
historic opportunity. In doing so, they would avert the profound crisis
facing their country, and open up prospects of a free China, whose
power and prosperity would be strengthened through democracy.
______
Prepared Statement of Yang Jianli
december 12, 2012
It is a great honor for me to speak about the significance of Liu
Xiaobo in a democratic change in China. I want to begin by asking this
question: Why is China, a seemingly increasingly assertive world power,
afraid of a single man like Liu Xiaobo? Why is it afraid of a moderate
document like Charter 08, a manifesto authored by Liu Xiaobo and his
colleagues in China demanding for political reform?
The answer can only be that the rulers of China understand just how
unjust, therefore weak, their system is and how significant Liu Xiaobo
is for a democratic change.
Liu Xiaobo and his colleagues recognize there are two Chinas. They
have tried to bring together these two severely separated Chinas and
construct a society built upon universal values of public political
life.
By ``two China,'' I am not trying to distinguish ``mainland China''
from ``Taiwan.'' Geographically there is only one entity of mainland
China, but politically, economically, sociologically, and even
sentimentally, it has largely broken into two societies.
Over the past 20 some years after Tiananmen Square, the CCP regime
has established a two China structure and one of the two Chinas, which
I call China, Inc. is formed by
1. Red Capitalists
2. Marriage between Power and Capital
3. Shares open to domestic and foreign capitalists
4. Shares free to intellectuals
Today, China Inc. is dazzling the entire world with its wealth,
might and glory. It dominates the public discourse that outside
observers believe that it represents China--the whole of China.
The truth is there is another society named China, a society
constituted of over a billion Chinese who are virtually slave-laborers
working for China, Inc. I call this second China the under China.
How do these two Chinas differ?
1. Unprecedented wealth gap between the Chinas.
2. Citizens of the under China are unable to enjoy basic
benefits or constitutionally afforded civil and political
rights.
3. The elite monopolize over power, capital, and information.
4. The two Chinas no longer speak a common political
language.
5. The two Chinas have no common political life.
6. The underclass have grown more and more discontent and
distrustful of the elite.
On top of the traditional lies and violence, which every autocratic
ruler uses, the CCP regime has developed new tactics to maintain the
two China structure which is comprised of:
One body: sustaining economic growth at all costs to maintain the
regime's ruling legitimacy
Two wings: appeasing the elite with corruption and suppressing the
powerless with rogue police
Two claws: purging citizen advocates like Liu Xiaobo and blocking
public opinion.
Nevertheless, it is not enough to just see the severe division of
the two societies of China. We must envision the emergence of a new,
democratic China: the third China which is represented by people like
Liu Xiaobo.
Liu Xiaobo's Nobel honor indicates the international recognition of
the Chinese democracy movement represented by Liu Xiaobo. This, among
other gestures, will even eventually help strengthen the hand of those
inside the communist bureaucracy pushing for reform. Liu Xiaobo has
become the symbol of democracy in China and moral courage and
determination in struggling for that goal. Simply because of such a
symbolism, his continued imprisonment presents itself a footnote to the
vow made in President Hu Jintao's political report at the recent
Party's 18th Congress that the leadership would ``never take the evil
road of changing flags and banners''--code for abandoning one-party
rule. This vow dispelled any doubts about the party's resolve to keep
its political monopoly.
But we must remember the CCP does not have the only say about
China's future. Liu Xiaobo and his symbolism represents another force
that will help shape the future of China as well as an alternative road
in China, the evil road in the minds of China's leaders perhaps. And,
this force is becoming increasingly viable.
The most important sign is the recent intellectual awakening
evidenced by the return of the democracy debate which has been at the
center of the public course around China's leadership change. More and
more intellectuals, who were generally co-opted by the regime not long
after Tiananmen and had been acting as defenders of the China's one
party system, have come to realize and acknowledge the value of Liu
Xiaobo and ideas and beliefs which are embodied in Charter 08. The
intellectual recognition that the status quo is unsustainable is always
the first and vital step towards changing it.
Despite the division I talked about earlier, there are two often
overlooked consensuses among
Chinese from both societies. The first is that the present China is
not ``normal,'' indeed ``absurd'', a word Liu Xia kept saying in her
first and totally unexpected media interview in 26 months of her
illegal house arrest. The second, perhaps agreed upon to a lesser
degree, is that China will eventually become normal through democratic
means.
To find a common ground to lay the foundation for the third China,
we must create a political language based on universal values that can
bridge the gap between the two Chinas. And that is exactly what Liu
Xiaobo, and Charter 08, has been intent on accomplishing.
Change is unlikely to happen first from within the CCP regime which
values stability-above-all. A breakthrough for a democratic change will
surely come from the people.
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo has a remarkable
impacts on the hearts of the people inside China and over the past
years the civil movement has become increasingly mature, skillful, and
resilient as evidenced by many cases including Chen Guangcheng, Ai
Weiwei, and Wukan villagers.
Liu Xiaobo with Charter 08 is a banner. Backed by large numbers of
its real-name signers from diverse segments of society, the Charter
will continue to transform individual protests into a long-lasting
movement that demands across-the- board, systematic change.
As the non-governmental forces grow and the civil protests
escalate, the struggle for power among different factions with the
communist regime will become more pronounced. Once the external
pressure reaches a critical mass, the rival factions within the CCP
will have no choice but take the voices of the citizens seriously and
seek their support to survive.
The release of Liu Xiaobo will help signal the coming of that
change.
When a large-scale movement takes place again, as it did in 1989,
we will need leaders to play the roles that Mandela, Havel, Walesa, and
Aung San Suu Kyi have played in the political changes of their
respective countries. We will need a group of civil leaders who can
disrupt the political order and establish itself as the legitimate
voice of the people in negotiations with the state. Liu Xiaobo, as a
widely accepted leader both at home and abroad, will surely play a
unique role in forming such a group, which was most needed but lacking
in our 1989 Tiananmen movement.
Therefore, working toward his freedom is vital for a democratic
change in China. I am particularly encouraged by the strong support for
Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 from world human rights leaders and
activists. Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November
of 2010. For the first time, there is hope for reform in Burma. In
seeking the Liu's release, we hope and struggle for the same in China.
______
Prepared Statement of Patrick Griffith\1\
december 12, 2012
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and Mr. Co-Chairman and thank you for
the opportunity to join you today. The Congressional-Executive
Commission is an essential source for information about human rights
violations in China, and I want to begin by thanking the Commissioners
and the staff for their unwavering support for prisoners of conscience.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Patrick Griffith can be contacted at [email protected]
or +1 (202) 223-3733.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As an attorney with Freedom Now and as international pro bono
counsel to the Lius, my testimony today will focus on why the detention
of Dr. Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia is a flagrant violation of
China's obligations under international law. In addition to a brief
discussion of recent developments in the case, I will explain in our
view what steps the United States can take, in light of their continued
detention, to lead a growing international movement to free them.
The circumstances of Dr. Liu's detention are widely known and
largely undisputed, even by the Chinese government. Dr. Liu became a
prolific essayist after being detained and barred from teaching or
publishing in the country following his public support of student
protesters in 1989. At the time of his arrest, Dr. Liu was leading an
initiative called Charter '08. Modeled on the Czechoslovakian Charter
'77, the Chinese manifesto called for a peaceful transition to multi-
party democracy and respect for fundamental human rights in China.
Detained at an unknown location for six months, without charge or
access to legal counsel, Dr. Liu was ultimately accused of ``inciting
subversion'' of the state and its socialist system. The prosecution's
indictment, like the court's judgment on December 25, 2009 sentencing
Dr. Liu to 11 years in prison, specifically relied on his writings as
proof of his guilt.
Shortly after the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the following
October that it would award the Peace Prize to Dr. Liu, ``in
recognition of his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human
rights in China,'' the government placed Dr. Liu's wife, Liu Xia, under
house arrest. Two years later, she remains cut-off from the outside
world without even the pretense of legal process. Just last week,
reporters from the Associated Press managed to reach Liu Xia and
described the desperate situation she faces. In her first interview in
over two years, Liu Xia confirmed that she has been confined to her
home, unable to communicate with the outside world, except for weekly
trips to buy groceries and visit family. She described her continued
house arrest as ``painfully surreal'' and noted that although she
initially felt prepared for the consequences of the Peace Prize, she
never imagined she would be unable to leave her home. After two years
of house arrest, Liu Xia was described as looking frail and frequently
confined to bed due to back pain. ``I don't keep track of the days
anymore'' she said.
The prosecution of Dr. Liu and the lack of due process afforded to
him clearly violate China's international obligations. China has signed
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which
specifically protects the right to peaceful freedom of expression.
These international protections apply regardless of whether Chinese
domestic law punishes peaceful political expression as ``subversion''
and the government's constant refrain that Dr. Liu's imprisonment is
the result of a criminal prosecution is simply irrelevant. Further, as
internationally protected rights, their violation is the proper concern
of the international community--not merely an issue of domestic
``judicial sovereignty.''
The violation of Liu Xia's rights is even more appalling. Despite a
mountain of evidence to the contrary, the Chinese government has
claimed that ``no legal enforcement measure has been taken'' against
her. This claim is either a lie or an admission of guilt, and as
amplified by the recent reports about the toll her house arrest is
taking, it is also incredibly cruel. Most strikingly, Liu Xia's
continued detention is patently illegal--nothing under domestic or
international law authorizes the indefinite detention of a person,
without any due process whatsoever, for the crime of being married to a
Nobel Laureate.
In response to petitions filed by Freedom Now on behalf of Lius,
the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found their
continued detentions to be arbitrary under international law. Despite
this finding by the United Nations, and its call for their immediate
release, life for Dr. Liu and Liu Xia remains unchanged since he
received the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago. Unfortunately, this lack
of progress can also be seen in other Chinese cases, such as that of
imprisoned rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. As Mr. Gao's wife described to
this Commission in February, the Chinese government has repeatedly
disappeared and tortured Mr. Gao because of his support for religious
minority groups, workers, and victims of land seizures. After holding
Mr. Gao incommunicado for 20 months, the government announced at the
end of last year that it would imprison him for an additional three
years for allegedly violating the terms of a suspended sentence imposed
in 2006 after Mr. Gao confessed to ``inciting subversion'' after
interrogators threatened his family. As with Liu Xia, the total lack of
due process afforded to Mr. Gao belies any notion that the Chinese
government respects the ``rule of law'' it so frequently claims to
uphold.
While the Chinese government's intransigence on these cases is
certainly frustrating, the international movement to free the Lius is
gathering cohesion and momentum. Last week, the International Committee
for Liu Xiaobo, a coalition of six Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and 15
non-government organizations, including our own, released a letter from
134 Nobel Laureates calling for the immediate and unconditional release
of the Lius. What is striking about the letter is not only the number
of signatures, but also the diversity of its supporters. The letter,
lead by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Sir Richard Roberts was signed by
Laureates from across all six Nobel disciplines, not just his fellow
Peace Prize winners. Archbishop Tutu is also leading an effort to build
a citizens' movement in support of the Lius. Launched with a petition
on Change.org that mirrors the Laureate letter, the initiative
surpassed 200,000 signatures from 82 countries in less than 48 hours
and continues to gather support.
In light of this growing citizens' movement, there are three ways
that the United States can redouble its efforts and change its tactics
in support of the Lius. As Representatives Frank Wolf (R-TX) and Jim
McGovern (D-MA) of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission noted last
Thursday during the launch of the Defending Freedoms Project, respect
for human rights is a non-partisan issue and the United States has an
essential role in speaking out against abuses.
First, as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate himself, President Obama has
the unique opportunity to take a leading role in the growing citizens'
movement. Initiatives such as the Laureate letter organized Archbishop
Tutu and Mr. Roberts provide Mr. Obama with a ready-made platform to
highlight the continuing detention of the Lius. While the President did
call for Dr. Liu's release shortly after he was announced as the
recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, we are disappointed that since
then he has not publicly reiterated this call nor has he ever
personally called for Liu Xia's release. The President's voice in
support of the Lius has the potential to galvanize the international
community. However, without the President's personal engagement on
initiatives such as the Laureate letter, Beijing will receive the
message that it can continue to detain Dr. Liu and Liu Xia in violation
of international law without suffering any further public consequences.
Second, the United States should consistently and publicly hold the
Chinese government accountable for its continued refusal to release the
Lius. While there is certainly a role for quiet diplomacy, the
situation for Dr. Liu and Liu Xia has remained largely unchanged over
the last two years. Because the ultimate measure of success is their
freedom, the anniversary of the Nobel award presents an opportune
moment for the United States to reassess its approach. During the Cold
War, many high-level bilateral meetings, regardless of topic, began
with the U.S. representative raising concerns about political
prisoners. Reinstituting such tactics would send a clear message that
the Chinese government's refusal to comply with international law is
unacceptable.
Finally, the United States should take a leading role in
multilateral efforts to support the Lius. For example, leadership on a
letter from other G8 countries highlighting the continued detention of
the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate would remind the
incoming Chinese leadership that if it wants to join the community of
nations as a full partner, it must do more that merely talk about human
rights and the rule of law. It is our belief that even a private
discussion about such a public multilateral effort could have real and
positive impacts on the ground. Especially in light of the recent news
about Liu Xia's plight, these kinds of international efforts are
urgently needed.
My testimony today has focused on a handful of cases. Admittedly,
they are among the hardest cases in one of the most difficult
countries. The challenge of such high profile cases is that they often
lead to multiple, but ultimately uncoordinated, initiatives. With
Archbishop Tutu's efforts to develop an increasingly cohesive citizens'
movement, this anniversary presents an important opportunity to refocus
attention on the continued detention of Dr. Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu
Xia. While relations between the United States and China are
necessarily complex, respect for fundamental human rights must remain
at the center of that relationship and the continued detention of the
Lius is an important bellwether indicating that more must be done.
______
Prepared Statement of Yu Jie
december 12, 2012
On October 9th, 2010, the day after Liu Xiaobo was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize, the Chinese Communist Party arranged a meeting
between him and his wife Liu Xia.
Liu told his wife that he had already learned of his award from
prison officials. Then, facing her with tears in his eyes, he said,
``this prize is for the lost souls of June Fourth.''
Liu Xiaobo's confinement made him only the second recipient, in
more than a century of the prize's history, to be awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize while in prison. As Liu was unable to attend the ceremony
held in Oslo, an empty chair was placed onstage to symbolize his
absence: as you might expect, empty chairs are a rare sight at such
ceremonies.
Vaclav Havel, a fellow intellectual, dissident, and political
prisoner who strongly supported Liu's nomination for the Nobel Peace
Prize, also shares with Liu a common casual fashion sense. Even after
becoming President of the Czech Republic, Havel never abandoned his
aversion to formal dress. He once refused a suit given to him by his
friend Karel Schwarzenberger, a descendant of Austrian royalty,
exclaiming ``I can't wear this! It would make me look like a clown.''
Havel continued to wear a simple pullover and jeans throughout his
presidency, riding his scooter through the winding halls of Prague
Castle.
Like Havel, Liu Xiaobo has always had a casual and simple style.
You are not likely to see him in a suit and tie. Once when a friend
invited him to dinner at an exclusive club, the host stopped Liu at the
doorway and required him to change out of his jeans: he was less than
happy with this formality. When Liu was a rising star in the academic
world in the 1980s, he would often lecture at Beijing Normal University
in worn old jeans and sandals. One classmate recalls that Liu, who
always did things his own way even then, would often ``wear a t-shirt,
shorts, and sandals, with a tattered book bag on his back.'' And
whoever chose to criticize his sense of style would inevitably receive
the self-satisfied response that ``this entire outfit cost less than
ten yuan!''
If one day Liu Xiaobo regains his freedom, we can be certain that
China will have already started on the path to democratization. Would
he be invited to Oslo City Hall, to make up for the prize ceremony that
he missed? Would he wear a neatly pressed black tuxedo to the
ceremony?I can't help but wonder how he would look, dressed so
immaculately from head to toe.
Every person's life is filled with countless ``ifs.'' Liu Xiaobo's
is no exception.
If Liu Xiaobo's father had not been a literature professor, if Liu
had not been sent down to the countryside as an ``educated youth,'' or
if he had not been accepted into the Chinese Department at Jilin
University and joined the Innocent Hearts Poetry Group, amidst the
unrivaled reign of the technical sciences in that era, would he have
become just another bumbling engineer?
If Liu Xiaobo had not been accepted into the Chinese Department at
Beijing Normal University and remained as an instructor after
graduation, if he had not published his declaration on the crisis of
contemporary Chinese literature, and if he had not challenged Li Zehou,
one of the more influential thinkers of that period, would he have
become just another inconspicuous and obscure professor of aesthetics?
If Liu Xiaobo, amidst the tumult of 1989, had only completed his
term as a visiting scholar abroad rather than returning to Beijing like
a moth to a flame, if he had only stood on the sidelines of the student
movement rather than becoming one of the leaders of the hunger strike
that marked its peak, or if he had just not stood ground with fellow
protestors on Tiananmen Square until the very last moment, would he
have avoided the tragedy of prison?
If, as more and more Chinese dove into the sea of entrepreneurship
in the 1990s, Liu Xiaobo had decided to change course and just focus on
making some money, if he had returned to the ivory tower to refocus his
energies on textual research, or if he had only dedicated some of his
talent to publishing bestsellers, would he have become just another
showy nouveau riche intellectual-turned-businessman?
If, in this new century, Liu Xiaobo had not been elected to the
presidency of the Independent Chinese PEN Center and dedicated himself
to the struggle for freedom of expression, if he had not published
millions of characters worth of political commentary in the overseas
media and on overseas websites, and if he had not participated in
drafting and organizing Charter '08, would he have faced a fourth
prison sentence? And would he have received the Nobel Peace Prize?
Each of these ``ifs'' presents a crossroads in life. But if, over
the past thirty years, China did not have Liu Xiaobo, or if Liu's sense
of duty . . . or shall we say the combination of his sense of duty,
ambition, and other aspects of his complex personality . . . were not
quite as strong as they have been, what would our world be like today?
Liu Xiaobo's existence, and Liu Xiaobo's suffering, are a reminder
to us all: we are not alone in this world, and cannot think only of
ourselves. We have to remained engaged with and reflective upon the
world around us, and bear our shared responsibility.
In 1977, after years of work in the countryside as an ``educated
youth,'' Liu Xiaobo was admitted into college, beginning his journey to
becoming an independent intellectual at the age of twenty-two. Liu's
growth and activism over the three decades that followed can be divided
into four main passages.
The first passage, from 1977 to 1989, was a period in which Liu
pursued his studies, began his career, and made a name for himself in
literary circles.
The late 1970s and 1980s were a rare moment of vitality and hope in
modern China. Despite the occasional reemergence of political campaigns
like the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Drive and the Campaign against
Bourgeois Liberalization, the control and restraint of leaders like Hu
Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang ensured that such temporary flashbacks to the
Maoist era did not devastate the recently revitalized cultural and
intellectual fields. The liberation of thought that characterized the
1980s continued through the spring of 1989, when it was suddenly and
cruelly extinguished.
Liu Xiaobo benefited greatly from the open intellectual atmosphere
of this period, while also becoming a central contributor to its
continual expansion. Liu began his studies from literary criticism and
aesthetics, gradually expanding into a far-reaching critique of Chinese
traditional culture, Chinese intellectuals, and the prevailing
political system. His books sold faster than they could be printed, and
his speeches were all the talk of college campuses.
In the spring of 1989, while Liu Xiaobo was a visiting scholar in
the United States, student protests began in Beijing. Liu was
determined to return, and soon dedicated himself wholeheartedly to this
movement. Liu's decision transformed him from the ``dark horse'' of
literary circles to the ``black hand'' behind the student movement,
from a detached intellectual to a man of action, and from a young
scholar to an enemy of the state. The echo of gunfire reverberating
through the streets of Beijing officially marked the end of Liu
Xiaobo's youth.
The second passage, from 1989 to 1999, was a period in which Liu
was imprisoned, persecuted, and remained committed and active while
increasingly isolated
This was a decade of unrelenting social and political stasis,
combined with unprecedented economic growth. It was a decade of
intellectual suppression and of the widespread abandonment of even the
most basic of moral values. Deng Xiaoping's call to build a ``well-off
society'' left the people of China with no choice but to accept the
reality of being robbed of their freedom and denied their fundamental
human rights, and to focus their energies upon the sole acceptable
goal: making money. Money became the only thing in which people could
truly believe. In academic circles, one after another, nationalism,
populism, postmodernism, neo-traditionalism, and the ``New Left'' took
intellectual circles by storm with the tacit approval and encouragement
of the state. Liberalism, by contrast, was gradually marginalized.
Liu Xiaobo's human rights activism in this period led to his
imprisonment three separate times, totaling nearly six years behind
bars in one decade. And even when he was not in prison, Liu was still
followed, closely monitored, and even placed under arbitrary house
arrest by state security, making his life anything but easy. Yet he
refused to give up, to be discouraged, or to even feel a hint of
anxiety about his increasingly marginalized position within Chinese
society. Instead, he continued on his course, reading the latest
commentaries, observing the social and cultural developments around
him, collaborating with similarly minded colleagues, and searching for
new possibilities.
Throughout this decade, Liu composed and organized signatories to a
number of open letters addressing such pressing issues as implementing
democracy, protecting human rights, and overturning the official
verdict on Tiananmen. Despite these far-reaching efforts, Liu's
influence continued to be limited primarily to a small circle of
dissident intellectuals: he had become a lonely trailblazer.
The third passage, from 1999 to 2008, was a period in which Liu
wrote extensively on political affairs, and emerged as one of
contemporary China's central public intellectuals and human rights
activists.
This was a decade in which China's economic development continued
to accelerate, while political reform continued to lag far behind.
Corruption continued to plague society, and social tensions continued
to intensify. Throughout the reigns of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the
Chinese Communist Party has declared to the outside world the rise of a
new great power, and attempted to export the so-called China model. Yet
domestically, the Party has proselytized its ``harmonious society:''
beneath its pleasant sounding veneer, such harmony is in reality
nothing but the maintenance of ``stability'' through unrelenting
violence, with the growing ranks of secret police running wild with
increasingly free reign.
Yet from another perspective, in this decade civil society
gradually took root and slowly expanded, NGOs sprung up one after
another, and rapidly expanding Internet use resulted in unprecedented
access to free information. However, divisions continued to grow within
the intellectual world, as more and more scholars began to willingly
abandon their independence and stand wholeheartedly with the
government.
Totalitarianism with Chinese characteristics has undergone repeated
metamorphoses on its path to modernity. The majority has chosen to bow
down and submit to this superficially benevolent yet actually quite
coldblooded force; they justify their decision by repeating, ``if you
can't beat them, join them.'' And as one sector after another gave up
and joined in this game, cynicism has come to reign over Chinese
society, erasing any remaining momentum for further reform.
In this era, Liu Xiaobo continued to be closely monitored by the
state security forces. However, with the exception of brief periods of
house arrest and interrogation at particular ``sensitive times'' each
year, he managed to stay out of prison, allowing for a relative sense
of security and stability. Combining his extensive knowledge with a
growing awareness of the essential role of public intellectuals in
social transformation, Liu maintained a sharp awareness of pressing
issues and a passion for critical reflection. As one scholar has noted,
``he never stopped thinking through a workable program for political
transition, as well as possible directions to pursue following such a
transition. His thought provides a unique and extremely valuable
perspective that links the intellectual world with grassroots society,
in search of a soft landing in a `post-transition' era yet to come.''
Between 2003 and 2007, Liu Xiaobo also served two terms as the
president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, finally developing on-
the-ground infrastructure for the center's activities within China.
Cooperating with and drawing support from his colleagues, Liu overcame
the authorities' restrictions on independent organizations, making
Chinese PEN an unprecedentedly vibrant independent organization
dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and promoting the
development of Chinese literature. In 2008, Liu Xiaobo retired from his
post in Chinese PEN and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to drafting,
revising, and organizing signatories to Charter '08 work which lasted
until his arrest on December 8th of that year. The dual leadership
roles that Liu assumed in this decade, both in Independent Chinese PEN
and in the preparation of Charter '08, unveiled his new identity as a
civil society organizer and coordinator.
The fourth passage in Liu Xiaobo's life began in 2009, and
continues to this day.
From the moment that policemen abruptly stormed into his home in
the middle of night on December 8th, 2008, Liu Xiaobo lost his freedom.
One year later, in December of 2009, he was sentenced to a total of
eleven years in prison. But then, one more year later, Liu Xiaobo was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Although the Chinese authorities have imprisoned Liu Xiaobo's body,
they cannot imprison his name and his ideas. Liu's experience unmasks
the fundamentally dictatorial nature of the Chinese Communist regime
for the world to see. And no matter what disguises the Party may try,
so long as Liu remains locked away in prison, there is no way for this
regime to hide its despicable nature.
Now, the honor of the Nobel Peace Prize has elevated Liu Xiaobo to
a new status. Although Liu's contributions cannot be measured solely
through this prize, this honor nevertheless places him directly at the
heart of any future sociopolitical transition in China. Chen Jun, a
good friend of Liu, notes, ``I strongly believe that Xiaobo has his own
expectations and even preparations in this regard. If he can persist,
and continue on the path that he has followed over the years, he will
become an outstanding figure in history, like Vaclav Havel, leaving a
deep and lasting imprint upon China. This imprint could be far more
significant than simply realizing democratization in China. And I
strongly believe that he is qualified to play such a role.'' In the not
so distant future, will Liu Xiaobo finally realize the Herculean task
of bringing real social transformation to China?
As for what this new passage in Liu's life might bring, we all have
yet to see. But each one of us who cares about China's future and its
fate is eagerly waiting, and imagining what is still to come.
______
Prepared Statement of Liu Min
december 12, 2012
My husband Yu Jie and I met Liu Xiaobo and his wife in 1999.
Shortly after we became very close friends.
Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia began their romantic relationship in the
early 1990s. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, Liu Xiaobo
was imprisoned for the first time, resulting in the breakup of his
first marriage. After his release, Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia fell deeply
in love. During this time, Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned for a second, and
then a third time. In the period when Liu Xiaobo was sent to Dalian to
be re-educated through labor, Liu Xia went to see him every month from
Beijing, traveling back and forth 38 times over three years. The trip
between Beijing and Dalian was 1,250 miles.
Then, after fighting for it time and again, they had a wedding in
prison. Afterward Liu Xia told me their only celebration was a simple
lunch: the labor camp cafeteria made a couple of dishes for them. In
these three years, it was the only time they had eaten at the same
table.
The pressure faced by Liu Xia was even greater than that on Liu
Xiaobo. She was originally a poet, painter and photographer who kept
her distance from politics. Simply by being Liu Xiaobo's wife, she was
included on the list of ``enemies of the state.'' Permanently unable to
live a normal person's life, she developed eye problems, endocrine
disorders, insomnia, nervous breakdowns, skin illnesses, and severe
depression. She had to take large doses of sleeping pills to fall
asleep every night. After Liu Xiaobo was arrested, a friend asked her
about how she was sleeping. She said, now that Liu Xiaobo is gone, I
can actually sleep more peacefully. ``A shoe had fallen down from the
ceiling long ago. For many years, I was like the person waiting for the
other shoe to drop. Now, the shoe has finally dropped, and I can
finally feel at peace.''
Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo have been married for many years, and they
have never had children. Liu Xia said, ``A long time ago, we agreed not
to have children. Having a father in prison in any case is a cruel
thing to a boy or a girl. So, we are still a DINK family.''
In December 2008 Liu Xiaobo was arrested; on Christmas, 2009, Liu
Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and was later sent to the
prison in Jinzhou, Liaoning, to serve his term. If Liu Xiaobo is to
serve his term in full, Liu Xia will have traveled back and forth
between Beijing and Jinzhou more than a hundred times. The trip between
Beijing and Jinzhou is approximately 600 miles. In total, her trek will
have been more than 8,000 miles!
Liu Xia also told me about the severe winters in Jinzhou, and
because of the lack of heating in prison, Liu Xiaobo felt very cold and
asked Liu Xia to bring him some thick wool pants. In September 2010,
after visiting the prison Liu Xia returned to Beijing and asked me to
buy wool pants for her, so she could bring them the next time she
visited.
To our surprise, on October 8, 2010, the news of Liu Xiaobo
receiving the Nobel Peace Prize broke. The night before, I even went
out eating and shopping with Liu Xia, and picked out a piece of
clothing for her. She said it was too expensive. I said, if Xiaobo
wins, you have to go and accept the award on his behalf, and you don't
even have any formalwear. So she finally bought it. Yet, she lost her
freedom shortly after, and could not go to Oslo to accept the award on
her husband's behalf.
Just five days after news of Liu Xiaobo receiving the Nobel Prize
became public, my husband Yu Jie finished a lecture at the University
of Southern California and hurried back to Beijing because he wanted to
finish Liu Xiaobo's biography. As soon as Yu Jie arrived in Beijing, he
was immediately placed under house arrest by the secret police.
The first week in the beginning, I could still go to work freely. I
had bought the wool pants for Liu Xiaobo, but I could not get in
contact with Liu Xia, and so I got in touch with Liu Xia's younger
brother and brought the pants to him. Subsequently, when Liu Xia's
brother came out from visiting her, he was searched by the police, who
found on him a note written by Liu Xia with my name and telephone
number on it. And so, that day, as soon as I came home from work, I was
immediately placed under house arrest. Since then, my husband and I had
been under house arrest, until mid-December. On December 9 Yu Jie was
kidnapped by the police from home to the outskirts of town, and was
beaten and tortured, and almost died. Soon after I lost my job as well.
In January 2012, our family of three finally escaped China, and
came to America. Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia's predicaments weigh on our
minds constantly, especially Liu Xia's being under house arrest and
isolated from the world for over two years. We worry about her physical
and mental state. In my own personal experience, when my husband and I
were put under house arrest for two months, we were together, but a
life where all our means of contact were cut off, where we could not
take one step out of our own door, where we could not see a single
other person on the outside, drove us nearly insane. And Liu Xia is
alone, under arrest for more than two years! That kind of suffering is
unbearable. I hope the American government, especially President Obama,
who is also a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, can personally and directly
put out a strong call to the Chinese government, and demand that they
release Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia immediately.
______
Prepared Statement of Christopher Smith, a U.S. Representative From New
Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China
december 12, 2012
Two years after the independent Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize to Chinese intellectual and democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo,
little has changed. Liu Xiaobo remains isolated in prison. He remains
thousands of miles away from his wife, Liu Xia, whom authorities have
now held under house arrest for 26 months. Chinese authorities continue
to defend their imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo and continue to deny Liu
Xia's de facto house arrest. Despite global calls to release the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and his wife, Chinese authorities remain resolute
in their will to silence them.
It has now been a year since we last convened a hearing to discuss
this outrageous and senseless violation of the Lius' rights--a year
later, we ask the same questions and express the same concerns.
Liu Xiaobo's ordeal is well-known. In December 2010, The Nobel
Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo ``for his long
and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.'' A
year earlier, Chinese authorities sentenced him to 11 years in prison
for ``inciting subversion of state power,'' the longest known sentence
for that crime, simply because he exercised his internationally
recognized right to free expression. Liu's conviction, according to
court documents, was based on Charter 08 and six essays he wrote. Mr.
Liu's trial, conviction, and sentence, once again demonstrated the
Chinese government's failure to uphold its international human rights
obligations and its failure to abide by procedural norms and safeguards
that meet international standards.
Liu Xiaobo co-wrote and signed Charter 08--a treatise urging
political and legal reforms based on constitutional principles. Charter
08 states that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values
of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are the
fundamental framework for protecting these values. In response to this
public call for rights and reform, officials blocked access to and
censored all mentions of Charter 08. They questioned, summoned, or
otherwise harassed hundreds of Chinese citizens for contributing to or
signing the document.
Today, we have little news about Liu's current condition. Liu
remains in prison--there is little doubt that the Chinese continue to
treat him unmercifully.
We do, sadly, have some news. While we previously knew that
authorities continued to hold Liu's wife under a de facto form of house
arrest--with little contact with the outside world--we have recently
learned more about her unbearable circumstances and detention. Last
week, two Associated Press journalists were able to briefly interview
Liu Xia, while the guards that keep watch over her were away for a
midday break. Upon opening the door, the journalists found a woman
shocked by the rare opportunity to communicate with those outside her
prison.
She wept as she decried the injustice and absurdity of her
detention. She told them of her poor health and of the outrageous
abuses she has suffered. Her ongoing plight has been referred to by
some as the ``most severe retaliation by a government given to a Nobel
winner's family.''
Liu Xia remains detained in violation of Chinese law--a victim of
the government's contempt and paranoia. Angered by Liu's award and his
global support, Chinese authorities have unjustly detained this
innocent woman.
The targeting of wives and children, of grandparents and
associates, however, remains a common practice for the Chinese
government. A few weeks ago, the nephew of Chen Guangcheng, the blind
activist who escaped to the United States earlier this year, was
sentenced to 39 months imprisonment after defending himself from thugs
who attacked his family. As with Liu's case, the trial was marred by
procedural irregularities and violations. In recent months, the wife
and child of Mongolian activist Hada have been confined to their home
illegally and blocked from communicating with others. Today, we will
hear moving, first-hand accounts of how families suffer when courageous
individuals speak out against the Chinese government.
This, of course, is not a new tactic by Chinese authorities. In
recent years we have heard how Chinese officials and those operating
under their authority have interrogated children or harassed
acquaintances. Chinese guards have shouted expletives at school-age
sons and daughters and enforced economic reprisals against relatives
and loved ones.
Liu Xia is not alone--but, she remains a symbol of these often
overlooked collateral victims.
Why target family members and friends? The Chinese government fears
the free thinkers they love and support. It acts in ways to silence
those free thinkers who promote the best ideals and seek the greatest
good for China. In China, free thinkers represent a threat to the
government's ``stability''--while representing new hopes for the
Chinese people.
This threat of reform is China's greatest concern. Recently, after
the sentencing of Chinese official Bo Xilai's wife for intentional
homicide, leading human rights and China experts suggested that she
might receive a medical pardon after nine years. Nine years for
murder--as compared to eleven for Liu Xiaobo's calls for freedom. This
is the China we are dealing with--one in which pre-meditated murder is
viewed with less concern than calls for non-violent political reform. A
China in which Chinese officials are sentenced to reclusive, plush
prisons, while the wives and children and parents of rights advocates
are doomed to a Kafkaesque existence--languishing in domestic prisons
without opportunities for appeals or pardons.
A year after our last hearing on the subject, little has changed.
Mr. Liu remains in prison and Mrs. Liu under an extralegal form of
house arrest. Our resolve, however, has changed--in fact, it has grown
stronger. Today, we are more concerned about the current conditions for
Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. And, we are more outraged at the lack of
humanity demonstrated by those perpetrating these crimes--from the
thugs guarding Liu Xia's door to the newly-appointed leadership in
Beijing. Today, our resolve--and the resolve of free-minded people--is,
without question, stronger.
A year ago, we called on China to immediately and unconditionally
release Liu Xiaobo and Liu. Today, we similarly demand that China end
this ``absurdity'' for these noble citizens--and for all who remain
detained in China for their political beliefs. We have not forgotten
Liu Xiaobo and his wife. We commit to seeking their release from
confinement and detention. We will not forget them next year, or the
year thereafter--regardless of the circumstances. We will continue to
demand they be freed and continue to demand that all Chinese citizens
enjoy the fundamental freedoms protected under international law.
It is with this resolve and concern that we are joined today by a
panel of experts on these cases and on China more broadly. I would like
to thank them for their advocacy on behalf of Mr. Liu and Mrs. Liu and
for sharing their insights into recent developments here today.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Sherrod Brown, a U.S. Senator From Ohio;
Cochairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China
december 12, 2012
Good morning. I want to thank Chris Smith for hosting this hearing
on the ongoing detentions of two human rights advocates. We stand
united behind this cause.
We stand with our government, governments around the world, and the
134 Nobel laureates led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to urge incoming
Chinese President Xi Jinping to immediately and unconditionally release
Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia.
Let me be clear, there is no question that China has made progress
on many fronts.
But we know that the Chinese people are not satisfied with economic
progress in the absence of justice. We know that Chinese citizens--like
women and men around the world--want and deserve basic human rights.
They deserve freedom and justice and equality of opportunity. They
deserve to voice their opinions without fear of oppression.
That's why we're here today.
For decades, Liu Xiaobo has been one of the most passionate and
thoughtful advocates for freedom, justice, and human rights in China.
He was a leader during the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests. He
has written nearly 800 essays advocating human rights and peaceful
reform. He was one of the co-authors of Charter 08, a document released
in 2008 calling for an end to authoritarian rule and respect for human
rights.
For this, Liu has been censored.
He has endured three years in a labor camp. And, now, he is serving
the fourth year of an 11-year prison sentence.
That's why, when the Nobel Committee awarded Liu the Peace Prize in
2010, they noted his ``long and non-violent struggle for fundamental
human rights in China.''
They understood, just as many in China and around the world
understand, that freedom and human rights are not freely given.
It takes courage and commitment. It takes people like Liu who are
willing to sacrifice for their neighbors, families, fellow citizens--
and the next generation.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. popularized this struggle as a fierce
commitment to building the ``beloved community''.
Indeed, Liu follows in the tradition of Peace Prize winners, like
Dr. King, who have labored to build a better world, brick by brick.
In 1991, the Nobel committee awarded the prize to Aung San Suu Kyi
for her democratic opposition to a brutal regime.
All of these activists have fought oppression with a message of
non-violence, an unwillingness to give up, and love.
Liu spoke about the efficacy of nonviolence in 2006 when he wrote
that ``the greatness of non-violent resistance is that even as man is
faced with forceful tyranny . . . the victim responds to hate with love
. . . and to violence with reason.''
Each day China denies citizens, like Liu, basic freedoms; China
loses out on the diversity of opinions that lead to better government
policies and a more just society.
Imprisoning Liu Xiaobo is not the act of a nation serious about
earning a place of respect at the global table.
It is an act of an authoritarian state afraid of the strength of
its own people.
Aung San Suu Kyi was finally able to give her Nobel acceptance
speech in June of this year, more than two decades after she was
awarded the prize. During her speech she said everyone is capable of
contributing to peace.
Liu Xiaobo exemplifies the courage needed to cultivate justice.
We urge China to release the Liu family. Liu Xiaobo shouldn't have
to wait two decades to give his own acceptance speech.
We look forward to that day. Thank you and I look forward to the
testimony of our esteemed witnesses.