[House Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
GUO FEIXIONG AND FREEDOM
OF EXPRESSION IN CHINA
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
OCTOBER 29, 2013
__________
Serial No. 113-102
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
or
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
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20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DANA ROHRABACHER, California Samoa
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BRAD SHERMAN, California
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
TED POE, Texas GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MATT SALMON, Arizona THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
MO BROOKS, Alabama DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
TOM COTTON, Arkansas ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
PAUL COOK, California JUAN VARGAS, California
GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III,
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania Massachusetts
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
TREY RADEL, Florida GRACE MENG, New York
DOUG COLLINS, Georgia LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
TED S. YOHO, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
LUKE MESSER, Indiana
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania KAREN BASS, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas AMI BERA, California
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
WITNESSES
Ms. Zhang Qing, wife of Guo Feixiong............................. 5
Ms. Yang Tianjiao, daughter of Guo Feixiong...................... 14
Mr. Chen Guangcheng, Chinese human rights activist (appearing via
videoconference)............................................... 18
Pastor Bob Fu, founder and president, ChinaAid Association....... 24
Mr. T. Kumar, director of international advocacy, Amnesty
International.................................................. 32
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Ms. Zhang Qing: Prepared statement............................... 8
Ms. Yang Tianjiao: Prepared statement............................ 16
Mr. Chen Guangcheng: Prepared statement.......................... 21
Pastor Bob Fu: Prepared statement................................ 27
Mr. T. Kumar: Prepared statement................................. 34
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 52
Hearing minutes.................................................. 53
GUO FEIXIONG AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN CHINA
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2013
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m.,
Room 2255, Rayburn Building, Christopher Smith (chairman of the
subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. Let me begin by expressing my apologies for the
delay. We had a series of votes before the House. Thank you for
being here and thank you to our very distinguished witnesses on
behalf of Mr. Stockman and I and other members of the
subcommittee. Thank you for your extraordinary sacrifice that
you bear on behalf of human rights. We so deeply appreciate it
and respect it.
Today's hearing will focus on China's detention of writer,
activist, and self-trained legal advocate Guo Feixiong. A
veteran of China's rights defense movement, Mr. Guo was
criminally detained on August 8, 2013 which I would note
parenthetically, it is Baba, or Chinese Father's Day. I know
Ms. Yang would love to be with her father and yet on that very
day he was taken away by the security apparatus of the Chinese
Government. We know that he wasn't formally arrested until
early September 2013. Mr. Guo's detention appears to be a
reprisal for his support of government transparency and calls
for accountability. In recent months, Beijing has cracked down
harshly on dozens of similarly minded advocates seeking
political reforms.
Mr. Guo is not a newcomer to public advocacy nor to
suffering, punishments and sacrifice for his work. A former
novelist and businessman, he first became widely known in 2005
for organizing protests of land seizures on the outskirts of
Guangzhou. In 2007, a Chinese court sentenced the outspoken Mr.
Guo to 5 years' imprisonment on charges of illegal publishing.
He and his supporters maintain the charges were fabricated to
silence him and to silence the others. In late 2011, he was
released. Since that time, he has continued to participate in
China's rights defense movement. He has continued to express
himself freely in the hopes of advancing human rights. He has
protested along reporters fighting the Southern Weekly's heavy-
handed censorship and vocally supported recent calls for
greater government transparency and an end to corruption.
Now, Mr. Guo is being held on charges of ``assembling a
crowd to disrupt order in a public place.'' This alleged crime,
along with many others, is all too often employed unjustly
against the courageous men and women who want accountability or
are pressing for change. For simply asking for transparency, he
is suspected of disrupting the harsh order that Beijing
enforces. Notwithstanding China's own criminal procedure rules,
authorities have denied Mr. Guo access to a lawyer and have
failed to properly notify his family. Once again, China
continues to enforce its legal protections haphazardly, if at
all, when punishing or silencing those who advocate for reform
and change.
Today's hearing is on the heroism and the sacrifices of Mr.
Guo--that's what we are focusing on; this brave man needs to be
lifted up. The United States Congress is focusing and
expressing its profound respect as well as for his family.
Sadly, Mr. Guo is one among many who are suffering in China
today. In recent months. Chinese authorities have cracked down
on dozens of human rights advocates participating in a so-
called New Citizens' Movement. The movement, which began
forming last year, has been described as a loose network of
like-minded academics and lawyers who hold informal gatherings
and promote various issues, including transparency and anti-
corruption efforts.
These detentions signify Chinese citizens' growing resolve
and Beijing's growing fears. Mr. Guo, and many others
throughout China, want and deserve change. They want
accountability, they want transparency, and they want basic
human rights and respect for those rights and they want
justice. And, increasingly, they are willing to endure even
greater risks and willing to sacrifice their own personal
security to speak freely.
We are fortunate today to be joined by Ms. Zhang Qing, Mr.
Guo's courageous wife, and Ms. Yang Tianjiao, his wonderful
daughter. We look forward to their testimony, their insights,
and their defense of a beloved husband and father. We are also
blessed to have with us two giants in the human rights field,
Pastor Bob Fu and Mr. Chen Guangcheng, who will be speaking to
us via Skype. He was supposed to be here personally, but was
not feeling well enough to be here. We are also joined by Mr.
Kumar, himself a political prisoner who suffered for his
beliefs so many years ago and has been a frequent, very
significant contributor to our efforts on the committee and for
the Congress itself.
With this current crackdown on Chinese human rights
activists, it is important to understand the brave and bold
people challenging the Chinese state. And they are doing it in
a nonviolent and in a benign way, and yet they are harshly
retaliated against. Inspiring figures like Mr. Guo put another
heroic face on these detentions. His face, however, does more
than just contextualize the current crackdown or add details to
a prisoner file. It causes us to wonder about ourselves, about
our commitment to human rights, and the risks we are willing to
take for those around us and in persecuted countries like the
People's Republic of China. Mr. Guo now faces an uncertain
punishment, and we must determine our own human rights
commitment to him and others.
In July 2013, Mr. Guo wrote about a 1989 Tiananmen activist
now facing the possibility of more prison time. He wrote that
``Zhao Changqing is an important symbol of the 1989 generation,
who, in the face of danger, takes action, bears responsibility,
persists, pushes forward, and becomes more involved. This is
how one should behave and shoulder his fate.''
Despite the hardships and the odds, Mr. Guo reminds us that
we, Members of Congress living in the safe harbors of the West,
must shoulder our responsibilities and our burdens. Far too
often, we don't. We are here today to accept our responsibility
to Mr. Guo and other courageous Chinese human rights advocates.
We hope that we also in his words will ``take action, bear
responsibility, persist, push forward, and evolve'' like these
heroes. He reminds us that this is how we all should behave.
We hope that the Chinese Government is listening. We hope
the Chinese citizens seeking change are listening. And we hope
Mr. Guo is listening. We hope President Obama and our
administration are listening as well and will everything in
their power to help free Mr. Guo and others fighting for human
rights. We hope the U.S. Congress is listening, so that he will
be freed and be out of that terrible, terrible gulag state.
I would now like to go to Mr. Stockman for any opening
comments you may have.
Mr. Stockman. I want to thank the chairman for putting this
together and as I said to the television cameras, the Chinese
Government would have greater respect from the people if they
respected the people. And the fact that they are continually
suppressing their own people--severely, according to
independent reports--and are increasing the persecution of
their own citizens. This is the wrong direction to go.
I think that prior to the Olympics, they were trying to be
more open and more receiving of people's inputs. But since the
Olympics, it seems like there is an increase of persecution in
China and we, as congressmen, need to speak out and support
those that are being persecuted. I thank the chairman again for
offering this hearing for us to put a highlight on exactly what
is going on in China.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Stockman, thank you very much. Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Meadows. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, it is good to have
you here, good to see many of you again. And as we look at this
particular case, highlighting this case, I think what the
American people need to hear, and quite frankly, what the world
needs to hear is the injustice that we see, not only in the
case of Mr. Guo, but really in terms of human rights in general
in China.
I was part of a briefing just the other day as we started
to look at the freedom of expression and how the story is not
getting told and it is being subtly and at times not so subtly
hidden from the citizens of China and from the rest of the
world. According to World Press Freedom Index, China ranks
173rd about of 179 countries in terms of free press. That is a
statistic that is unacceptable for a world leader and for a
member of the U.N. Security Council.
And as we see the great reforms that have been promised as
part of the 2012 elections, yet we hear today and we will hear
today how those reforms have yet to take place. And so while
these matters may be inherently an internal issue for China, as
members of the United States Congress, it is our duty to expose
the challenges that the Chinese citizens face and urge the
government to implement the necessary reforms.
I want to thank the chairman for his unrelenting effort on
behalf of people that perhaps have no voice other than his to
stand up for human rights and I am proud to join him arm in arm
to fight that battle. And with that, I yield back, Mr.
Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows, thank you very much. We are joined
by a member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China
and distinguished member of the House of Representatives, Mr.
Pittenger, who is here because of his deep concern for human
rights in China, as well as the rest of the world, and
religious freedom in particular.
Mr. Pittenger.
Mr. Pittenger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
your dedication as I have observed you the last 30 years. You
have been a remarkable leader for the cause of human rights and
religious liberties.
We gave up a lot in the late 1990s when we gave up Most
Favored Nation trading status and we no longer have leverage on
human rights and religious liberties. I regret we did that.
There was a lot of business pressure and response to that. But
nonetheless, you all have fought a valiant war. I have been
over there a number of times and I am back there in January. We
will do everything to support your efforts of very dedicated
people who want to present the gospel in a fearless way. So God
bless you for your service. I know that there are many here who
pray for you and support you in your work. And only eternity
will know the life that you have lived and what you have fought
for and what you commit yourself to. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Pittenger, thank you so very much for you
eloquence and to all of my colleagues for their steadfast
support for fundamental human rights and for being so
consistent. It is just so admirable and so encouraging.
I would like now to introduce our distinguished witnesses
beginning first with the wife of Mr. Guo, Zhang Qing. She is a
political asylee from China. In 2006, after her husband was
arrested and badly tortured, she wrote open letters to the
President of China and to President Bush to expose the
brutality and torture that was happening to her husband. She
also called for human rights organizations and the media to
recognize and consider Chen Guangcheng's case while he was in
jail. She and her husband's activities caused her to endure
sustained pressure so she came to the United States. She now
lives in Mr. Stockman's state, the great State of Texas and is
a full-time university student there. And thank you for being
here. I look forward, along with my colleagues, to your
testimony.
We will then hear from Ms. Yang Tianjiao who is the
daughter of Guo Feixiong. She came to the U.S. 4 years ago and
is now a high school student in Texas where she won the
President's Education Award for outstanding academic excellence
in 2010. She loves music and art. She has drawn pictures of her
father and composed a piano piece to express her hope that he
can gain freedom in China. And we thank her for coming forward
to speak out in defense of her dad.
We will then hear from Mr. Chen Guangcheng via Skype who
would have been here, but was not well enough to travel. As we
all know he is a valiant Chinese human rights activist who
worked on a variety of human rights issues especially the
forced abortion issue. Blind from an early age and self taught
in the law, Mr. Chen is frequently described as a barefoot
lawyer who advocated for victims of forced abortion and
sterilization and the welfare of the women and the poor and the
disabled. He is best known for exposing massive abuses in
official family planning policy, often involving violence and
forced abortions. Imprisoned unjustly and tortured, first in
prison and then under house arrest, he finally escaped house
arrest in his rural town in east China, Shandong Province, and
made it to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, a legendary escape, the
kind of stuff that super heroes are made of. The world watched
and after negotiations, he was allowed to come to the U.S. and
began a law fellowship at New York University. He recently
became a distinguished senior fellow in human rights at the
Witherspoon Institute in Princeton as well as distinguished
visiting fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and
Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and also
a distinguished senior advisor at the Lantos Foundation for
Human Rights and Justice.
We will then hear from Pastor Bob Fu who was a leader in
the 1989 democracy movement in Tiananmen Square and later
became a house church pastor and founder along with his wife.
In 1996, authorities arrested Pastor Fu and imprisoned them for
their work. After their release, they escaped to the United
States in 2002, founded the ChinaAid Association. ChinaAid
monitors and reports on religious freedom in China and provides
a forum for discussion among experts on religion law and human
rights in China. Pastor Fu is frequently interviewed by media
outlets around the world. He has an incredible understanding of
the Chinese dictatorship, but he also, amazingly, prays for not
just the victims, but also for the tormentors and loves them
both. Absolutely an amazing man.
We will then hear from T. Kumar who is the Amnesty
International Director for International Advocacy and a very
good friend of this subcommittee. He has testified before the
U.S. Congress on numerous occasions to discuss human rights
abuses around the world. He has served as a human rights
monitor in many Asian countries as well as in Bosnia,
Afghanistan, Guatemala, Sudan, and South Africa. He also served
as director of several refugee ships and camps. T. Kumar was a
political prisoner for over 5 years in Sri Lanka for his
peaceful human rights activities. Amnesty International adopted
him as a prisoner of conscience and now he does that for others
and he does it so well. He started his legal studies in prison
and eventually became an attorney at law and devoted his entire
practice to defending political prisoners.
Ms. Zhang, if you would proceed.
STATEMENT OF MS. ZHANG QING, WIFE OF GUO FEIXIONG
[The following testimony was delivered through an
interpreter.]
Ms. Zhang. Honorable Chairman, Vice Chairman, Congressmen,
and everyone here, I am the wife of Guo Feixiong. My name is
Zhang Qing. I am very thankful to every one of you to have this
opportunity to introduce my husband's case to you, and also I
am glad to tell you about my husband's activities in defending
human rights, his ideals and personality, and his character.
In today's China, actually human rights continues to
deteriorate. In the new round of government crackdowns on human
rights movements, my husband has been detained for the fourth
time. The charges were for motivating people for illegal
gathering. In 2009, he publicly made a speech demanding for the
freedom of expression in China. He believes that, in the West
or in the East, the freedom of expression is the basic human
right. There has never been any legal due process for my
husband's case after he got arrested.
His lawyers and family members have been denied access to
visit him, and it has been 83 days now. And we cannot see the
end of this case. We don't know how long this will last. We
don't know what will happen to him if the international
community will not show their concern to this case. My husband,
Guo Feixiong, was involved in the pro-democracy movement in
2003 and got arrested for the first time in 2005. In 2005, he
was speaking out for the farmers who were losing their land
because of government illegal seizure.
In 2006, he came to the States to attend a law conference.
Many people actually advised him to stay in the United States,
but when he looked at the democracy and freedom in this
country, he made a commitment to bring back the ideals for
freedom of expression and democracy back to the Chinese people.
So he went back.
He was clearly aware of the possibility that he would be
arrested again if he would return, but he still made the
decision to return. It has been 10 years since the year, 2003,
he got involved in pro-democracy movements. He has spent 5\1/2\
years in jail. He has always been the most frontier fighting
for democracy movements. He does not only promote the theory of
democracy movements, but actually he is a doer for these
movements.
He has made a huge impact upon the pro-democracy movement
in China. He has composed more than 40 articles summarizing and
thinking about the pro-democracy movement in China. And it is
because of all his activities that the government now is
torturing him in jail. He has been in jail four times and has
been tortured physically severely. Even other family members
have been tortured as well.
One of the horrible tortures is that the policemen used
electric rod to torture his genitals. They appealed to this
torture to crack down, to crush his will for democracy and for
freedom. But he will never change his commitment. So he will
never surrender to such pressure and he is really, truly a
model fighting for democracy and freedom.
He has been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days. He
is regarded highly as a hero by the Chinese society as
defending human rights.
In 2011, after 5 years being tortured in jail, but he
continued his human rights activities asking Chinese Government
to give back the freedom of expression to the Chinese people.
And he organized a series of activities for the human rights
cases. He asked the Chinese Government to approve the covenant
of the human rights, that is the covenant of the United Nations
and asking Chinese officials to publicly tell public their
properties.
In 2006 and this year, in both crackdowns of the Chinese
Government upon the human rights movement, and my husband Guo
was the one that has been tortured mostly and has been treated
illegally all the time. So I am here today to ask the Obama
administration to speak on my husband's case. I ask the Obama
administration and American officials to speak openly for my
husband and ask the Chinese Government to release my husband
without any condition.
I also appeal to American Congress that it is within your
power and you can do something for my husband and to talk to
the Chinese Government and to express your concern. And then to
ask the Chinese Government to release my husband.
I also ask American Embassy to China to meet my husband
because both lawyers and family members are denied the right to
visit him.
America is the leading country for the human rights in this
world. It serves as a lighthouse for the whole world. So the
American administration and Congress have the obligation to
support those who fight for human rights in China. So I also
ask American administration and American Congress to talk and
put pressure upon Chinese Government to release all those who
are prisoners of conscience. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Zhang follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much for that extraordinarily
powerful testimony and we will follow up. We will do a letter.
We will include the entirety of this hearing record to
President Obama, to Secretary Kerry, and to Ambassador Gary
Locke, our Ambassador to People's Republic of China and other
interested parties within the administration and we will
contact the Chinese ourselves as a committee. So thank you for
those very tangible follow-up things for us to do. I do have
questions for later, but now we'll go to Ms. Yang.
STATEMENT OF MS. YANG TIANJIAO, DAUGHTER OF GUO FEIXIONG
Ms. Yang. Dear Honorable Chairman, Members of Congress, and
friends, my name is Yang Tianjiao and my American name is Sara.
My dad is Guo Feixiong. I am here to thank the Congress and
Congressman Smith for giving me this opportunity to speak here.
The last time I saw my dad was about 7 years ago. It was in
2006, and I was only 10. I remember that he brought me this
video game, and we played it almost every day during that
summer. However, on September 14th, when I came back from
school, he was gone, and I have not seen him since that day. I
did not even have a chance to say ``Bye'' or ``I love you'' to
him.
Over the past 7 years, I have dreamed about him a lot. I
dreamed that he would play that video game with me again so we
could pass level 5 together. But they were only dreams. The
next day I always found myself in tears.
I got to know about my dad's condition from my mom's
conversation with friends. My mom would not talk about my dad's
news in front of me because she thought it was too heavy for a
10-year-old girl to accept. But I still listened to them
anyway, and to be honest, they were extremely heavy, sad, and
shocking. I heard that he was incarcerated for 5 years. During
those 5 years, the government transferred him to many different
places and used numerous different tortures against him. I was
always so deeply hurt when I heard about them.
In 2009, we moved to the United States of America. In 2011,
my dad got out of jail. The day he was out, we talked on the
phone. I literally cried when I heard his voice. I had been
longing to hear this voice for 5 years, and I could finally do
that.
Over the past 2 years, I talked to my dad through Skype. He
gave me advice for life, and I showed him my artwork. A few
years ago, I drew my dad in a miniature cartoon form, and he
immediately complained about the one short leg and one long leg
when he saw it. Recently, my art skills have improved so much
that he applauded my artwork. However, he still pushes me to
move forward; he still wants me to draw like some of the most
famous and brilliant artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo, et
cetera.
But the good times did not last long. He was captured,
again, on August 8th, 2013. That hurt. That day was Father's
Day in China. Again, I do not remember our last conversation.
Again, I did not get to say a formal goodbye to him. Again, I
have not heard his voice for about 70 days. Again, I miss him
so much.
Right now, I have a watercolor painting of my dad that I
finished in September. I am sorry I did not bring it today. I
hang it on my wall so that I can see his face every day. In
this painting, he is smiling. In my memory that is what he
looked like every day when we were together. Also, I composed a
piano piece called ``The Cosmos.'' This is a piece for my dad.
I would always laugh at my dad when he joked that he fell
asleep to my piano playing.
However, words, drawings, and music cannot express how much
I miss him. My dad is a great man; he is my hero. He has helped
so many people. He, a man who pursues democracy, works so hard
to improve the law of China. I, his daughter, always want my
dad to have the freedom that he works so hard to achieve for
others. I always want him to be safe and free.
President Obama, you also have two daughters; you are also
a human rights lawyer. I wish that President Obama can send a
request to China to free my father. I do not know what has
happened to him in jail for the past 2 months. I am so worried
about his health, so I hope that the Congress will talk to the
Chinese Government and secure my father's freedom.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Yang follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Ms. Yang, thank you so very much for that
testimony. Tears, deep hurt, and the watercolor painting of him
smiling on your wall. Those are so touching and I hope that the
President, the Vice President, our own leadership here in the
House and Senate will act. We certainly will as a subcommittee.
We will do everything we can to secure your father's release
and your testimony is so moving. No one can hear that and not
be moved. So thank you, and to your mom as well.
We do have some difficulties still, but we are going to
have to switch to audio only although we will keep the visual
as long as we can to hear the great Chen Guangcheng testify. So
I would like now to yield to Mr. Chen. Hearing no objection, we
will just go to audio and we will proceed.
Bob Fu will now use a cell phone in a way that he did twice
when Mr. Chen was in a hospital under arrest. He couldn't leave
obviously. The hospital room was filled with Chinese police.
Bob Fu got through to him and that is where he made his famous
appeal to come to the United States, and within hours he was
given approval.
STATEMENT OF MR. CHEN GUANGCHENG, CHINESE HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
(APPEARING VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE)
[The following testimony was delivered through an
interpreter via cell phone.]
Mr. Chen. Dear Honorable Chairman, honorable members of the
human rights subcommittee and friends, greetings to all of you.
Human rights fighter Mr. Guo Feixiong has been detained for
83 days now. It has been eight times that the Chinese
Government has denied his basic rights to see a lawyer. This is
a clear violation of Chinese own laws and citizens' basic civil
rights. We have no idea whether he is alive or he is dead.
In 2005, Guo Feixiong, Gao Zhisheng, and I were persecuted
by the Chinese Government almost at the same time. And today,
Gao Zhisheng is still in jail and his family members are
forbidden to visit him. Guo Feixiong was arrested again only
after he was released less than 2 years ago from his last
imprisonment. So today, the communist party is showing the
whole world it has no idea to change and will continue to fight
against human rights. So we shouldn't have any illusions toward
the Chinese Communist Party any more.
The trial of Ms. Liu Ping, Mr. Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua
in Jiangxi yesterday is deemed by the citizens in China as the
evil trials against the good. In the name of social stability
maintenance, a number of citizens, petitioners, and activists
were kidnapped, tortured, and arrested. The lawyers who were
supposed to represent the three activists on trial were forced
to cancel their legal contract with their clients because they
couldn't meet up with their clients.
A report released by the Freedom House last week shows the
crackdown against freedom of speech, Internet freedom, and
media censorship in China has already extended beyond China's
borders. This crackdown actually started this spring and since
then more than 150 people got arrested. The communist regime is
really only using this trial against these three activists in
Jiangxi as a test to the international community to see how we
will respond, and then I believe it will get worse and worse if
we don't respond to take the proper actions. In his first
arrest, Guo Feixiong was tortured severely. So this should
really concern and worry everyone this time because he has been
arrested for so long without any legal rights, and his lawyers
and family members cannot visit him.
And the freedom belongs to the brave people. And this
illegal trial against these three innocent Chinese citizens
really occasioned the strongest protest among the Chinese
people. Nobody's rights will be guaranteed without a sound
system. It is my hope that the United States of America and the
international community will help assist the Chinese people in
getting onto the path of freedom, democracy, and
constitutionalism as soon as possible.
The most urgent task before us is to achieve Internet
freedom in China. The communist regime right now is undermining
Internet freedom and restricts the free access of information.
Internet censorship is overwhelming and a large number of
Internet policemen are hired to censor, block, and delete
postings online which is a blatant violation of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights according to Article 19. This
article states that everyone has the right to seek, receive,
and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.
Hillary Clinton once stated clearly that the policy of the
United States is to support an Internet that allows every human
being equal access to knowledge, to thoughts, and dedicating
itself to the promotion of Internet freedom. If this policy of
the United States can truly be implemented, that will be a
great contribution to the freedom in China as well as to the
whole world. So right now it is high time we provide assistance
to the freedom-loving people in totalitarian countries and tear
down the Internet version of the Berlin Wall.
Therefore, I suggest to all Congress and administration for
every free nation to increase their funding to help develop
some software so that we can break through firewalls such as
FOE, Freegate, or Ultrasurf, which are all very effective. I
learned that the U.S. Congress has a $700 million budget for
this purpose, but only less than 3 percent is spent on breaking
through China's firewalls. Therefore, it is very urgent for
Congress to increase the budget for the Internet freedom in
China.
Secondly, it is my suggestion that the judicial and
administrative organs must join hands in establishing a
mechanism for human rights violators and it is hoped that we
can stop them, set up a global database of human rights
violators, including the ``610 Office'' of the Chinese
Communist Party and the Family Planning Commission at all
levels of government. Expand, establish, and strictly implement
current laws similar to the Magnitsky Act, which prohibits the
entrance of Russian human rights violators into the United
States. And we need to freeze their assets in the United States
and abroad, putting an end to the history of those vicious
officials when they can enjoy the freedom overseas, like in
America, while exercising their tyranny in their home country.
So we need to set up a trans-congressional human rights
alliance of free countries and convene regularly and invite
civilians, human rights defenders, victims, their family
members, and authorized agents to share their stories.
So the people in the free world, we need to speak up and
stand up for all those human rights fighters and to show our
concern and to invite them to join hands and fight together.
Fourthly, we need to demand the Chinese Communist Party to
stop persecuting religious believers and respect religious
freedom. One hundred and twenty Tibetan monks have immolated
themselves. People in Xinjiang fighting against tyranny have
been shot one after another. And we all know the persecution of
Falun Gong practitioners as well as those underground house
church Christians. They are all suffering from persecution. All
the groups mentioned above, they all can get along with other
Asians, Europeans, and Americans and earn their respect, yet
why can't the Chinese Communist regime tolerate them?
Fifthly, I call on lawyers and legal experts of the United
States and the American Bar Association to advocate for human
rights lawyers of China and make joint efforts to provide them
with some specific legal support and assistance.
Sixthly, I hope the annual U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue
will be practical in advancing human rights and dare to be open
and honest. Human rights dialogues should not become a matter
of formality and empty talk.
And last, I also want to appeal to American people--and you
voted all those officials and congressmen into office, so I
appeal to you that you will talk to your congressmen and
officials and apply all resources and means to help terminate
China's evil one-child policy and forced abortion. Because to
force women to abort their babies is a violation of universal
human rights. It tramples on women's rights, the right of free
choice, and also the sacred right of life. This wicked policy
results in a severe imbalance in gender ratio and a rapidly
aging population. So I plead earnestly with you kind-hearted
American people to take actions right away. Contact your
representatives and officials and ask them to show their
concern to all the issues that is discussed above. Thank you,
Chairman. Thank you, all the members of the human rights
subcommittee, and thank you, everyone present at this hearing.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Chen follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chen, thank you very much for your eloquent
testimony and for your very detailed list of actionable items.
I wonder will you be able to stay with us or do you have to go?
Mr. Chen. Yes, I can stay.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. We will have questions after our
final two witnesses.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Fu, the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF PASTOR BOB FU, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CHINAAID
ASSOCIATION
Mr. Fu. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your
years of leadership and support for this very important cause
for freedom not only in China, but also globally as a voice for
this voiceless and for this oppressed people.
Today, when I entered into this room I felt both gladly and
sadly. I am glad that we still have congressional leaders like
you, like other members, who are still concerned and support
this cause, although it is not a popular cause anymore, with
the decline of economic prosperity and economic stake in the
global forum.
I am sad because 4 years after Guo Feixiong's wife and two
children were able to come to the United States and we're still
talking about Guo Feixiong's freedom. I still remember in 2009
in a small hotel in Bangkok, I flew there because I heard Ms.
Zhang Qing with her two kids had to escape from China because
they could not live a normal life anymore when Guo Feixiong was
in prison, was tortured and the kids could not even find
opportunity to get their education. The wife could not even
find a right job for her. Increasing incredible obstacles
including the denial of refugee status from the United Nations,
including refusal to help by the U.S. Government officials, and
I already booked my return flight to the United States. I was
waiting to continue to file petition or appeal to the U.N., but
seeing and looking in the eyes of these two kids, including Ms.
Yang, Sara, who is sitting next to me, full of reluctance and
fear, and seeing, watching that little boy, was playing with me
and really begging me to stay with him to play with him. I just
could not leave them behind.
Of course, as a friend and fellow freedom fighter, I would
not leave his family members behind by coming back alone even
if that means I have to take what some people call radical
procedures, between the letter of the law and my own
conscience. So I took them to the United States with some
extraordinary procedures, which is written in my memoir,
``God's Double Agent.''
I was happy to see the family finally need not worry about
what would happen in the middle of the night, what would happen
to the two kids when they walk in the darkness on the road to
do shopping, what would happen to their dad in the middle of
the night when they woke up.
Of course, I want to thank many leaders of this country,
especially many citizens in the great State of Texas, where I
have been residing since 2004, and even today several members
of the business community, religious community, flew all the
way from Texas to come here to show their solidarity and their
support for the freedom of Guo Feixiong. I want to recognize
them. They are in the midst of this hearing. I want to
especially thank Mr. Joe Torres, who is here as the chairman of
the board of ChinaAid, as business leader, CPA. Of course, now
the tax season is approaching and we all know this sacrifice he
has encountered for engaging the ministry of ChinaAid by
helping these families like Mr. Guo's family.
I want to thank Pastor Chad Bullard, who was a former
official of Homeland Security Department, now a pastor of
6,000-member church who came here also to support the family
where the Guo family are members of that church, Stonegate
Fellowship.
I also want to thank Pastor Daniel Stevens, on my left, who
is my pastor and my fellow co-worker at Mid-Cities Community
Church. I still remember that very day when I heard mother and
children were wandering on the street. It was Guo Feixiong's
family. I wanted to fly there immediately to Bangkok to comfort
them, to find a place to stay, but we don't have a budget. So I
just emailed Pastor Daniel. I said, could you help. Without
hesitation, not a single question even was asked. The next day
I was able to buy the most expensive air tickets, $5,000 to get
to Bangkok, that enabled me to meet with these family members
and comfort them and situate them in a hotel room.
Mr. Chairman and members of this subcommittee, since the
beginning of this year, the environment for freedom of speech
in China has rapidly worsened. The Chinese Communist
authorities have launched a campaign across China to strictly
purge opinions voiced on the Internet and other peaceful public
forums.
Mr. Guo Feixiong's arrest was just one of the cases of
arbitrary arrest. The official propaganda of the Chinese
Communists severely criticized the democratic constitutional
trains of thought. Besides, the Communist Party also severely
suppressed the new civil citizen movement. According to
incomplete statistics, from the protest incident to other
peaceful petitioning, at least over 100 people across China,
some even respected writers, estimated it may be thousands of
Chinese citizens have been arrested for simply expressing
themselves or for peaceful petitioning in front of the
government.
There has been a huge increase in the number of cyber
police officers in China. The Golden Shield Project, the so-
called Great Firewall of China, strictly shield overseas Web
sites that the Chinese Communists think are sensitive, and many
netizens have been summoned or detained just because they
talked about civil society, the constitutionalism, and they
gathered in the same city and talk about the word democracy in
their QQ chatting forums. The Chinese Government has trained 2
million Web moderators or censors to delete posted messages and
to ``guide public opinion.''
In the past 4 months, the Chinese Communist Government has
arrested public intellectuals, influential, even business
leaders such as Yang Xiuyu, Zhou Lubao, Fu Xuesheng, and Dong
Liangje, who is an environmentalist. So the purpose of this
operation by the Chinese Communists is to warn and punish those
influential public intellectuals so that the ordinary netizens
will not dare to voice their opinions on political and social
issues.
And furthermore, it seems the Chinese Government tries to
legalize and legitimize by the court system and the prosecution
system all these crackdowns. And there is a joint document
issued so-called ``Interpretation on Several Questions on the
Applicable Law on Criminal Cases of Utilizing the Internet for
Slandering.'' So nowadays, if the government or any police
deemed a citizen who just used the Chinese version of Twitter
to forward a message for public knowledge or raising the public
awareness, if the forwarding has hit over 5,000 hits, it is
called a case of ``serious circumstances that constitutes the
crime of slandering.'' It is a crime for prosecution.
Of course, there are a number of other arrests in
suppressing those people who freely express themselves and
peacefully fight for civil rights and those public
intellectuals such as Dr. Xu Zhiyong, such as a billionaire who
supports the freedom of expression, Mr. Wang Gongquan, such as
Yuan Dong, such as Zhang Baocheng, such as Hou Xin, such as Ma
Xinli. They were all arrested for simply making their opinion
known without even taking much action on the street.
Of course, the end of April, Ms. Liu Ping, Wei Zhongping,
and Li Sihua of Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province whose trial was
abruptly finished yesterday because of the arbitrary trial and
basically the government assigned all these illegal procedures.
And the lawyers had to withdraw themselves.
So we have seen this since President Xi Jinping took power,
the Chinese Government has become more severe in suppressing
the rights defenders, restricting the freedom of speech, and in
controlling the society.
Of course, in other areas like the rule of law, like the
religious freedom have also been worsened. So every day in
China, there are thousands of incidents of forced demolition of
houses and every year thousands or millions of people's
properties are violated. As a result, there are dozens of
millions of petitioners in China, many of them were forced into
the ``Black jails'' which resulted in numerous occasions of
torture and rape of women.
The Chinese Communist Government continues to severely
suppress the house churches. Of course, since April of this
year, there are more Christians who have faced prosecution and
received criminal sentence than the combination of the whole
year last year. That has been happening from Henan Province to
Inner Mongolia. And the house church Christians were sentenced
from 2 years' to 7 years' imprisonment for simply organizing a
peaceful worship service in their own homes.
What has aroused the most concern recently is the incident
in which Peking University dismissed Associate Professor Xia
Yeliang, which shows the position of the Chinese Government in
strictly controlling the freedom of speech. Professor Xia
promoted China's reform toward democratic constitutionalism on
the Internet. So the Peking University simply dismissed him.
It is sad for us that the status of human rights and rule
of law in China is seriously disconcerting. Without human
dignity or basic human rights, the modernization of China is
worthless. On the contrary, when China is headed toward the
opposite direction of universal values, this doubtlessly poses
a greater and greater threat to America and to the civilized
world.
I think China, instead of suppressing these brave soldiers
for freedom, civil society, and democracy, should embrace them,
these individuals like my friend Guo Feixiong, like my friend,
Gao Zhisheng, like many others for still sitting in the dark
prison such for simply hoping and advancing the very freedom
that every human being are cherishing. I think they should be
awarded. I think they should be embraced by the Chinese
Government, certainly the Chinese people. That will make the
21st century a safer and better and much greater place for us
to stay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Fu follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you so much, Pastor Fu. I can say that I
remember when you first brought Mr. Guo's family to our
attention on the subcommittee and how earnest you were that you
would not cease until they were free. It has to be a source of
at least some comfort, despite his horrific circumstances that
he faces now, that his wife and children are safe and that
attributable is to you.
STATEMENT OF MR. T. KUMAR, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY,
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Mr. Kumar. Thank you very much, Chairman and members of the
subcommittee. Amnesty International is extremely pleased to be
here to testify on this important issue.
There are two issues that we are to consider in this.
First, there is an individual who has been arrested for his
peaceful nonviolent political activism. And the bigger picture,
U.S. policies with China, the human rights policy with China,
whether it is moving in the right direction or not.
First of all, I would like to urge that my full testimony
will be part of the record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. Kumar. Thank you very much. Why is Guo Feixiong singled
out and in prison? There are thousands who have been
imprisoned, but in his case a couple of issues stand out. He
fought against corruption. He fought for transparency. He was
part of a major new citizens movement that was fighting for
justice and equality in China. He was fighting for media
freedom by supporting media workers, press workers, against
interference in the editorial policy.
He also went to the other step of urging China to sign on
to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
ratify it, they have signed on, but did not ratify it yet. So
we are seeing an individual here who has been fighting the
fight for the needy and for justice. The results he received
were that he was arrested, tortured, electric shocks were used,
and he was earlier sentenced to 5 years in prison. Now he has
been arrested again, again when he stood up against corruption.
This time, for 2 months, for more than 2 months, no lawyers or
the family members were allowed to see him. So it is basically
an arbitrary detention that is taking place there.
Despite all these things, what we are seeing from our
administration is the pressure that is not up to the standard
that we have seen earlier. As previously, one of the Members of
Congress, the Commissioner, mentioned that after Most Favored
Nation was given to China the leverage for U.S. has gone. We
can see that is one of the major reasons China is not worried
about U.S. making statements or speaking up.
On this issue, we would like to bring to your attention an
opportunity by which the U.S. can bring up the pressure in a
meaningful way. As you are aware U.S. and China have two
different dialogues going on. One is the annual U.S.-China
Human Rights Dialogue which from our perspective, the Chinese
don't take seriously. It is like a pro forma. Every year let's
talk, okay, that is it. Nothing happens.
There is a serious nature of the other dialogue that takes
place, that is the economic and security dialogue. The
Secretary of State attends. That is when Chen was imprisoned,
Secretary Clinton was there for the dialogue. That is why I
meant the timing was so good that a lot of attention.
So what we are urging is that Congress should put pressure
on the administration to make sure that economic and security
dialogue, also include human rights. Until and otherwise, human
rights become part and parcel of economic and security
dialogue, whatever the U.S. says, it is not going to have any
impact on Chinese.
So let us see in a practical sense to add this and some
actual policy. Secretary of State will be there when human
rights is being discussed. They say when we raised the issue
with the administration, they say we discussed the issue on
human rights during the economic and security dialogue. So why
are you so hesitant to call it economic, security and human
rights dialogue. So we urge strongly that Congress take this as
a serious issue and exert pressure and pass resolution so that
next dialogue that takes place, the dialogue is economic,
security, and human rights dialogue. That is when Chinese will
feel the pinch because the economy and business is tied to
human rights, security is tied to human rights there. Hopefully
your action, the committee's action, and other actions will
bring results, to Guo Feixiong's case, but we hope that the
bigger picture of having a meaningful way so that U.S. can put
pressure to fight for equal justice and for human rights in
China also have an impact in China.
Thank you very much for inviting us.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kumar follows:]
----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Kumar thank you very much for that very
practical incisive recommendation. I, too, have noted that
human rights dialogue has almost been a cordoned-off exercise
that they, the Chinese side, does not take seriously, even if
the intentions on the U.S. side are very well intentioned. We
are seeing the same thing replicated in Vietnam and elsewhere.
It kind of puts it on the sidelines and it is not integrated
with the security and economic issues so your point, I think,
is extraordinarily well taken.
As far as noting that the 18th U.S.-China Human Rights
Dialogue took place on July 30th through the 31st and just a
few days later, Mr. Guo was arrested again. So if there was any
kind of impact, it certainly was not manifested toward him as a
result of the human rights dialogue. I think your point is
extraordinarily well taken.
We are joined by Chairman Dana Rohrabacher. Chairman
Rohrabacher, would you like to ask questions?
Mr. Rohrabacher. Let me just make a note. I am sorry, I had
three hearings at one time. I just came from a hearing on
Afghanistan and if there is anything that should indicate to us
that we should try to have a high standard on human rights,
it's the situation we get caught in quagmires in different
parts of the world. If the United States stands for human
rights, and when we have individuals, brave, heroic
individuals, like Guo Feixiong that what we are doing by
supporting them is letting them struggle for freedom. It takes
a burden off of our shoulders that we have to send our troops
everywhere in the world to try to promote the cause of freedom.
The fact is that by we supporting local people and their
struggles for whatever tyrannical government they are under
that is a way that it helps the people in the United States
because then we no longer have to bear the burden of having to
deal with that challenge. And with dictatorships, especially
like China, a dictatorship the size of China that abuses its
own people obviously has no respect for the rights of other
people as well.
If China does not respect the rights of its own people to
the point that it won't murder them or torture them or as we
have seen with the Falun Gong where they pick them up by the
thousands and throw them into prison and actually murder them
for their organs, if you have a government like that or--that
that is a threat to all the decent people in the world. Because
if they do that to their own people, what will they do to
foreigners? So we who are foreigners to them, know that here is
a threat of a ghoulish group of people who are willing to
commit horrendous crimes against their own people and our first
line of defense is to support those of you who are struggling
against that tyranny.
And Mr. Chairman, I am very honored always to sit with you,
and to stand with you and the leadership you have provided on
human rights issues. And especially with concern China in which
as we say if China, if we can bring to a liberalization in
China and support those people who are struggling, to have
decent humane values in China, it will mean a great deal to the
security of the United States and the rest of the world.
So thank you and I thank those of you who are struggling to
help these people in China and we just want to express unity
with you, Mr. Chairman, and to these brave souls who are
struggling for a better world.
Mr. Smith. Chairman Rohrabacher, thank you so very much. I
think our distinguished witnesses know that Chairman
Rohrabacher, before he became a member of the House from
California was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and was one of
those who put into those speeches some of the most memorable
and very enduring concepts concerning fundamental human rights
and the freedom agenda so--and he has continued that ever since
as an individual.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Actually, the President was a great
writer. I was just sort of helping out.
Mr. Smith. But you wrote it too. Thank you so much. Let me
ask a couple of questions and then we will go to Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Chen Guangcheng made seven very specific
recommendations and observations in his testimony, of course,
focusing on Mr. Guo on his fight and his deep empathy and
concern which we all share.
But on one of those he talked about the importance of the
Internet. And I will just note parenthetically that I have
introduced and reintroduced several times legislation which is
regrettably opposed by the Obama administration and that is a
bill called the Global Online Freedom Act of 2013, H.R. 491,
and Mr. Kumar, and Amnesty, and Reporters Without Borders, and
many other organizations and NGOs have endorsed it and
supported it over these many years. Part of the requirements of
that legislation are to require Internet communication
providers that are listed on the U.S. stock exchanges to
disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission their human
rights due diligence and that means Chinese companies like
Baidu and others would have to tell us what they are doing vis-
a-vis human rights and if they are, as we know they are,
censoring ad nauseam. That, too, would have to be disclosed.
It prohibits the export of hardware or software that could
be used for surveillance, tracking, and blocking by governments
of end-users in an ``Internet-restricting country,'' a new term
that we invent in the bill based on a preponderance of the
evidence that they are restricting the Internet and surveilling
their own people. And there are other provisions as well.
Mr. Chen mentioned Hillary Clinton's statement about the
Internet and allowing all members of the human race equal
access to knowledge and thoughts, but this administration
opposes the Global Online Freedom Act. And it would give real
substance, I believe, to an effort to say we mean it when we
say we want the Internet to be free, that students in China and
elsewhere, but especially in China and the general public, will
have access to--unfettered access to knowledge and information.
Secondly, Mr. Chen also mentioned a number of very
important points, but one of them was about a Magnitsky type of
piece of legislation. I think is an idea whose time has come,
but we already have on the books a law that I wrote in 2000 as
part of the larger piece of legislation that I was the author
of called the Admiral James W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign
Relations Authorization Act. And that is to say that anyone who
is complicit in the barbaric one-child-per-couple policy and
Chen Cuangcheng talks about it as being evil and wicked, which
it is. It abuses women. There is no greater abuse of women's
rights occurring the world and the legislation which is law on
the books right now, it is not being enforced by the Obama
administration and wasn't even enforced well by the Bush
administration. It says that anybody who is complicit in those
crimes is denied a visa to come to the United States.
We asked the Congressional Research Service to look into
this last year and found that less than 30 people were
penalized by visa denial and we know that there are hundreds of
thousands throughout China who are visiting this unbelievable
agony upon women and destroying children and young babies,
especially the girl child through sex selection abortion. So
that is a law that has gone unimplemented by the Obama
administration.
We will redouble our efforts as we have done over and over.
I asked the administration, ``What are you doing?'' ``Why
aren't you implementing it?'' We get a big blank stare, but we
will continue to try. But I thank you for raising the Magnitsky
Act and I think as Mr. Kumar and so many others know, it does
work when you hold individuals responsible for crimes in a
regime that is called a dictatorship. It has a profound impact.
I wrote a law back in 2004, the Belarus Democracy Act. The
mainstay of that law was to hold Lukashenka and his other
fellow repressors accountable in Belarus through visa denial
and well over 200 people, it's a small country, have been
denied visas to come to the United States and the Europeans
have followed suit. So it a model and Magnitsky is working
roughly, but it is working vis-a-vis Russia today.
So I thank you for those very specific recommendations, Mr.
Chen. If there are any further comments, and then I will go to
Mr. Meadows, that any of our distinguished witnesses would like
to make, you certainly laid out the case. We will follow this
up with a letter to President Obama. We will include all of
your testimony. We will ask him--he is a Nobel Peace Prize
winner. He has gravitas the likes of which very few people have
in the world to raise these issues and certainly now with
President Xi Jinping moving aggressively in the other
direction. It was already bad under his predecessor, President
Hu, it has gotten worse as we all know. So there needs to be, I
think, a revisiting of these issues by the administration.
And again, Ms. Yang, your comments, everyone should read,
as well as your mom's, should read those comments and see a
mother and daughter testifying on behalf of their husband and
dad with such eloquence and such class is so moving. There is
so much love coming from you toward your father and your
husband. And my hope is that that will further motivate all of
us who often fall asleep and don't do enough to really make a
difference. Our President needs to step up. Our Congress needs
to step up and we need to do much more.
And again Mr. Kumar, I love your idea of the human rights
dialogues, well meaning, they don't work. We need to integrate
it into the security and economic dialogues--and you are right,
Secretary of State is there, and hopefully, Secretary Kerry
will take these cases and take them seriously.
So I would like to yield to any of you and then go to Mr.
Meadows for any questions he might have. If you want to comment
on any of that or I will go right to Mr. Meadows.
[The following testimony was delivered through an
interpreter.]
Ms. Zhang. I have one question. On September 30th, I paid a
visit to the Department of State and visited some officials
there. So I made a request to the Department of State asking
them to make a public announcement to ask the Chinese
Government to release Guo Feixiong. But we have not seen
anything that has happened. I really hope that the American
Government can make an announcement.
Mr. Smith. Could you reveal who it was that you spoke to or
would you rather not do that, at Department of State?
Mr. Fu. Zeya, Zeya. The Assistant Secretary, Zeya.
Mr. Smith. Acting. Thank you. So you have reached out to
the State Department and so far there has not been a response?
Ms. Zhang. Yes.
Mr. Smith. We will follow up as well. And I will say one
statement does make for an intervention. My hope is that as we
do on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, because
I am the co-chairman of that as well. We have a prisoners list.
We advocate for those continuously for the release of political
and religious prisoners, but we don't see a corresponding--I
mean, our Ambassador Gary Locke, should be raising this. This
should be a mainstay of our dialogue with China, not what is
the next deal to sell more of our bombs or some other self-
interest. So thank you for that. Pastor Fu.
Mr. Fu. I have a quick comment about a follow up about
improving the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue, the mechanism.
Although within our human rights communities we basically
concluded with the same conclusion. As Chen Guangcheng put it
nicely that the human rights dialogue has become a human rights
empty talk. But you know, I remembered this May when I traveled
with Chen Guangcheng to the European Parliament and we met with
EU's highest human rights officer, the former Foreign Minister
for Greece. And he, in a private setting, but he wants our
secretary to know that when Chen Guangcheng was still under
house arrest and when a diplomat tried to visit, and was beaten
up, right outside his Dongzhou village. And instead of making
public, obviously, diplomatic protest is warranted. The EU has
waited until the next round of human rights dialogue next year
and talk to the Chinese Government and said, ``Why do you beat
up our diplomat over there?''
So we are sort of very, very concerned on that very
incident that Chinese sort of guards could beat up an EU, sort
of the one of the most powerful sovereign country block could
be--could keep silence for a fellow diplomat who was beaten. So
after talking with Mr. Chen Guangcheng, of course, we were
making suggestions to them, and I think it complied with the
U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue. One way to avoid becoming a
show of empty talk is to make the human rights dialogue live
streaming, to make it live broadcast. If they want to talk
lies, actually the Chinese talk back to the EU and said, ``No
Chen Guangcheng is free. We didn't beat up your diplomat. He is
all right.''
So I think the reason the Chinese regime can pronounce
these blind--just lies so unshamefully is a closed door, under
the table dialogue. If it is broadcast live, even part of the
session when the people around the same table, when the Chinese
people and the American people and the world know what they are
talking about, then it is truly--it is a true dialogue. I think
you will produce some truth, some result, so that is my
comment.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Meadows. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank each of you
for your testimony. I know it is very easy to get discouraged.
The chairman has been fighting this fight for many, many years.
But I can speak to his character and to his perseverance and I
can tell you he is unyielding truly in his efforts to make sure
that justice and fairness and compassion is something that we
all revere not only here in the United States, but in China and
other nations abroad. So I want to give you that encouragement.
I am a little concerned because we continue to have
hearings over and over again and we ask for action items and we
try to take those action items and then not much happens with
them.
So Pastor Fu, let me make sure I understand you. You are
saying that once we have these hearings, if we were to televise
those live, that they might have some impact in terms of the
human rights violations?
Mr. Fu. That is right.
Mr. Meadows. All right. We were in a hearing just the other
day where we talked about some of the media and how the truth
is just not getting out, not only in China, but it is really
not getting out to us as well in terms of what is happening
there with regards of media personnel within China, if they
report negatively. Many times their visas do not get renewed or
they get delayed for long periods of time. Wouldn't you agree
that that is an accurate reflection of what is happening in
China?
Mr. Fu. I do not necessarily agree that that happens every
time or all the time. And actually, as Chairman Smith and also
Congressman Frank Wolf recalled, remember before the Beijing
Olympics, I remember of course they are known critics of
China's human rights record and when they applied for visas,
yes, they slow down a little bit, but still give you visas.
Yes, you still were able to get to China, right?
I think these are peripheral concerns. I think the main
concern, and as a former teacher who used to teach in the
Chinese Communist Party school, I know the Communist Party's
mentality is actually the weaker, or the more you yield, the
weaker you show to them, actually, the more they feel they are
empowered or more aggressive.
Mr. Meadows. So what you are saying is we need to take a
more forceful hand in terms of the penalties of not complying,
that we need to set laws and the State Department needs to be
more forceful in terms of the potential consequences?
Mr. Fu. Absolutely. It is, after all, this is two the great
powers and it is not--nobody wants to have a mutual
destruction.
Mr. Meadows. Right.
Mr. Fu. But at the same time, you cannot forget our very
fundamental values that form this country by just ignoring or
just silencing or put human rights under the table to
modernizing this very important fundamental issue.
Mr. Meadows. All right. Let me ask you perhaps a more
difficult question. Do the Chinese people as a whole see us as
being critical of human rights, being synonymous with us being
critical of them as the national country or their economic--do
they see those as when we are critical of human rights, being
critical of them as a people?
Mr. Fu. Although the Chinese Communist Party propaganda
mission wants to make the Chinese regime, the Chinese Communist
Party
Mr. Meadows. One and the same.
Mr. Fu. Yes, with the Chinese people, try to mess up the
idea, I think the Chinese people can make that distinction. It
is really the Chinese regime who carry out this repressive
policies. It is the brutal policies that is used by the
torturists who tortured Mr. Guo Feixiong and Mr. Chen
Guangcheng. So I think the Chinese people commit with
distinction. Like even with today's hearing, with the social
media and the Chinese Internet, there will be meetings with
Chinese people who will know and who will even many will find
the video.
Mr. Meadows. So what you are saying is the Chinese people
would know that the Members of Congress have a warm feeling
toward them. We just condemn the actions of these human rights
violations?
Mr. Fu. There are not only, of course, not only warm
feelings, but they know that they are not fighting for freedom
alone. They know you are in solidarity, their American
friends----
Mr. Meadows. Okay.
Mr. Fu [continuing]. A thousand miles away who are
concerned about their prisoners, about their fellow relatives
who are arbitrarily arrested.
Mr. Meadows. Okay. Mr. Kumar, let me go to you. Because in
previous testimony and then I heard it again as a recurring
theme today, you talked about the need for the State Department
primarily to tie human rights and the economic viability, those
together. Obviously, we haven't done a very good job of that to
date. And we have had a lot of rhetoric, although I do believe
the State Department has a sincere desire to affect human
rights. It is a balancing act. Many times, they look at the
economic impact versus human rights in trying to evaluate those
two.
How do we do a better job of tying those two together in
terms of--would it be to look at denying visas? How can we do
that in terms of making a real impact?
Mr. Kumar. I would anticipate that the Chinese Government
take economic and security dialogue very, very seriously. It's
the highest level. Secretary of State from our side, and the
Foreign Minister of Chinese come together and discuss issues.
They discuss economic issues and security issues together. They
are tying those together.
Mr. Meadows. Okay.
Mr. Kumar. But they are not tying human rights into that
mix. They are having the human rights dialogue separate from
that. That's why we are urging that human rights be part and
parcel of this economic and security dialogue, not stand alone.
When you do it stand alone, they will come, they will talk, but
the pinch is not there. They are not getting the pressure. The
only way they will take human rights seriously.
Mr. Meadows. So how do we do that? How do we take human
rights and make a penalty for not complying? Because the
chairman and I have been in meetings with groups from China,
part of Chinese Government and their comment to the chairman
and to me was, ``We are making great progress and that you are
just misinformed,'' is essentially what they told Chairman
Smith, that he was misinformed, that they were making great
strides.
So how do we tie those two together?
Mr. Kumar. You know, the point is if they have made any
strides, of course, there are certain areas like death penalty,
they have made some improvements. Earlier it was 80% of the
world's executions were taking place in China. Until China
changed due to lot of pressure from outside and also inside to
make sure that there is another review before someone is
getting executed by the Supreme Court. Because that reason, the
death penalty drops to 50%, even though it is still the highest
in the world. All the countries put together, it is the
highest.
The issue of how to make change from U.S. in this case. The
only country, by the way Congressman, that China will take
seriously is the U.S. The only superpower left and they want to
have good relations with the U.S. They don't want to burn
bridges for something they can't do. Which is for their own
interest, that's the U.S. So our suggestion is that human
rights issues should be tied to these two issues, economic and
security issues. Sanctioned issues are slightly different. When
you--every year when they have a dialogue like with the Most
Favored Nations, every year they will have to debate in
Congress and at that time all kinds of human rights issues are
debated. Then Congress authorizes it.
If the human rights situation goes down, Chinese fears they
may not get the Most Favored Nation status renewed. That's, you
know, the liberty that was dropped, actually under the Clinton
administration that was dropped.
So the other alternative we are seeing is there is another
dialogue taking place even though there is no sanction related,
the mere fact the highest levels of U.S. administration in the
foreign ministry, that's the Secretary of State. In this case,
Secretary Kerry will be there raising the issues, not a human
rights bureau or another human rights bureau. There is one good
example we have to see. Qing's case, Qing who testified.
Secretary Clinton was there for the economic and security
dialogue, so when the whole issue blew up there and, you know,
your hearings, Mr. Chairman, I also testified when he was
making his appearance by phone from his hospital bed, that put
pressure on Secretary Clinton to have some decision. And in
turn they exert pressure and we have seen him released.
So what it shows is if the pressures goes in a meaningful
way in the highest levels that it will have some impact.
Mr. Meadows. So you are saying that at the Secretary level
or the Under Secretary level and just make sure that they are
at those high levels?
Mr. Kumar. High level, but the way you tie is you tie human
rights with economic and security dialogue. That's when they
will take it seriously. That's me saying we raised it, the
administration is reluctant, they know the Chinese will not
like it.
Mr. Meadows. Mr. Chairman, if you will indulge me for one
more question, if that would be all right? I assume that it is.
One of the understandings that I have is when we have
events, whether it be arrests or whether it be rebellion,
whether it be a protest, that social media and everything
lights up, it flickers up. And then at that particular time
that there is, you know, just an oppressive--on the Internet
freedom it gets--really, there has to be a desire to jump the
firewalls, so to speak, to allow that message to continue to
get out.
We heard the other day, or I heard in a briefing the other
day, that once we jump the firewall that many times they are
subject to cyberattacks, almost instantaneously at the same
time. Again, to suppress the freedom of the press or the
freedom of speech from sharing that.
Would you agree that that is a significant problem, and if
we could address that with additional server capacity would
that help the Chinese people share the story? Either one of
you, Pastor Fu or?
Mr. Fu. Yes, I think the public meeting and also a
statement mentioning specific names, I think that will really
demonstrate to leadership, you know, like the case of Chen
Guangcheng, like the Guo Feixiong. You know, I remember months
ago with Jared Genser, the president of Freedom Now, who
actually yesterday had an op-ed in The Washington Post. We
together met with President Obama's top human rights officer
near the White House, and basically our key demand our or key
point is President Obama, you know, he can just basically use
his presidential leverage to tell--or even privately
communicate with the Chinese, even face-saving matters, say,
look, this is a concern, not only to me but to the American
people, you know, the torture, the arbitrary arrests, you know,
with Guo Feixiong and the Nobel Peace winner, Liu Xiaobo, and
of course, Mr. Guo Feixiong. I mean, all these cases, and their
family members are here. They are at the door of the White
House and if you don't release them I will meet with them.
And in fact, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, and
the Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, twice already, I know for a
fact, that along with several committee chairmen, including
Chairman Smith, wrote letters to President Obama, asking him to
meet with Guo's wife, asking him to meet with Chen Guangcheng.
And so far not even a Cabinet-level member has ever even met
with the family members. I think the Chinese are watching. The
Chinese, of course, are observing whether that is the priority
within the administration.
Mr. Meadows. Perhaps we can call on the President's
compassion for people and encourage that even today. But I
thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back. I appreciate your indulgence.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows, thank you. Yes, Mr. Fu?
Mr. Fu. I just want to correct on record, I think I got to
know the Acting Assistant Secretary, Ms. Zeya. She did mention
Yang Maodung's name last week at China's U.N. UPR review in
Geneva. So that is the only name mentioned by any other
country. Of course, the Chinese Ambassador rejected that
immediately. So I wanted to keep that record straight.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. I think we do have votes--yes, Ms.
Zhang?
[The following testimony was delivered through an
interpreter.]
Ms. Zhang. I am very thankful to Chairman Smith. You gave
us this opportunity on my husband, Guo Feixiong's behalf. I
hope that this hearing can produce some positive result to help
my husband. And I hope that Congress and the administration can
work together for the earlier release of my husband.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Zhang, thank you so much. Again, your
bravery and that of your daughter just mirrors that of your
husband and it's an inspiration to all of us.
You know, we begin every single session of Congress with a
prayer. I think it would be most fitting, especially now since
the cruelty in China has escalated, and it has already been bad
for so long and many of you have suffered from it, Pastor Fu,
but it would be very appropriate if Pastor Fu, if you could
just lead us in a very brief prayer for the freedom of this
wonderful husband and father, Guo Feixiong, and others who are
suffering the barbarity of this regime in Beijing. If you could
just lead us in that, and that will be the close of this
hearing.
Mr. Fu. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for this
wonderful opportunity to testify for the truth about freedom,
about democracy, about all these brave spirits, that we know
that every human being is created with your image which gives
us the true source of dignity and equality and justice. So as
we are created equal, we can seek justice and justice for all.
Lord, we thank you for this great country, a country that has
been founded by the Founding Fathers with this great
Constitution, with the guarantee of freedom of religion,
freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. Lord, we cannot take
this for granted, because, as your servant, Martin Luther King
said, ``Injustice anywhere is the threat to justice
everywhere.'' Lord, may you lead us to be a voice for the
voiceless, because in the end those victims, those who are
silenced, will remember not the words of enemies, but the
silence of their friends. Lord, may you use this panel, use the
Members of Congress, use the leadership of the great United
States of America and use the leadership of President Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry to be a vehicle to not only
advance the business, trade interests of America, but more
importantly advance the freedom, democracy, and the human
dignity, the value of these universal imperatives throughout
the world. At the end of the day, we do not live by food and
water and worldly entertainment only, but more importantly, we
live to glorify you and to love our neighbor and to love each
other. May you grant freedom for Guo Feixiong sooner. May you
grant freedom of Gao Zhisheng sooner. May you grant freedom of
many others sooner using us. We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Mr. Smith. The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:31 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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