    [House Hearing, 113 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                      THEIR DAUGHTERS' APPEAL TO BEIJING:
                            ``LET OUR FATHERS GO!''

    =======================================================================

                                    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

                                   __________

                                DECEMBER 5, 2013

                                   __________

                               Serial No. 113-140

                                   __________

            Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

    Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
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                                     ______
                          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. Lisa Peng, daughter of Peng Ming.............................     5
    Ms. Grace Ge Geng, daughter of Gao Zhisheng......................     9
    Ms. Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of Wang Bingzhang.....................    14
    Ms. Bridgette Chen, daughter of Liu Xian Bin.....................    18
    Ms. Danielle Wang, daughter of Wang Zhiwen.......................    20
    Pastor Bob Fu, founder and president, ChinaAid Association.......    30
    Mr. Chen Guangfu, brother of Chen Guangcheng and father of Chen
      Kegui..........................................................    44
    Devra Marcus, M.D., physician and activist.......................    53

              LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING

    Ms. Lisa Peng: Prepared statement................................     7
    Ms. Grace Ge Geng: Prepared statement............................    11
    Ms. Ti-Anna Wang: Prepared statement.............................    16
    Ms. Bridgette Chen: Prepared statement...........................    19
    Ms. Danielle Wang: Prepared statement............................    21
    Pastor Bob Fu: Prepared statement................................    34
    Mr. Chen Guangfu: Prepared statement.............................    47
    Devra Marcus, M.D.: Prepared statement...........................    56

                                    APPENDIX

    Hearing notice...................................................    68
    Hearing minutes..................................................    69

          THEIR DAUGHTERS' APPEAL TO BEIJING: ``LET OUR FATHERS GO!''

                                  ----------

                           THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 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 11 o'clock
    a.m., in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon.
    Christopher H. Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
        Mr. Smith. The hearing will come to order and good morning
    to everyone. When China bullies, incarcerates, tortures, and
    even executes a prisoner of conscience, their entire family and
    friends suffer an excruciating sense of loss, bewilderment,
    emotional pain, and agony. Often members of the family are
    themselves subjected to interrogation, mistreatment, and house
    arrest in order to amplify the hurt.
        In a very real sense, everyone close to a prisoner of
    conscience goes to jail and lives a seemingly unending
    nightmare. Every day, family and friends are left to wonder
    what terrible abuse awaits Dad or Mom or a brother, sister or
    child. Every day, the tears flow.
        The people who rule China today with an iron fist resort to
    these ugly methods of control in the mistaken assumption that
    the people, the masses, can't be trusted to govern themselves,
    practice their faith as they see fit, or create a family.
    China's barbaric one-child-per-couple policy, for example, in
    effect since 1979, continues despite some of the hyperbole
    about reform, unabated to make brothers and sisters illegal and
    relies on ruinous fines and penalties, forced abortion, and
    coercive sterilization, crimes against humanity, to achieve its
    ends. And all ``news'' content and commentary in cyberspace, on
    TV, radio or in print media in China today continues to be
    strictly controlled and manipulated by the Communist Party.
        The Chinese Government today is in the business of breaking
    minds, bodies, and hearts. The repression is systematic,
    pervasive, unrelenting, and unnecessary. That is because the
    people of China love their nation and they do deserve better
    treatment. Even heroic persons like Chen Guangcheng, who is
    with us today, and his dear wife who is equally brave; Wei
    Jingsheng, Rebiya Kadeer, Bishop Su of Baoding, Harry Wu and
    countless others who have demonstrated by their extraordinary
    perseverance and indomitable will to advance bedrock human
    rights principles regardless of cost, carry the indelible scars
    of unspeakable mistreatment.
        The people who rule China today employ these ugly methods
    of control to prop up their own political power and increase
    their personal wealth. China, a great nation, deserves better.
        Far too many of us who live in freedom often fail to exert
    ourselves in a meaningful way to assist prisoners of conscience
    and their loved ones, in China, and frankly, elsewhere. Far too
    many of us fail to empathize with their plight or to see what
    is just below the facade of the purported harmonious society.
        How can it be that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu
    Xiaobo remains in prison while his wife, Liu Xia, is forced to
    endure the extreme isolation of house arrest and is now
    reportedly experiencing severe depression?
        Perhaps we are uninformed or too busy or prefer to look
    askance. However, with so much preventable suffering being
    endured by so many prisoners of conscience and their families
    in China today, the time has surely come for a more serious and
    sustained defense of these heroic individuals and their noble
    causes. All of us, including the Chinese Government, have a
    duty to protect.
        Today, we will hear the cries for release and freedom from
    five remarkable daughters on behalf of their wrongly imprisoned
    fathers and from a dad on behalf of his unjustly jailed son.
    This is an appeal directly to Beijing. This is an appeal from
    five young women on behalf of their fathers who they miss so
    deeply. We hope that Beijing will be listening.
        We will also hear expert testimony from a previously
    incarcerated Christian pastor who cares deeply for the
    vulnerable and at risk, and another human rights activist who
    was who was detained in China after an attempt to visit a
    dissident. I will provide the introductions as we go to our
    panels.
        I would now like to yield to my good friend and colleague,
    Mr. Pittenger, for any comments that he might have.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for inviting me
    and allowing me to make an opening statement. I thank you for
    the over 30 years, that I have known you, that you have been
    faithful to the commitment of those who are persecuted for
    their religious faith, for their freedoms of conscience, and
    for your commitment to bring liberty to these individuals.
        I want to thank you for the leadership that you are
    bringing to this discussion which is so important today for all
    Americans to know and to hear, and as well as for Beijing to
    hear this important message.
        I would like to thank these brave witnesses, those who I
    met earlier today, for appearing before us and I look forward
    to hearing your testimony.
        The issues of human rights, religious liberties, and the
    rule of law in China have been of great importance to me my
    entire adult life. These are issues that I have been dedicated
    to since I graduated from college and with my 10 years of
    service with Campus Crusade for Christ serving as the president
    of that organization, Dr. Bill Bright, we spent much time
    overseas and are aware very much of the plight of the believers
    in China and various parts of the world.
        The United States must remain committed to monitoring the
    continued violation of the rule of law by the Chinese and stand
    with those committed to ending the persecution of Chinese
    citizens for practicing their religious beliefs, for freedoms
    of conscience, and striving for democracy.
        As a Member of Congress, I take an active role on these
    issues as a commissioner on the Congressional-Executive
    Commission on China. America must be the unwavering light for
    religious freedom, freedoms of conscience, and political
    freedom throughout the world. Our stance on issues relating to
    these freedoms must be resounding.
        As we bring light onto China's appalling record of human
    rights violations and persecutions of believers of all faiths,
    we must call on them to release their political and freedoms of
    conscience prisoners. China signed the International Covenant
    on Civil and Political Rights in 1998, but 15 years later, they
    have still not ratified the covenant. The time is now for China
    to take real meaningful steps toward reform.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the privilege of being here
    and I yield back.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Pittenger, and for your
    leadership on religious freedom issues and issues related to
    human rights in China especially.
        Mr. Pittenger. Yes, sir.
        Mr. Smith. I would like to now welcome our very
    distinguished panel of five daughters to the witness table and
    I will introduce and if they could come and then make their
    presentations.
        We will begin first with Lisa Peng, a daughter of Peng
    Ming. Lisa's father, Peng Ming, founder of China Development
    Federation was framed by the Chinese Communists in 1999 and
    imprisoned for 1\1/2\ years. When he was released from the
    labor camp, Mr. Peng fled to Thailand and arrived in the United
    States in 2001. There, he founded China Federal Development
    Committee. In 2004, Peng was trapped by Chinese special agents
    and kidnapped to China. In 2005, he was sentenced to life in
    prison on the false charge of organizing and leading a
    terrorist organization. Lisa Peng, his 17-year-old daughter,
    our witness, was born in Beijing and suffered doubly as a
    second child by being denied official, legal recognition. Her
    family fled political persecution in 2000 and was accepted by
    the United States as a U.N. refugee in 2001.
        Lisa is currently a senior at Laurel School in Cleveland,
    Ohio. She is the principal keyboardist of the Cleveland Youth
    Orchestra, and was a featured high school Lincoln-Douglas
    Debater at the City Club of Cleveland, Ohio.
        Lisa, thank you, and welcome.
        We will then hear from Grace Ge Geng, who is the 20-year-
    old daughter of imprisoned Chinese human rights lawyer, Gao
    Zhisheng, was convicted of inciting subversion of state power
    and sentenced to a 3-year prison term. After being arrested and
    released several times from 2006 to 2010, Gao Zhisheng was
    accused of violating the terms of his parole and sent back to
    jail to serve his 3-year term. Many times during this period
    Gao disappeared. He is currently incarcerated in a prison in
    far western Xinjiang.
        During years of her father's disappearance and torture
    under Chinese Government persecution, Grace, along with her
    mom, Geng He, also experienced tremendous harassment,
    intimidation, and beatings. She was deprived of her educational
    opportunity as well. Unable to live a normal life anywhere,
    Grace, her mom, and her little brother, Peter Gao, fled to the
    United States before Gao's 2009 re-arrest and re-disappearance.
    Grace now lives in California and is a sophomore in De Anza
    College in California. Welcome, Grace.
        We will then hear from Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of Wang
    Bingzhang. She was born in 1989 and was named to commemorate
    the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Soon after her
    13th birthday, her father, a veteran democracy activist
    disappeared. After 6 months of secret custody, the Chinese
    Government announced Wang Bingzhang's arrest. He was
    subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment on false charges of
    espionage and terrorism. Ti-Anna has spent much of her time and
    energy working for her father's freedom. This journey has taken
    her around the world in a process of discovery of the ideals
    that her name embodies and efforts have been fictionalized into
    a book of young adult fiction titled ``Nine Days'' by Fred
    Hiatt, which I encourage people to read. It is a wonderful
    book. I originally got it from the Library of Congress when it
    was published and I thank him for bringing light to many of the
    issues here, but especially to Ti-Anna.
        Ti-Anna graduated from McGill University with a degree in
    East Asian Studies and recently spent a year studying Mandarin
    in Taipei. Currently, she is advocating full-time for her
    father's release.
        We will then hear from Bridgette Chen. Many of us know that
    Bridgette's dad, Liu Xianbin, who used the pen name Wan
    Xianming. He was one of the original signers of Charter 08 and
    participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest. Liu was
    first arrested in 1991 and held in Beijing's infamous Qiugcheng
    Prison. There he served 2\1/2\ years for so-called ``counter-
    revolutionary incitement.'' After being released, Liu was
    sentenced again to a 13-year prison term for ``inciting
    subversion of state power.'' After his release, he was detained
    in June 2010 and then sentenced to a 10-year prison term in
    March 2011, again for ``inciting subversion of state power,''
    whatever that is.
        Bridgette's father has been in prison for almost all of her
    life. In 2011, after the Chinese Government refused to give
    Bridgette's mother a passport, Bridgette fled China and arrived
    alone in the United States. Now just 16, Bridgette will speak
    up for her dad and for her family as a witness.
        Next, we will hear from Danielle Wang, on behalf of her
    father, Wang Zhiwen, a PRC Ministry of Railways engineer who
    became a Falun Gong practitioner in 1992. On July 20, 1999,
    Wang was seized from his bed by police and taken away. This was
    the same day the Chinese Communist Party began its crackdown on
    the Falun Gong. On December 26, 1999, Wang was sentenced to 16
    years in prison. The sentencing trial, in which Wang was one of
    the four defendants, was nationally broadcast and it was clear
    to viewers that defendants had been physically abused. The four
    were convicted of organizing and using a heretical organization
    that caused death, another big lie, and illegally obtaining
    state secrets.
        Wang Zhiwen's daughter, Danielle, is a U.S. citizen. Since
    her father's arrest, she has been working tirelessly to call
    for his release through public events, hunger strikes, sit-ins
    at Chinese consulates, and speaking out at various events
    around the world. Danielle has not been able to get back to
    China since she arrived in the U.S. in 1998. She hasn't been
    able to speak with her father since July 1999. It is her hope
    that one day soon she can be reunited with her mom and dad as
    they rebuild their lives together.
        Thank you, ladies, for your bravery, your courage, your
    extraordinary love which has been ongoing for so many years.
    Frankly, we are all moved by your loss, which God willing, will
    be turned into a release. And when you speak today, know that
    you are speaking right to the Government of China because my
    hope and prayer is that they will be listening. If we can begin
    now.

           STATEMENT OF MS. LISA PENG, DAUGHTER OF PENG MING

        Ms. Peng. I am Lisa Peng, daughter of political dissident
    Mr. Peng Ming. I would first like to thank you for reaffirming
    the universal values of freedom, democracy, and justice for my
    father, and other dissidents like him. I know that my father
    would be very grateful for your efforts to revive his mission.
        My father, Mr. Peng Ming, is an environmentalist, an
    economist, and a human rights activist. He is the author of The
    Fourth Landmark, a book on China's economic and political
    growth that was sponsored by the Ford Foundation. He was also
    the founder and president of China Development Union, an
    organization which sponsored think tanks that gave his fellow
    Chinese citizens the opportunity to discuss highly censored
    topics like freedom, democracy, and justice. As a result of his
    political activism, in 1999, my father was sentenced to 18
    months of ``reeducation through labor'' camp. At the time, I
    was 2 years old. Upon his release, my father was faced with the
    possibility of a second arrest, and so my family fled from
    political persecution in China to the United States as U.N.
    refugees in 2001. But 18 months of labor camp did not stop my
    father from continuing to stand up for human rights. In 2004,
    when I was 8 years old, my father went to Thailand to establish
    a safe haven for persecuted refugees like himself. There, he
    was lured by eight Chinese secret police to the border of
    Thailand and Burma, where he was kidnapped at gunpoint and
    brought back to China, the country that had persecuted him in
    1999, the country that now sentenced him to life in prison.
        The United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention
    has determined that deprivation of my father's liberty is
    arbitrary and is in contravention of articles 19 and 20 of the
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, my father
    is a U.S.-based dissident with U.N. refugee status who escaped
    political persecution in China. Therefore, his kidnapping is in
    violation of the principle of non-refoulment, which forbids the
    return of a victim of persecution to their persecutor. My
    father has also been arbitrarily deprived of his right to due
    process, as he was denied access to a lawyer and to a jury of
    his peers.
        Although my father has been denied the exercise of his
    right to freedom of expression, he continues to exercise
    physically and mentally. Despite nearly 10 years in prison
    suffering heart attacks, arthritis, malnutrition, and kidney
    stones with no medical care, my father still persists and
    remains hopeful. It is this hope that my father has instilled
    in me despite the thousands of miles that have separated him
    from nearly a decade of my life, a decade during which I have
    been privileged to receive an American education and learn
    about freedom, democracy, and justice, but a decade during
    which my father has remained imprisoned for fighting to secure
    those very same values.
        As an American citizen, I cannot merely stand by and
    tacitly approve as these fundamental freedoms are undermined.
    It is Congress' unwavering dedication to upholding those values
    and unrelenting efforts to free prisoners of conscience that
    give me hope for the future, for the possibility of telling my
    father in person how much we have all cared about his health
    and his dream for China's future. I hope that my father will
    first and foremost be given proper medical attention and
    visitation rights, and ultimately I seek his release.
        I join with my fellow sisters here today to request that
    Vice President Biden ask Chinese leaders to release our
    fathers, and to request an Oval Office meeting with President
    Obama to share our stories. I know that my dream to be reunited
    with my father and my father's dream for his country can come
    true with your support, persistence, and affirmation of the
    universal and fundamental values of our country: Freedom,
    democracy, and justice.
        Thank you very much.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Peng follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much for your testimony. We
    have been joined by Congressman Mark Meadows.
        Mr. Meadows, and then we will go to Ms. Geng.
        Mr. Meadows. I would love to hear from you. I will make one
    brief statement because your testimony right now just spoke to
    that is that this is a story that needs to continue to be told.
    The chairman has dedicated his life to making sure that it is
    heard. I am privileged and honored to be part of the support to
    do just that. We will not stop until families have been
    reunited and that truly that this atrocity is taken from the
    face of not only your country, but many countries this world.
        There is William Wilberforce, who fought for many years to
    end slavery, and today we look out and we see a different kind
    of slavery that is happening. So let us continue on in the
    effort of the William Wilberforces of the world and I just
    applaud you for being here and I thank the chairman for his
    dedication. I yield.
        Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows, thank you very much for your
    comments and for your leadership as well. I would like to now
    go to Ms. Geng.

        STATEMENT OF MS. GRACE GE GENG, DAUGHTER OF GAO ZHISHENG

        Ms. Geng. Dear honorable friends, I am thankful for you
    giving me this opportunity at this hearing so I can speak up
    for my dad, human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. I am very
    grateful for the U.S. Congress for caring about my father's
    case. I am Attorney Gao's daughter, Grace. I was born in a
    happy, harmonious family, with Mom and Dad's loving care, and
    relatives and friends around. I had been happy and never felt
    lonely. But at the age of 13, my life has turned upside down.
    On October 15, 2006, policemen kidnapped my father at my aunt's
    home in Shandong Province, because of my father's taking up and
    investigating the cases of the persecuted faith groups. On the
    very same day, a group of policemen forcibly broke into my
    house at Beijing. Since then, six to seven policemen have been
    stationed at my house every day. There has been house arrest
    for me, my mom, and young brother with surveillance 24 hours a
    day and 7 days a week, including watching over our sleep and
    even going to our bathroom. In order to monitor us tightly,
    they didn't allow me and my 3-year-old kindergarten brother to
    go to school. Under my mom's death protest by turning on the
    gas on the stove, the policemen finally agreed to our rights of
    education, but still under the severe surveillance of
    policemen.
        I had to ride in the police car to school every day. There
    were six or seven policemen accompanying me to school. They
    always abusively insulted my father in the police car. One day
    on the way to school, there were two people talking along the
    roadside and one policeman pointed to them and said, ``Aren't
    they Gao Zhisheng and Hu Jia chatting?'' Another policeman
    followed-up immediately and said that ``Yes, they are gay
    friends,'' and then they all laughed weirdly. That's how I
    started my day of school each day. Policemen went in and sat
    behind me in the classroom in each class, including music
    course. The severe surveillance was applied to my toileting,
    too. They went in the restroom with me and did not let me close
    the door. One of the most annoying things is that my teacher
    once said in front of the whole class: ``None of you can bring
    cell phone to school, if Grace uses your cell phone, you will
    face serious political charges.'' Also, my computer class in
    the school was cut off. My spirit and nerves almost collapsed,
    after my father was taken away from us. I had to endure the
    pressure in my day-to-day life, suffered discrimination from
    classmates and teachers, and was forced to experience the
    loneliness at young age. I lost all my sense of security.
        My 3-year-old brother also had to sit in the police car to
    classes. His kindergarten classroom is the only room with a
    surveillance camera in the whole nursery.
        In September 2008, the policemen did not allow me to go to
    school. This prompted our determination to leave China to
    escape this unbearable mistreatment, partly for education.
    Under friends' help, my mother took me and my brother to flee
    China, and came to the United States. Coming to this land of
    free, I did not have a trace of excitement. I missed my father
    so much. Combined with the accumulated worries about my father,
    I couldn't take it anymore and experienced a complete nervous
    breakdown. The first Christmas night in the United States, I
    was admitted into the hospital.
        I have been living in the United States for nearly 5 years
    now. I couldn't hear my father's voice nor received his letters
    or word about current situation. I miss him so much. The most
    recent news was on this past January that my uncle went to the
    prison to see him. My uncle was not allowed to release any
    information about my father by the Beijing Authority. It is
    almost another year since then. For various reasons and
    regulations, they did not allow my family members to see my
    father. My grandma, grandpa, three aunts, his brothers,
    sisters, and all other relatives, all my relatives' names were
    so-called blacklisted. They were deprived the basic rights of
    even getting a passport. Eight years passed, the persecution on
    my father is not only still continuing, but also extends to all
    of his family members. Living in the freest country with the
    world it has been sour in my heart. The freedom has not yet
    been open to me or my family.
        My younger brother tearfully said to me once, ``I really
    couldn't remember Daddy's face and figure; I am no longer
    familiar with his voice.''
        Today, gathering my courage, I come and speak up of my
    story and injustice suffered. I want to let you know that my
    father is still behind the bars, and my mom is in poor health,
    struggling to support the family. I need to go school to
    complete my education, and my brother is still small. How
    individuals or a family can constantly fight with a huge
    country that has made our family's suffering so long. I hope
    the U.S. Government and the people can hear our hopeless voice
    and act right now. I know that only you can help me get back to
    my normal life, comfort my brother's young heart and feelings,
    help my father to be released with peace and get my reunited.
    Thanks.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Geng follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Ms. Geng, thank you so much for your testimony.
        Ms. Ti-Anna Wang.

       STATEMENT OF MS. TI-ANNA WANG, DAUGHTER OF WANG BINGZHANG

        Ms. Ti-Anna Wang. Thank you honorable Members of Congress
    for giving me the opportunity to testify today. My name is Ti-
    Anna Wang, and as the world prepares to commemorate
    International Human Rights Day, I would like to tell you about
    my father, Wang Bingzhang, a political prisoner currently
    serving a life sentence in China.
        My father, Wang Bingzhang, is a New York-based, permanent
    U.S. resident and a prisoner of conscience currently serving
    the 11th year of a life sentence for his pioneering work in
    pro-democracy activism. He is the founder of the overseas
    Chinese democracy movement and dedicated his life to promoting
    rule of law, freedom and human rights in China by starting the
    dissident magazine, China Spring, and several organizations
    opposing the Communist government.
        In 2002, my father was kidnapped in Vietnam and forced back
    into China where he was taken into custody by Chinese police.
    After being held incommunicado for 6 months, he was subjected
    to a sham trial and found guilty of ``espionage'' and
    ``terrorism.'' My father was sentenced to life in prison and
    has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement ever
    since.
        In a country without meaningful rule of law, my family has
    no means to legally appeal my father's conviction, despite
    having secured exonerating evidence for the graver charges
    against him. The lawyers we have retained on his behalf are
    routinely intimidated by authorities, obstructed from visiting
    him, and threatened with disbarment.
        My father will be turning 67 in a few weeks. The past
    decade of confinement has taken an irreversible toll on his
    physical and mental health. While he languishes in prison, I
    have spent the past decade campaigning for his release by
    telling his story on public platforms and lobbying the American
    and Canadian Governments for assistance. As a result, the
    Chinese Government apparently decided that I too needed to be
    punished. Since I began speaking in public, the Chinese
    Government has refused to issue me a visa. It is now been 5
    years since I have been able to visit my father.
        I am joined here today by four young women whose
    circumstances are disturbingly similar to my own. Each of us
    have had our young lives defined by our father's wrongful
    imprisonment. So I speak on behalf of the five of us when I
    urge the United States to intervene more assertively on our
    behalves.
        First, I unabashedly ask the leaders of the U.S.
    Government, including President Obama, Vice President Biden,
    Secretary of State Kerry, and Ambassador Power to seize all
    diplomatic opportunities with China to seek the release of our
    fathers. I believe high-level diplomacy is our fathers' best
    chance for freedom, and their releases must be discussed on
    occasions such as Vice President Biden's recent trip to
    Beijing. I request the help of all Members of Congress in
    conveying this message to the administration and compelling
    them to act on our behalves.
        Second, I ask the Obama administration to meet with the
    five of us and listen to our first hand experiences as
    witnesses of China's human rights abuse. I want our stories and
    efforts to be heard, acknowledged, and taken into serious
    consideration when the U.S. devises its foreign policy with
    China. And again, I ask Members of Congress to help us secure
    such a meeting with top U.S. leadership.
        I would like to end my statement by reminding everyone that
    it was the very values espoused by the U.S. Government and
    other democracies that inspired activists like our fathers. If
    we cannot ask this government and its leaders to advocate for
    their release, to whom else can we turn?
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Ti-Anna Wang follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Thank you for your extraordinary testimony.
        Ms. Chen.

       STATEMENT OF MS. BRIDGETTE CHEN, DAUGHTER OF LIU XIAN BIN

        Ms. Chen. Dear honorable friends, my name is Bridgette.
    Today, I want to simply introduce the current situation of my
    father, Liu Xian Bin, as a daughter and a witness. My father
    has been in prison three times which totals up to 14 years
    because of his political views. Like every other parent, my dad
    has always wanted to take care of me as I grew up, yet he was
    absent from my childhood until I was 11. When he was released
    from prison in 2008, it was so hard for him to believe that I
    had already grown up. However, he was once again taken away
    from my life by the policemen in June, 2010. Therefore, I came
    to the U.S., and the distance between my dad and me was
    lengthened. Moreover, my mom was unable to leave China since
    the government would not grant her a passport. Because of this,
    my family was separated in three different places: My father is
    in an actual prison, and my mom is in an invisible prison. As a
    daughter, all I want is the reunion of my family, and the
    completion of my parents' marriage. However this simple wish
    became unrealistic in China, and my dad was convicted of
    inciting subversion of state power just because he has told the
    truth and done what is righteous.
        Life in prison must have been really hard for my dad, but
    fortunately, we can still encourage each other by mailing. In
    the newest letter from my dad, he wrote,

            ``My child, your complaint of your ugly handwriting has
            made me feel guilty, for if I was with you when you
            were little, I would have taught you a beautiful
            cursive. The absence of me has made this family
            incomplete, and it must has been difficult for both you
            and your mom when I am not by your side. So I can only
            express my love through these letters so that you would
            still feel my love for you even when I am not here with
            you. Never stop being virtuous and kindhearted, for
            even though kind people has always been treated
            unjustly in this chaotic world, they will be blessed
            and remembered eventually.''

    At the end of the letter, he writes,

            ``Your happiness and confidence in the United States
            has comforted me. You know what, all a parent want is
            to see his children live happily, healthily, and
            peacefully.''

        Like my dad mentioned in this letter, kind people will be
    blessed eventually. I hope and believe, one day my dad, and
    those who have suffered for human rights and justice in the
    world as the China 18, will eventually receive the freedom they
    deserve, the freedom of both their bodies and souls. Therefore,
    I sincerely ask the U.S. Government, Mr. Biden, and President
    Obama to concern more of the families of prisoners of
    conscience and help us to free our fathers. And I ask for an
    Oval Office meeting with President Obama for a more direct and
    detailed conversation in order to reunite our families. And
    dear friends, please keep helping us to free all the prisoners
    of conscience and to keep truth and justice for every human
    being. Just like Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of
    Independence, everyone deserves the rights of life, liberty,
    and the pursuit of happiness.
        There was misery and fear in the past, but there is more
    hope ahead of us. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Chen follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Ms. Chen, thank you very much.
        Ms. Wang.

        STATEMENT OF MS. DANIELLE WANG, DAUGHTER OF WANG ZHIWEN

        Ms. Danielle Wang. Thank you to the organizers for
    including my dad's story in this event. In a way, Zhiwen Wang
    can stand in for millions of Falun Dafa practitioners in China
    living under persecution by the Chinese regime. All of the
    victims being honored here and their families have endured many
    hardships that should have never come about. Yet the fact that
    we are standing here today with all of you in the audience
    shows that there will always be people standing up for justice
    and the greater good in the world.
        The holiday season is coming up again. Here in the United
    States, many families are getting ready to gather for Christmas
    and New Year's. In China, we would be starting to look forward
    to Chinese New Year. But this time of year is always
    bittersweet for me, because of the painful absence in my family
    since my father's summary arrest and detention in July 1999. He
    was targeted for no more than his peaceful practice of Falun
    Dafa, and he has been gone for over 14 years.
        My Dad was born in 1949, the same year as the People's
    Republic of China. He served his country throughout his long
    career, including as an engineer at the PRC Ministry of
    Railways. He began practicing Falun Gong in 1992. Over the next
    5 years, he became a volunteer contact person for Falun Gong
    practitioners in Beijing, teaching the exercises, meditation
    practice, and principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance.
        In the early morning of July 20, 1999, according to
    eyewitness accounts from our neighbors, my father was seized
    from his bed by police and taken away in waiting police vans.
    He was subjected to physical abuse. The tortures includes his
    teeth being pulled out, all his collar bones were smashed. They
    put bamboo sticks and pierced all his fingers. He suffered
    numerous beatings. No sleep for 7 days. I have in my hand a
    wooden stick that I recently obtained from China. Fifteen
    years, that is the only thing I get from him. That was a
    polished wood stick that he polished with his hands in jail. It
    is really smooth, but that is the only thing so far I ever got
    from him. Being away from my dad, without his guidance is very
    hard.
        I hope that the decisions I have made in my life will make
    him feel really, really proud.
        On my wedding day, we placed a single rose in his chair to
    symbolize his absence and celebrate his place in my life. I
    still have that rose, it has been dried and discolored. I
    really hope that he can be always with me.
        Throughout the past decade and a half, I have been working
    to get my father released. Though I am only one person, with
    limited abilities, time, and resources, I have always felt
    obligated to dedicate 100 percent of my effort to raising
    awareness of my father's unlawful arrest and detention for no
    more than his spiritual beliefs.
        I would like to bring my dad home one day, so here, I want
    to ask you as Congress to ask the Obama administration to meet
    with U.S. five daughters to hear our stories and bring him
    home. I also want to speak on the phone with my father. I want
    to channel two-way communication with my father. I want him to
    be released safely from jail and give him a life here in
    America.
        And finally, last, I want all of the Falun Gong
    practitioners in prison in China be released. I really hope
    that happens. It is really hard to go on and I never truly felt
    that happy ever, ever since my dad was arrested. And all the
    daughters here, they are so much younger than me. I just hope
    they don't go through what I go through for 15 years. Thank
    you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Danielle Wang follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Ms. Wang, thank you. And your testimonies need
    to be heard by the President of the United States, the Vice
    President, Members of the Congress, House, and Senate, members
    of the U.N. I find it appalling that on November 12, 2013,
    China was elected to serve as a member in good standing on the
    U.N. Human Rights Council. It seems to me that your
    testimonies--and we will send your testimonies to every member
    on the U.N. Human Rights Council, as well as to every head of
    delegation at the United Nations and Ban Ki Moon as well--they
    need to hear the extraordinary agony that you and so many like
    you suffer as a result of having your dads and other family
    members in other cases ripped away from you. I can assure you,
    we will do serious follow up to make sure that the five
    daughters and your testimonies are heard by a greater number of
    people.
        I respectfully ask that the press amplify not just for
    today, but in a serious and sustained way the plight of your
    dads and other people, because you are not exceptions. You are
    the pattern. You are the norm in China today. And I can assure
    you that our human rights subcommittee will continue doggedly
    to try to reach the hearts and minds of our own Government
    officials so that this is not a talking point on page five, if
    it is that at all, and that Xi Jinping and others in the
    leadership take seriously the damage they are doing to the
    people over which they rule.
        I do believe your fathers would be extraordinarily proud of
    you being here and for your tenacious defense of them for so
    many years. I mean what love, what compassion, what empathy.
    Five brave, compassionate young women from China, you do your
    countrymen and countrywomen a great service. Americans should
    see this is the pride of China sitting here and I am in awe,
    frankly, of each of you and I thank you for your testimonies.
        As a source of perhaps some hope, immediately behind you
    sits Chen Guangcheng and Yuan Weijin, his wife, who suffered 5
    years of imprisonment and house arrest and as you all know, he
    made a herculean journey to the U.S. Embassy and thankfully by
    the grace of God, he now is a free man, but his nephew is not
    and we will hear from the father of his nephew in our next
    panel. But there is hope and I can assure you that if we do
    more and make this the priority, not a distant page five
    asterisk priority, which it is now in far too many
    policymakers' minds, it will help effectuate the release of the
    innocent fathers who are suffering so bravely and so horribly
    in Chinese Laogai and prisons and detention centers.
        Just a very brief question, if all of you could speak
    directly to Xi Jinping, maybe in a minute or so and to
    President Obama. I did notice I think at least two of you,
    maybe more, suggested a White House meeting. I think that would
    be a tremendous idea. The President needs to hear you, look you
    in the eyes and hear what you have got to say. When we meet--
    and I do this as well, when you meet with high government
    officials, with all the trappings of office, what really
    happens on the ground, especially with ubiquitous secret
    police, that are in the employ of the Government of China, is
    that a whole different story is told as to what really occurs,
    day in and day out, especially in the prison camps and the
    Laogai throughout China.
        So what would you say to Xi Jinping? What would you say to
    President Obama? What would you say to Ban Ki Moon? Because
    certainly those three individuals and others, could have a huge
    effect on the plights of your fathers.
        Ms. Peng.
        Ms. Peng. Many people have asked me why have I, as a 17-
    year-old, sort of given up a part of my life, my childhood, to
    go to Taiwan, to go to DC to testify on behalf of my father,
    and what I hope to accomplish. The answer to that question is I
    was a second child in China, so I wasn't granted official
    recognition. I had no right to an education. So when we fled
    political persecution, because of my father's political
    activism and the fact that I was accepted by the United States
    and granted citizenship years ago, I feel immensely grateful to
    have been able to receive such a great American education and
    to learn about these issues of human rights, democracy,
    justice, and freedom. And therefore, I feel that it is my moral
    obligation, not just to my father, not just to the China 18,
    not just to the thousands of prisoners in China, but to these
    fundamental values that every single human being on this planet
    deserves.
        So therefore, I think by not speaking out, by not doing
    anything, by merely watching and looking as these atrocities
    continue to occur, that I will be sending the wrong message to
    China, to President Xi Jinping. The message that I don't want
    to send is that it is okay, is that I will merely watch by and
    that is a form of tacit consent. So it is my belief that any
    little step I can do, any time I have the opportunity to share
    my story, to share my story of the American dream which was
    inspired by President Obama's American dream as well, I really
    hope that he will continue to press for the release of my
    father and the fathers of the young ladies with us today and to
    make human rights the forefront of our agenda, which I believe
    is the fundamental foundation on which other conversations of
    economics can develop.
        Mr. Smith. And that is a hope, making it a forefront of our
    agenda, that has not been achieved.
        Ms. Peng. Right.
        Mr. Smith. Ms. Geng.
        Ms. Geng. Yes, I want to say to Xi Jinping to please
    release our fathers so they can come back with us. I hope that
    the governors in China can visit my father since the Chinese
    Government doesn't allow my family to see my father and please
    give us more information about our father's situation and his
    condition of health and that's all. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. Ms. Ti-Anna Wang?
        Ms. Ti-Anna Wang. To President Xi Jinping, I would like to
    ask him to please release our fathers so that our families can
    be reunited, that we can finally end this nightmarish chapter
    of our lives. To President Obama, I would like him to know that
    his personal intervention is our fathers' best chance for
    freedom and I would like him to prioritize human rights in
    high-level diplomacy. And to Mr. Ban Ki Moon, I would like him
    to defend the universal values of human rights by advocating
    for our fathers' release publicly. Thank you.
        Ms. Chen. I would like to say to President Xi Jinping to
    please release our fathers and all the prisoners of conscience
    in order to fix the country, to make this country better and
    stronger. I would like to receive the basic rights of life,
    liberty, and pursuit of happiness and I want my family's
    reunion and my parents' marriage completion.
        And also, I want to say to President Obama, who is the dad
    of two daughters, please understand our situation and let our
    voice be heard. And please help us to make this country and
    this world better. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. Ms. Wang.
        Ms. Danielle Wang. I want to talk to Xi Jinping, you know,
    I want to explain to him that the principles of Falun Gong
    which are never wrong which are compassion, truthfulness, and
    endurance. I want my father to be released because I know he is
    a father, too. And his daughter actually studied in U.S. not
    too long ago. I think he understood a daughter really crying
    for her dad's safety, nothing more than a girl wants her
    family.
        I want to talk to President Obama because he is the leader
    of this very strong country and I hope he can stand up for the
    basic human rights and get our dads safely home.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you. I noticed Grace, in your testimony,
    you mentioned how that when your father was home after the
    forced disappearance, ``he would try to show a lifted spirit
    and entertain me and my brother with humor.'' That certainly
    underscores that even though he had suffered so much, his love
    and devotion to you and your brother was so strong, but he
    tried to divorce himself. He obviously didn't just unload and
    tell you all the terrible things he had suffered. That has to
    make it even more painful, knowing that he was putting you
    first and now, of course, he has disappeared again. That, I am
    sure, has been the situation with all of you because you are
    such devoted daughters, so full of love and devotion, but I
    caught that as a very important aspect of your testimony.
        Also, I noticed, Ms. Lisa Peng, you said you suffered
    doubly, because you were a second order birth. Most Americans
    are woefully uninformed, and I would say most people in the
    world are, about how draconian, the one-child-per-couple policy
    is and that when a woman is able to, through hiding her
    pregnancy or perhaps even sometimes a payoff to family planning
    cadres, have a second child, that second child is grossly
    discriminated against. If you would briefly speak to that.
        Ms. Peng. I think some other people have mentioned,
    especially Grace, about the isolation that she suffered in
    China. Because I was a survivor of the one-child forced
    abortion policy, I of course was considered a non-entity,
    couldn't go to school. And even when my mom would drive my
    brother to school and I was in the car, the government would
    have four secret police tailgate us and bump into us as we were
    driving to school. And our house was, of course, tapped, not in
    particular because of me, but mostly because of my father's
    activism. So there was no future for me in China. And so the
    fact that I safely escaped and was accepted by the United
    States and respected in classrooms and my voice is heard in
    classrooms and I have opportunities, unimaginable opportunities
    to do whatever I want in the future and to give back to the
    community that has given me so much, that is really what makes
    me feel so grateful and hopeful every day.
        Mr. Smith. I would like to yield to Mr. Pittenger and then
    to Mr. Meadows.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank each of you.
    I am a father of three daughters. I love my daughters. Your
    fathers love you. One of my daughters' name is Grace. I want
    you to know how special you are to your dads. You have taken up
    his cause. You have taken up the cause of liberty, of freedom,
    of democracy, something that you will never be able to break
    from. You know the pain and the difficulty it is that your dad
    is going through and yet you are living for him, you are living
    for those like him in your country and throughout the world. So
    I really want to commend you for your life. You are living a
    very profound, just life, and your fathers are very deeply
    proud of you as I am proud of my daughters, not necessarily
    because of what they do. Fathers love their daughters no matter
    what. And your father's abiding love is always there and I hope
    that you will sense and you will know that.
        And I pray that someday you will united with him. I want
    you to know that your work will not be in vain. As you live
    your lives and you should live your lives. Your father wants
    you to live your lives, but you will also be carrying this
    banner that it will not be in vain. You play a very important
    role and as you continue to live and to speak and to be a part
    of coming here to Congress and going to other places, you will
    have a major impact upon the whole world. So you are part of a
    very great cause. You have been chosen for a very important
    time. This is an important day, an important era that America
    needs to recognize that human rights, religious liberties,
    freedoms of conscience are superior. They are preeminent. They
    are far greater than any economic destiny or hopes that we
    would have. They supersede all.
        So I am grateful for your lives. I am grateful for your
    testimony. And having said all that, I would just like to ask
    we as Members of Congress, we are busy people. There are many
    issues in this country. This will always have a deep impression
    for us. But if you want to give us a reminder, if you want to
    give something to the American people, if you want to leave one
    word to the American people, if you want us to convey one
    thing, what is that one thing? When you go to bed every night,
    knowing that you are alone, knowing that your dad can't hug and
    kiss you goodnight, knowing that thousands and millions of
    others can't as well, what do you want us--what can we carry
    back to our Members of Congress, to our colleagues that will do
    the most to cause us to make sure that this is objective is
    achieved? Could you just speak a little bit to that?
        Ms. Peng. Rather than asking myself when will be my father
    be released, I instead try to think my father hasn't been
    released yet. We haven't been reunited yet. He hasn't received
    medical care and he hasn't received visitation rights yet. So
    for me the word ``yet'' really encapsulates my hope and my
    faith and my father's hope and faith and our hope and faith
    that one day we will be reunited. But I think hope is
    necessary, but not sufficient because even though I have
    immense hope that my father will be released, even though he
    has immense hope, we have to act on that hope and we have to
    make that not just a dream, but a reality.
        So I think the importance of today's hearing is to try to
    make that transition as soon as possible by calling for an Oval
    Office meeting by asking Vice President Biden to raise the
    names of these political dissidents. I think that--and high-
    level diplomacy--is how we can make that effective transition
    from dream to reality. So that is what I would say. Thank you.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you.
        Ms. Geng. I want all Americans to remember our fathers and
    stand up for our fathers. And that is all.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you.
        Ms. Ti-Anna Wang. To the American people, I would like them
    to know that it is the values of the United States that
    inspired my father to take the champion pro-democracy activism
    in the first place and I ask that he not be forsaken in his
    time of need. Thank you.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you.
        Ms. Chen. The word I want to give to everybody in the
    United States is love. It is because of my father's love to
    China, that is why he has done all the things, he has written
    all these articles, it is not because he hates China, it is
    because he loves China. And because of his love and because of
    my love to him, I came here as a witness. And because my mom
    has loved my dad and my mom has loved me, she didn't divorce my
    dad. She chose to keep this marriage and keep this family
    stable. And because all the people's love, they helped me to
    come out of China and study here and get all those happy lives
    right now. And because of everyone's love here, we can have
    this opportunity to be speaking here to fight for what we
    chose, to fight for justice and rights.
        Everybody think of love while you are doing this. It is
    because of love. Thank you.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you.
        Ms. Danielle Wang. The phrase I choose here is the courage
    to speak the truth. I think because my dad was withstanding his
    belief and he is trying to keep truthful to himself in his
    heart, he is being imprisoned. And I also believe that America
    was founded on being truthful to beliefs. So I really think
    there is a deep connection there. And I am here to speak what
    is true to my heart. So I think it is really meaningful to
    Congress.
        Mr. Pittenger. Thank you. God bless you all.
        Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows.
        Mr. Meadows. Thank each one of you. As a father, a daughter
    has a special place in a father's heart and I want each one of
    you to hear that and just know that even though miles and time
    may separate you, there is nothing, nothing that will ever
    separate you from your father's love. I want to thank each one
    of you for your testimony and ask for your forgiveness. I was
    talking to my staff before I came here about the importance of
    making a difference in people's lives. And as I came to this
    particular hearing, we have been in a number of hearings, Mr.
    Chairman, on human rights issues in China and for me I thought
    well maybe it would just be another hearing. It has profoundly
    touched me, your testimony. I want to thank each one of you and
    just say as a father, speaking on behalf of your fathers, I am
    proud of you. Very proud of you.
        I also want to let you know that there are many
    negotiations and many things we do here in Congress that have
    lasting impact. But my commitment to each one of you is that as
    discussions go on with those in official positions in China,
    that not a single one of those conversations or negotiations
    will happen with my staff or me without the faces of each one
    of you being at the forefront of our mind. And so I want to
    just say thank you.
        Many of you have called on the President and truly on the
    Vice President to be your advocates. They are dads, too. So I
    would join with you and say that we need to make sure that this
    is not something that gets overlooked. You have my commitment
    to do that. And my friend and colleague, Mr. Pittenger here,
    had asked if you would each share one word. And so my one word
    to you would be that we will be unflinching in our dedication
    to help you in this area, but the one word is that you will see
    your dad soon. And so soon is where we will be and I just want
    to thank each one of you for being here today and for giving
    your touching testimony. I will yield back, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Meadows. And for the
    record, Mr. Meadows is the congressional delegate to the United
    States and I know in his contacts and lobbying of heads of
    delegation, he and I and others will literally carry your
    testimonies and put it in the hands of these individuals from
    the very top, from Ban Ki Moon, right on down. Your love and
    devotion to your dads, your courage, the pain and agony that
    you carry, as well as the rest of your family, just begs the
    question, we have to do more and why haven't we? So I thank you
    so much. Your testimony is landmark. It will have an effect.
    And I guarantee all of us and not just those that are here,
    others who are equally dedicated to the cause of human rights
    will be unceasing as my colleagues said and I associate my
    remarks to my two very distinguished friends and I thank you,
    too. As a father of two daughters, one daughter-in-law who is
    just like our daughter, we love her just as much, you are
    amazing and I thank you.
        I would like to now ask for our second panel if they can
    make their way. Thank you, ladies.
        Our second panel will begin with Pastor Bob Fu who was a
    leader in the 1989 student democracy movement in Tiananmen
    Square and later became a house church pastor and founder,
    along with his wife. In 1996, authorities arrested them and
    imprisoned them for their work. After their release, they
    escaped to the U.S. and in 2002 founded 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 and has testified frequently
    as U.S. congressional hearings. He has also appeared before the
    European Parliament as well as the United Nations. Pastor Fu
    holds a double bachelor's degree from People's University and
    the Institute of Foreign Relations and has taught at the
    Beijing Communist Party School.
        In the United States, he has earned a master's degree from
    Westminster Theological Seminary and is now working on his
    Ph.D. And I just say from a very personal point of view, when
    we were working very hard for the release of the great Chen
    Guangcheng, it was Bob Fu who on two of those occasions during
    hearings on Mr. Chen, actually got in touch with him in a
    hospital room in Beijing and put the microphone, the phone
    right next to this microphone here and we heard directly from
    Mr. Chen who testified in absentia halfway around the world via
    Bob Fu.
        We will then hear from Mr. Chen Guangfu, brother of Chen
    Guangcheng and father of Chen Kegui, nephew of Chinese
    activists Chen Guangcheng, who was arrested after defending
    himself and his family against local government officials who
    forced their way into Chen's home on the night of April 27,
    2010, in Shandong Province. Mr. Chen was charged with
    ``intentionally inflicting harm.'' All of these people burst
    into his home with fists and other things raining down upon Mr.
    Chen. Obviously, any of us would defend ourselves, but he was
    unfortunately convicted in December 2012 and sentenced to 3
    years and 3 months in prison.
        Mr. Chen has suffered beatings and a medical emergency and
    was rejected for consideration for medical parole. Chen Guangfu
    is the elder brother, as I said, and we will hear from him
    momentarily.
        We will then hear from Dr. Devra Marcus, a graduate of
    Stanford Medical School and a fellow of the American College of
    Physicians and for more than 40 years has been a Washington,
    DC, internist. In addition to her medical practice, Dr. Marcus
    has long worked to protect and serve Chinese Government
    targeted leaders and groups. She has traveled to Tumen, China
    to provide medical services for North Korean refugees and the
    Government of China seeks to deport to North Korea gulags.
        Dr. Marcus played an essential role in the case of Fang
    Zheng, the Chinese dissent, a Tiananmen demonstration amputee
    and ensure he received prosthetic limbs and prosthetic training
    and sent a message to China and elsewhere of American
    generosity and compassion.
        Dr. Marcus recently traveled to Hangju, China to examine
    and bring public attention to the case of imprisoned dissident
    Zhu Yufu and to protest the denial to him of adequate medical
    services. Dr. Marcus is from McLean, Virginia, and her name has
    long been a place for refuge for pro-democracy dissidents from
    all over of the world.
        Zhu Yufu is the founder of a major pro-democracy
    publication and China Democracy Party who was detained and
    sentenced to 7 years in prison in 1999. After his release in
    2006, Zhu was arrested in May 2007. He was sentenced, again,
    two more times.
        Pastor Fu, if you could proceed.

      STATEMENT OF PASTOR BOB FU, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CHINAAID
                              ASSOCIATION

        Mr. Fu. Mr. Chairman and honorable Members of Congress,
    thank you very much for giving this opportunity for those five
    daughters whose fathers are still suffering in prison, for 15
    years, 11 years, 10 years, and on.
        This is the third time in this year that I sit here to
    testify before the U.S. Congress, the international community,
    and all the people concerned with China's human rights
    condition about the rapid deterioration of human rights
    condition in China. Of course, nobody can really stay still and
    silent after hearing those cries and appeals of these daughters
    and fathers.
        We have been monitoring China's human rights condition for
    the past 11 years, because we specifically focus on religious
    persecution, human rights violations, and the promotion of the
    rule of law in China. We got to know hundreds and thousands of
    sons, daughters, and family members of prisoners of conscience
    like Ti-Anna Wang, Lisa Peng, Grace Geng, Bridgette Chen, and
    Danielle Wang, and of course, Mr. Chen Kegui.
        China's worsening human rights violations and its notorious
    human rights record are surely caused by this totalitarianism
    and wickedness of the Chinese Communist authorities, but are
    also a result of the loss of some God-given, self-evident
    fundamental ideals and principles by some countries like our
    country, the United States in recent years. Today, the reality
    that the Chinese Government dares to despite human rights
    dignity and blatantly violate universal values truly has a
    correlation with the appeasement policy of so-called ``harmony
    diplomacy'' adopted by some Western democratic societies toward
    totalitarianism.
        So I will just briefly use the three perspectives for my
    testimony today. I request the chairman to allow my written
    testimony into the record.
        Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
        Mr. Fu. On June 6th this year, ChinaAid Association and
    other 30 international human rights organizations jointly
    launched the ``Free China 18 Campaign'' calling on the release
    of 18 Chinese prisoners of conscience. They are Wang Bingzhang,
    Peng Ming, Gao Zhisheng, Liu Xiaobo, Guo Quan, Zhu Yufu, Liu
    Xianbin, Yang Tianshui, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Yang Rongli,
    Alimujiang Yimiti, Wang Zhiwen, Lobsang Tsering, Li Chang,
    Gulmira Imin, Chen Kegui, Dhondup Wangchen, and Guo Feixiong.
    They are only the representatives of tens of thousands of
    political prisoners of conscience in mainland China. The
    majority of them expressed their views or protested against
    tyranny with peaceful methods, and some were imprisoned because
    of their religious faith. They are ethnically diverse,
    including Han Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other
    ethnicities.
        And I would not be able to list all the sufferings, the
    tortures, the deprivations of their basic human rights because
    of the time limit.
        Apparently and clearly the condition for human rights in
    China has continued to worsen in recent years and recent
    months. It has reached the worst scenario since the Tiananmen
    massacre on June 4, 1989. Likewise, China is regressing in the
    rule of law and there is no sign of improvement in the short
    term.
        The Chinese Communist authorities also suppress house
    churches more harshly, and religious persecution is also
    worsening.
        Mr. Chairman, on this religious persecution front, I wanted
    to pay attention on several particular cases such as one of the
    largest independent house churches called Shouwang Church. It
    was forbidden to worship indoors; it was even forbidden to even
    enter into their own purchased buildings. They had no choice
    but to worship outdoors for 2 years. And believers go to
    different locations every week, and every week in the past 2
    years, a number of believers from 10 to 120 were taken to
    different police stations every Sunday, and it continues. Some
    were beaten, some women were raped, some pastors, elders of the
    church had been under house arrest for more than 2 years
    without freedom.
        Another case, this happened recently to a government-
    sanctioned church group. Pastor Zhang Shaojie and 23 believers
    from Nanle County Christian Church, Puyang, Henan Province were
    taken into police custody secretly, and the majority of them
    have not received any legal papers so far. This happens to
    government-sanctioned church and church leaders just because
    believers of the church fight for their basic rights and social
    justice and offended some local government officials. Yet, the
    leaders, these 23, are still in custody.
        And of course, the Chinese Government has always spared no
    effort in its United Front work through religion and overseas
    propaganda packed with lies. Unfortunately, some U.S.-based
    NGOs or religious organizations take a different standing than
    standing united with those persecuted. As understandable as it
    may be, that Billy Graham Evangelistic Association needed to
    collaborate with the Chinese Communist Government in its
    disaster relief efforts, this organization, at the China U.S.A.
    Protestant Church Leaders Forum held in Shanghai and Beijing on
    November 19th and 20th of this year, just last month, according
    to the news released by the Chinese Government authorities,
    recognized leaders of the Three-Self Patriotic Committee, a
    puppet created by the government. The Billy Graham Evangelistic
    Association has collaboration with the Chinese Government-
    sanctioned church bodies, recognized solely the representatives
    of the Chinese Government established church, and said nothing,
    nothing about the religious persecution to their fellow
    brothers in the house church.
        The 2014 General Assembly of the Word Evangelical Alliance
    will be held October 27 to 31 in 2014 in Seoul, South Korea.
    According to the Chinese Government, the WEA has already sent
    an invitation by the senior leaders to the Chinese Christian
    Council and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, the
    government organization, but it is still unknown if it will or
    has invited the leaders of the house churches who are the
    representatives, actually the majority of the Chinese church.
    The majority of the Protestant church leaders as we recall in
    the history of humanity, the majority of the Protestant church
    leaders back then in the 1940s, praised Hitler and pledged
    allegiance to Nazi Germany, the state government. They did not
    oppose principles of Darwinian evolutionary theory introduced
    by the Nazis and the notion of so-called pure breed and
    superior breed derived from it. We know how churches in Germany
    became an ally, shamefully, of the Nazi regime, betrayed God,
    and left the mark of shame in human history. Likewise, we want
    to know: Where do we want to stand? Do we want to stand with
    the Nazi, the Chinese Government Communists who established the
    church, as did the Nazis, did the church in Germany in 1940s,
    or do we want to stand with the confessional church which
    stands against the dictatorships and warmongers.
        So I want to just make five specific recommendations to
    Congress. I hope the Obama administration will deliver a note
    to the Chinese Government asking for the immediate and
    unconditional release of these 18 prisoners of conscience. And
    I hope President Obama will meet with these five daughters and
    other representatives of the China 18 as soon as possible so
    that he can hear directly from these daughters.
        Secondly, I hope human rights issues can become an
    indispensable component in the meetings and the strategic
    dialogues between Chinese and American top leaders.
        Thirdly, I propose to broadcast live the annual Chinese-
    U.S. Human Rights Dialogue on the Internet, make the dialogue
    specific in goals and substantial in content. Make evaluations
    of the China binding. Don't reduce the highest level human
    rights dialogue between the two countries to a useless show.
        Fourthly, I hope the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
    will make it mandatory that the officials of the U.S. Embassy
    and consulates in China, especially the visa officers, receive
    at least 14 days of systematic training on the background of
    human rights and religious freedom in China. I propose this
    because at present, many people who can make significant
    contributions to freedom and rule of law in China, and as well
    as the communication between China and the U.S., have been
    denied visas unreasonably, including some even invited by the
    leaders of Congress, even though they meet the criteria for
    entry into the U.S.
        Finally, and fifthly, as I just flew back from the Taiwan
    Congress along with Ti-Anna Wang and Lisa Peng after we
    testified before the Taiwanese Congress, one bit progress was
    made, that is, in the Taiwan Congress--four Members of the
    Taiwan Congress, along with the 14 or more Members across party
    lines, issued a letter to the leaders of the Taiwanese
    Government, including President Ma Ying-jeou to urge them to
    clarify whether Dr. Wang Bingzhang is a spy from Taiwan. In the
    letter it says if Dr. Wang, who was sentenced to life in prison
    for being accused as a Taiwanese spy and with terrorism, if he
    is a spy, the Taiwanese authorities have a moral and
    governmental obligation to fight for his freedom. And if he is
    not, it makes more sense that the Taiwanese Government should
    seek clarification for the international community and for the
    Wang family, including the daughter, Ti-Anna Wang.
        So the deadline for the President Ma Ying-jeou to submit
    that clarification to Taiwanese Congress, and actually it was
    promised already by President Ma Ying-jeou's representatives
    during the hearing, is December 10th before the Human Rights
    Day.
        Mr. Smith. Pastor Fu, we will come back. We are out of
    time----
        Mr. Fu. I will finish one sentence, sorry. I ask Mr.
    Chairman to really do a follow up--formally request President
    Ma Ying-jeou and Taiwanese Congress and through the American
    Institute in Taiwan to do a follow up for that request because
    both Dr. Wang and Mr. Peng Ming are permanent residents of the
    U.S. as refugees. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Fu follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. We will. So thank you for that recommendation.
    We do have a series of votes and I apologize and we will have
    to take a very brief recess. But I do encourage, to the best of
    your abilities, if the press could stay to hear our two next
    witnesses who have really done enormous work on behalf of human
    rights. Chen Guangfu is here in the United States, but he is
    going back and he has bravely come forward on behalf of his son
    who is imprisoned and I would just hope if you could stay long
    enough to hear these two fine testimonies. We stand in very
    brief recess.
        [Recess.]
        Mr. Smith. We will resume our seating. We do have a few
    members that I know who are making their way over from the
    votes. We have been joined by Congressman Trent Franks from
    Arizona. Mr. Franks is the chairman of the Religious Freedom
    Caucus here in the House. He is also chairman of the Judiciary
    Committee's Constitution Subcommittee and we welcome him to the
    hearing. Thank you for being here today.
        Our next witness will be Chen Guangfu. As previously
    introduced, he is the brother of Chen Guangcheng and is
    extraordinarily important as the father of Chen Kegui, who has
    been arrested. Mr. Chen is here and will be going back so I
    want to again underscore and salute his bravery in coming
    forward as he is doing. He is a dad who cares so deeply and
    loves so deeply his son. And like the panel before us where
    five daughters spoke out so eloquently on behalf of their dads
    here is Mr. Chen speaking on behalf of his son.
        Mr. Chen.

     STATEMENT OF MR. CHEN GUANGFU, BROTHER OF CHEN GUANGCHENG AND
                          FATHER OF CHEN KEGUI

        [The following testimony was delivered through an
    interpreter.]
        Mr. Chen. Honorable Congressman Mr. Smith, members of
    subcommittee on global human rights of the Committee on Foreign
    Affairs and ladies and gentleman, I am Chen Guangfu, the older
    brother of Chen Guangcheng, the father of Chen Kegui. Speaking
    of the long-term persecution of our family, the name of Chen
    Guangcheng has to be mentioned because this is a continuation
    of the persecution of Chen Guangcheng. The current imprisonment
    of Chen Kegui is the punishment for Chen Guangcheng's escape.
    After Chen Guangcheng risked his life to escape from his home,
    the officials of local authorities worked themselves into a
    frenzy of rage and fear.
        It was past midnight of April 27, 2012, when I was
    kidnapped with a black hood on my head by the police of Yinan
    County. Led by the captain, Xu Kewei, the police officers in
    plainclothes climbed over the wall and broke into my house
    without going through any legal procedure. They were in
    plainclothes. They did not go through any legal procedure. I
    was taken to the Unit of Economic Affairs Investigation, Yinan
    County, and put through nonstop 72-hour-long torture, during
    which I was tied to an interrogation chair with handcuffs and
    foot chains. They heaped abusive language on me, struck me hard
    on the face, trampled on my toes, whipped me, deprived me of
    food, drink, sleep, and denied me the use of the bathroom as
    well other inhuman treatment.
        About 20 minutes after my kidnapping, the head of Shuanghou
    Township, Zhang Jian, led two dozen personnel, armed with picks
    into my house, rummaging through every room without any legal
    justifications. They carried off cash, cell phones, ID cards,
    documents, and other items. They damaged the TV set, the sewing
    machine, and furniture. They pried open several locked drawers
    and took away everything in them.
        During the search, they beat up Chen Kegui's mother, while
    Kegui was beaten with clubs the mob was carrying and left him
    injuries on the face, neck, arms, and legs. When Kegui's mother
    was attempting to protect her son with her body, she was
    grabbed by the hair and savagely beaten. In fear of his life
    and in order to protect his son--stricken with a fever--whose
    body temperature reached 104 degrees, Kegui grabbed a knife in
    self-defense. At the sight of the knife, Zhang Jian yelled,
    ``He has a knife in his hand, kill him.'' In desperation, Kegui
    slashed at the attackers with the knife and injured Zhang Jian
    and two of his men in the chaotic darkness. Afterwards, Kegui
    dialed 110 for police, but police did not take any action. In
    fear of his life, Kegui left home and went into hiding.
        On April 29th, Kegui turned himself in at the Hong Hua Fu
    Police Department in Yancheng City.
        On the same day, Kegui's mother was arrested, interrogated,
    and tortured before she was thrown into jail. In prison, she
    was forced to work a dozen hours every day in spite of her
    illness, laboring over needlepoint work, which was to be
    exported for foreign exchange. Because she couldn't fill the
    data quota, she was penalized by standing in front of
    everybody. Sometimes she had to stand for 6 hours straight
    during one night. On May 5th, she was released on bail. She
    went to the hospital for physical examination. The examination
    results showed infection, in addition to a kidney stone. She
    also has periarthritis due to the beating. The medical cost was
    up to 4800 Chinese yuan.
        On the 27th, Kegui's wife, Liu Fang, received a short
    message from Kegui, ``Please hire lawyer for me.'' Afterwards,
    two attorneys, Ding Xijui and Si Weijang from Beijing, were
    retained, but they were never allowed access to the case even
    though they have been to Yinan five times. The reason given by
    the authorities was they have only made arrangements by hiring
    legal aid lawyers.
        On November 30, 2012, the case of Chen Kegui was put on
    trial, but Kegui's family was not notified of the court trial.
    The witnesses on trial were all perpetrators who were involved
    in beating, looting, and robbing at my house. The testimony of
    Kegui's mother was given under the threat that you have to sign
    whatever we ask you to sign. If you don't sign, you will die
    here. You don't have any human rights in here.
        Kegui was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison,
    which is in violation of substantive and procedural law.
    Apparently he is serving time in the prison located in Jining,
    Shandong province, the same place where Chen Guangcheng served
    his time before.
        Since early March 2013, on my way to sending my grandson to
    his school, I have been followed many times by men on
    motorcycles, military jackets and helmets. One afternoon after
    school hours, Hui Shitai, from the Family Planning Office, went
    to the school asking to send for my grandson. They even did not
    want to leave a small child alone. Beginning from April 18,
    2013, they would throw rocks, bricks, and beer bottles at my
    house around 1 o'clock a.m. every night, damaging the tiles,
    doors, and windows. They also threw dead chickens and ducks
    because the bird flu was at its peak at the time. They also
    posted and passed along a large amount of pamphlets, hurling
    abuse and insults of Chen Guangcheng, calling Chen Guangfu a
    traitor and a troublemaker. They also threatened to break our
    legs and stone the whole family to death. The poplar tree that
    we planted was pulled out several times, and they did the same
    to vegetable fields, leaving them withered.
        All this persecution was aimed to stop Chen Guangcheng from
    going to Taiwan. During this time period of harassment, I
    called for police a dozen times, but it came to nothing.
    Sometimes they just refused to answer my phone call. Whenever I
    changed to another phone, immediately the phone call went
    through, but the police never took any action.
        On May 9th, an unidentified person who was driving a car
    without a plate assaulted me and damaged my motorbike. After I
    returned home, I tried to post the assault incident online,
    only to find that my account had been closed.
        If throwing dead chickens and dead ducks are some petty
    crooks' doing, I believe it must have been big crooks behind
    the account cancellation.
        On April 24, Chen Kegui was positively diagnosed with
    appendicitis, but the prison administration repeatedly denied
    the family's application for release on parole for medical
    treatment. The delay in treatment resulted in suppurative
    appendicitis from which he still hasn't recovered, while at the
    same time he is ordered to work over 10 hours manual labor.
        In May 2012, the Central Government promised that the
    persecution of Chen Guangcheng and his family by local
    officials would be thoroughly investigated. However, this
    promise has not been fulfilled at this point.
        Finally, I sincerely hope that in accordance with human
    rights principles the U.S. Congress and the Obama
    administration extend their fundamental support to those
    Chinese citizens who suffer from political persecution. Thank
    you.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Chen follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Guangfu, thank you very much for your testimony.
    I do have some questions but I will wait. Now I would invite
    Dr. Marcus to present her testimony.

        STATEMENT OF DEVRA MARCUS, M.D., PHYSICIAN AND ACTIVIST

        Dr. Marcus. Thank you very much for inviting to this event
    which I have found inexpressibly moving. My own experiences
    were moving enough, but this has gone beyond anything that I
    had experienced before.
        First of all, I think the chairman articulated what I have
    learned extremely well and I have nothing to add to that. It
    was an incredible summary of the condensation of my own
    experiences in China.
        Secondly, I think that the daughters of the men who are
    imprisoned are a credit to the United States. It is China's
    loss. These young women are just astonishing and actually are
    exemplars of what we would hope all of our children would
    epitomize; their dignity, honor, passion, and commitment to the
    values that make the United States unique are beyond anything I
    ever anticipated. I am so proud that we offer them the ability
    to explore life fully even though it has an inordinate amount
    of pain associate with it. At least they have the freedom to
    express their points of view.
        I might then segue just a bit to why I got interested in
    this because there is a sixth daughter whom I will speak for
    without her authority, but I think she would give it to me and
    that is Zhu Li who is the daughter of Zhu Yufu. This is the man
    whom I went to visit and I went because we have something that
    Bob Fu calls fondly, I think, the Horowitz Hilton. When Chinese
    come to Washington for one reason or another, we house a number
    of them and it has enriched our lives enormously. Among the
    people who came to stay with us were, in fact, two sisters and
    a brother of Zhu Yufu. Two of them now have sought political
    asylum and attained it along with their spouses and one child,
    I believe, each. I think that both of them have left a child
    behind in China. There was a third sister who has a son by a
    Japanese man and she has gone back to live in Japan now.
        We bonded with one another over knitting. It was quite
    remarkable. We sat at the kitchen table, neither of us spoke
    each other's languages, but we spoke the language of knitting.
    And they are inordinately talented. I had huge admiration for
    them. In addition, I do brush painting and the brother, Zhu
    Qiaofu, is a brush painter, so we made friends over art, if you
    will, without language at all. That got me interested in Zhu
    Yufu. It also taught me the lesson of the price that is paid by
    families, including extended families for the nobility of
    thought of someone that they love.
        I happen to see a submission by a lawyer on behalf of Zhu
    Yufu to the U.N. indicating that he had cardiac problems of a
    rather potentially severe nature that might cause him either to
    die suddenly or in fact, to develop an illness that if it were
    not properly treated would cause him to die. I opined that if
    it were possible for me to do anything to make life easier for
    him which is to say to get him adequate medical attention, I
    would like to do it. And as it happened, it was thought by
    people who were very active in human rights in China that it
    might be useful for me to go. So I went. I went with Kody Kness
    who had spent time in China and speaks Mandarin. And we went on
    a date that we knew would be a day when Zhu Yufu's wife would
    be visiting him in prison. We met her in the prison. We were
    admitted to the prison. We then had to negotiate with a guard
    in the prison who wanted to know why I was there. I said I was
    there because I had read that Zhu Yufu had potentially serious
    cardiac problems and I wanted to be assured that he was getting
    adequate medical attention. I had been told that he was seen
    once a month, that he had his blood pressure checked, he was
    given an antihypertensive and he was given an herbal medicine
    for heart failure, but nothing more than that and that his
    treatment was very perfunctory at best.
        There also was some concern that he was despairing, given
    the fact that he had spent a third, at least, of his adult life
    in prison. The man, when I reviewed with him what the U.N.
    report said, ``Well, we don't believe in the U.N.'' Then I
    said, ``Well, what if he dies in prison?'' His response was,
    ``There is no if.'' After a little more skirmishing, it became
    clear to me that we were not going to be allowed to get in.
    Finally, I said to him, ``Would you tell him that I have
    come?'' because I knew that it would be important to his morale
    if he knew that a westerner had come to visit him. The man said
    no and ushered us out.
        By that time he was pretty angry, but in control. But he
    subsequently detained us and confiscated Kody's cell phone and
    held the phone for a couple of hours and, I am sure, scrubbed
    it. So we have no idea what happened to the phone. We clearly
    could not leave the prison at that point because there were two
    guards here. We were here, the door was there. And there was no
    way we were going to get out. We got interviewed. The interview
    was relatively benign. Finally, after about 2 hours, the cell
    phone was returned and we were allowed to leave.
        As a result of our efforts to get in, the Chinese Internet
    carried this fairly widely and the attention of a rather
    eminent human rights lawyer was attracted. He came from Nanjing
    the following day, agreed to take the case, and started the
    legal proceedings to do so. He has, to date, not been permitted
    to see Xhu Yufu and in fact, we understand, relatively
    recently, has been threatened with withdrawal of his license if
    he continues to pursue the case.
        In addition, and we have heard about reprisal, Xhu Yufu has
    been moved from his prison block to the psychiatric block,
    which is not viewed as good news. It is, in a way, an effort to
    gaslight him and also to neutralize him so that he will be
    sufficiently demeaned, that he will give up his desire perhaps
    to live, although that isn't at all clear.
        What became clear to me with my relationships with his
    wife, Xhu Yufu's wife and his daughter, is that they are more
    or less in despair as opposed to the young women who are here.
    If Zhu Li were here, she would be shocked that anybody would be
    advocating for her and for her family in this body because her
    expectation is always to be told no and to back off. When she
    was doing my interpreting when we were in the office of the
    prison, every time the guard said no, she backed off and I had
    to almost pull her forward because no is viewed as no, not as
    an invitation to the dance or an invitation to negotiating, but
    no. So the repression of her ability to think is what was very
    striking to me, also the fact that her mother is emotionally, I
    think, really running out of resilience.
        So I learned about the long-term profound and extensive, as
    you have learned here again, repression in a way, indirect
    torture of family members of people who have a very profound
    sense of morality.
        The Chinese do indeed have laws on their books that would
    allow for the release of Xhu Yufu. He fulfills all the
    requirements. However, they are not allowing him to make
    application for early release, despite that. So the fact is
    that although the laws are on the books, they are under the
    control of political authorities and judges do not exercise any
    authority other than that which I believe is essentially given
    to them by the State. So it is unclear at this point what will
    happen to him in terms of his ability to make use of those laws
    which if he were able to do so, would allow for him to have an
    early release.
        I thank you very much. I am deeply appreciative of being in
    the company of the people in whose company I am today. Thank
    you.
        [The prepared statement of Dr. Marcus follows:]

                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Dr. Marcus, thank you for your testimony and
    thank you for your advocacy, your willingness to put yourself
    out, to bring your medical degree and background, 40 years as a
    medical doctor to at least try to examine Mr. Zhu which would
    have been, I think, an extremely important contribution to his
    health. You have adopted, more or less, this brave man as a
    prisoner of conscience and more people ought to do just that.
    Find one or two individuals, adopt them and advocate for them
    the way you are doing and doing it again today. So I certainly
    thank you for that. It makes a huge difference.
        And to the Horowitz Hilton, I know you leave the light on.
    That is a different hotel chain, of course, and that generosity
    just goes so far in letting people know that the hospitality
    and the warmth that you and your husband, Michael, show to
    dissidents and people who have braved so much, suffered so
    much, and yet they find a place of refuge in your home. That is
    truly remarkable. Thank you.
        I would like to ask Mr. Chen, if I could just say briefly,
    your brother, Chen Guangcheng, has relentlessly, and I mean
    relentlessly in every speech, every venue that I have seen him
    at, here, right where you sit when he testified last spring,
    has pressed doggedly for the release of your son and has asked
    the State Department over and over and over again to advocate
    for his release and to hold your entire family harmless. That
    has been his number one priority and the fact that you are here
    today at his request, I think, further underscores that his
    concern for your family back in China is unceasing. He does say
    this to the State Department, ``What are you doing in-
    country?'' Has the Ambassador, our U.S. Ambassador, tried to
    see Chen Kegui? What are they doing to advocate for his
    release?
        You mentioned in your testimony, and it was very telling,
    if I can find it again, how you spent 72 hours being beaten and
    tortured and that they also were beating family members until
    they got tired. They couldn't punch any longer because they
    were tired. That just underscores the brutality and the cruelty
    that I think most Americans don't appreciate and this goes on
    day-in and day-out directed against the best and the bravest
    and the brightest of the People's Republic of China. So I just
    want you to know that we will continue to bring your case, that
    of your son, the entire family, following Chen Guangcheng's
    tremendous leadership on that to try to get our Government to
    do far more than we have done.
        Guangcheng had asked a series of specific questions of the
    State Department and got back a totally inadequate answer. He
    laid it out here. He laid it out elsewhere, too, but from where
    you sit when he testified and got a nothing answer, which I
    found appalling, in terms of his own situation and the
    investigation that you referenced in your testimony as well. So
    thank you and I would like to yield to my good friend and
    colleague, Mr. Meadows for any comments or questions that he
    might have.
        Mr. Meadows. Thank each of you for your testimony and for
    being willing to serve and answer a call to truly make a
    difference, so I just want to say thank each one of you. I
    guess my question becomes, as I mentioned earlier, we have had
    a number of hearings where this is a reoccurring theme, where
    we have human rights abuses that continue to happen in China.
    My concern, specifically Mr. Chen with you being here today, is
    the repercussions that family members may face in China as a
    result of you being here.
        Do you think highlighting this issue is something that we
    need to continue to do and is it starting to make a difference?
        [The following testimony was delivered through an
    interpreter.]
        Mr. Chen. I believe that we still should continue to expose
    those inhumane acts by the Chinese Government. There is an old
    saying in China which is ``the heavens are watching over what
    we are doing here on earth.''
        The reason why I came here today is not just to appeal for
    my son because there are hundreds of thousands Chinese citizens
    who suffer from injustice and persecution under all kinds of
    excuses made by the Chinese authorities. Even worse, some of
    them have been deprived life. So I believe that the attention
    given by the outside world will make a great difference in such
    situations.
        I believe the sufferings our family has endured, thus far,
    is not that important compared to the larger goal of promoting
    the human rights movement in mainland China.
        Mr. Meadows. Thank you. And Dr. Marcus, when you went to
    visit, obviously you were forwarded at a number of different
    fronts in terms of continued access. Would you say that this
    would be indicative of a lower level person trying to implement
    directions from a higher authority or is it someone at a lower
    level just implementing their own sense of justice of lack
    thereof? I guess what I am getting at is do you think it is
    systemic throughout most of the top officials in the Chinese
    Government?
        Dr. Marcus. I think that what was interesting to me was
    that we got waved in, so somebody knew that we were coming. I
    have no idea. So I think probably both things were occurring. I
    think that he had probably gotten instructions and I think he
    was more than happy to comply with those instructions. I think
    he wanted to get us out of there as fast as he could. And I was
    fairly persistent. So it didn't work and it made him angry.
        Mr. Meadows. Thank you. Pastor Fu, good to see you again.
    Thank you for being a faithful voice for those that do not have
    a voice.
        Mr. Fu. Thank you.
        Mr. Meadows. One of the things that I just heard that this
    is a plight that many, I guess it was hundreds of thousands, of
    other Chinese people are experiencing. Would you concur with
    that? I mean it is very easy to take just a few people and say
    well, this is only happening in a few isolated situations. It
    is very different if it is indeed hundreds of thousands of
    people and I saw a few people nodding in the background that it
    was hundreds of thousands. So would you characterize that as
    being accurate?
        Mr. Fu. Absolutely. These 18 are just the tip of the
    iceberg, representative of hundreds of thousands. Just this
    year alone, we have seen several hundred, perhaps even
    thousands. We don't know their names, but we know some of their
    names. In my written testimony, I listed more than 130 who were
    just detained, arrested. Some were already been tried and
    sentenced for simply making a poster and asking the government
    officials to be transparent with their property; they posted a
    picture online and were arrested. And that is this year in the
    past few months. And already more than 120 Tibetans committed
    self-immolation, were killed because of the desperation.
        And already there are many, many others of the faith
    community, the Christian pastors, the Catholic bishops, the
    Uyghurs, and the Falun Gong practitioners. This year already
    reached the worst as I mentioned, since the massacre of
    Tiananmen Square in 1989.
        So this absolutely not just a local or just some short
    period of time persecution. It is systematic. It is Central
    Government orchestrated and it is still going on right now.
        Mr. Meadows. There is a danger from time to time when you
    address human rights violations of the nature perhaps that we
    are talking about today, that some of them may be more
    horrific, some perhaps less, but there is a danger when we do
    that, that the people of that particular country may see it as
    anger or animosity toward a people that are far away and yet
    would you say that the majority of the people that you know,
    that you have heard from--I heard it earlier from some of the
    young ladies that testified, that there is truly a love for
    their country of China, that this is not a ``We hate China''
    mentality. That there is a love for their country, and what
    they want is justice within their own country, not to put away
    their native homelands to go somewhere else. Would you say that
    is across the board the predominant feeling?
        Mr. Fu. Absolutely that is the predominant feeling. The way
    that these hundreds of thousands prisoners of conscience handle
    their advocacy, their campaign for freedom, for transparency
    demonstrates itself that they are the true patriots. They are
    the love of the motherland of China. They are not anti-China or
    anti-Chinese people at all. They are actually just the
    opposite. They want to hold those abusers, the corrupted
    officials accountable which should be echoed, approved by the
    Chinese Central Government leaders. Yet, they were jailed for
    loving their country and I think really those are not only
    heroes for freedom for China, but also they are the campaigning
    essence for the defining of the 21st century.
        If China is free in the 21st century and becomes a
    democratic country, you essentially remove a threat, not only a
    regional threat as Chinese Communists have demonstrated to
    Taiwan, to Japan, to many neighbors of China, but also to the
    world. I think they are doing something more than for their own
    country, but also for the world.
        Mr. Meadows. I will finish up with this one question and I
    will throw it out to any of you that would care to comment
    because it may be something that you can't speak to and I guess
    it is more advice for me and some of my colleagues. How can we
    communicate most effectively a desire to address the human
    rights issues, but at the same time a love for the Chinese
    people and a respect for Chinese sovereignty at the same time?
    Because sometimes they get crossed.
        Dr. Marcus, any idea how to do that?
        Dr. Marcus. It is a toughy.
        Mr. Meadows. It is a toughy, okay. Well, if you have any
    thoughts, we will leave it at that. If you have any thoughts on
    how we can best do that, if you will just provide some written
    guidelines. I can tell you that perhaps those that are covering
    this here today will hear the heart of a father and a
    Congressman who wants to deal with some of the issues that we
    have heard, and yet at the same time has a mutual respect and
    admiration for the Chinese people. I believe in sovereignty. It
    is one of those things that is foundational to our American way
    of democracy that may be foreign to many others and so with
    that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you very much to my good friend and
    colleague. Let me just ask a few final questions and then
    anything you would like to add before we close.
        Dr. Marcus, and again, I appreciate your advocacy on behalf
    of Mr. Zhu. What is the status of his family? We have heard
    from Mr. Chen's family, the five daughters, obviously. You
    might want to speak about how his family and perhaps friends
    that you may have met are faring under this tremendous
    pressure.
        Secondly, Pastor Fu, you pointed out that the appeasement
    policy of harmony diplomacy adopted by some western societies
    toward totalitarianism is enabling the dictatorship to do what
    it wants because they know that we are very weak and seemingly
    unconcerned. Will say some of the right words, but what is
    behind it? If you could speak to that and also whether or not
    religious freedom is improving, is it the same as it was
    perhaps a year ago or two, which was awful, or is it getting
    worse?
        I would also ask Mr. Chen, you pointed out in your
    testimony that, and I think this bears repeating, without Chen
    Guangcheng's escape, Chen Kegui's case wouldn't exist. The
    continued imprisonment of Chen Kegui is punishment for Chen
    Guangcheng's escape. You also point out that ``In 2012, the
    Central Government promised that the persecution of Chen
    Guangcheng and his family,'' you, and your loved ones, ``by
    local officials would be investigated thoroughly and
    fundamental civil rights of Chen Guangcheng's family will be
    protected. However, this promise has not been fulfilled at this
    point. Even worse, the government has continued to attack,
    retaliate, and persecute Chen Guangcheng's family in his
    hometown in the form of imprisonment, surveillance, slandering,
    insulting, harassment, and beating.'' Has Ambassador Locke,
    Gary Locke, our U.S. Ambassador to China, met with you, talked
    to you, visited you and your family? Has he raised the issue
    face-to-face with his interlocutors, with the Foreign Ministry
    leaders and others in China?
        Dr. Marcus, perhaps you can begin.
        Dr. Marcus. Yes. As far as Zhu Yufu's family is concerned,
    there are a total of six in the family. It is a very large
    Chinese family. Two of his siblings are lying low. They are
    staying away from the government's eye. There is a brother and
    a sister. One sister has gone to Japan. She has a son there.
    Two have sought political asylum in the United States and have
    gotten it. His wife is working, has a menial job. She was a
    pharmacist, but she is no longer working in that capacity and I
    don't know if she lost the job or not, but she is now working
    for somebody doing something fairly menial even though she is
    trained a pharmacist. His daughter has a degree in art history
    and is credentialed to teach art, but cannot get a job because
    she is the daughter of a criminal. So she has gone back to
    school and she is now training in museumology. Their son has a
    degree in physics. He was imprisoned for a year because he
    barred the door to the police when they came after his father
    during one of the times his father was arrested. So he was
    imprisoned for a year, so he is now a criminal. So he can work,
    but not as a physicist.
        I would like to respond, I was a little flip to Mr.
    Meadows. It does occur to me that what I have heard when I have
    asked people about what seems to make a difference in China,
    why it is different is always the same answer, the Internet.
    And what I have also heard is that what the Chinese lack, the
    people lack is the truth because it is often spun by the
    government. The one thing that is very difficult to spin is
    direct social media and I had the opportunity of discussing
    this with a young woman who got an MBA at Stanford that I met
    in the Shanghai Airport. She said the major difference she has
    seen is because of the Internet. So I think the Internet is
    crucial. I think, if you will forgive me, I don't want to offer
    an opinion other than that. This is what I have heard. So I
    would say to you if there is one focus that keeps one away from
    the issues that you are talking about, it would be the
    Internet.
        And may I, business matter, offer my written testimony for
    the record.
        Mr. Smith. Without objection, your full testimony and that
    of all of our witnesses today will be made a part of the
    record.
        Dr. Marcus. And the only other thing I want to say is that
    we assume that the reason that Zhu Yufu has been changed to the
    psychiatry block is that it is in retaliation for the attention
    he has gotten. We don't know that. Thank you.
        Mr. Fu. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I answer your
    question I want to say a few words to answer Congressman
    Meadows' previous question about sovereignty and raising human
    rights. You know, every time when the State Department of the
    U.S. issued an annual human rights report or USCIRF, issued the
    global religious persecution written report, the Chinese
    Government always issued a sort of angry denouncing statement
    by saying the standard is always set. This is the interference
    of the internal affairs.
        And the human rights and this fundamental freedom are not
    internal affairs. And to abuse a fellow human being and their
    dignity and depriving their basic freedoms is not internal
    affairs. And the fact that the Chinese Government now starts
    issuing human rights reports about the U.S. itself demonstrated
    that the issue of internal affairs is fair game, so they are
    interfering with the U.S. internal affairs to say the least.
        I think China is a signatory country for various
    international human rights covenants and the Chinese
    Constitution, for instance, Article 36 says for the citizens,
    basic freedom of religious belief should be guaranteed and
    China also signed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    I think the fellow Members of Congress, when you expressed the
    disapproval of the human rights abuses in China, it is not
    interference of internal affairs, but actually you want to help
    China to improve its international standing.
        So then I think to answer the first question about the
    appeasement charge, the appeasement diplomacy, I think the
    danger actually is when the brutal dictators start treating
    this as internal affairs by arbitrarily putting its citizens
    into detention center, imprisonment, without any due process,
    and when western democractic countries treat that as internal
    affairs, and when our own Secretary of State says that as human
    rights should not interfere with others so-called priority
    items, the security, the economic items, that sends a very----
        Mr. Smith. On that point, when Secretary of State Hillary
    Clinton, en route to Beijing, said that she would not allow
    human rights to interfere with global climate change and
    selling U.S. debt, is that you were referring to?
        Mr. Fu. Yes, that is what I refer to. I think that the
    leaders of democratic countries, when we made that kind of
    remarks, it is not only hurtful to those human rights
    campaigners, like those fathers of the five daughters, but also
    it really emboldens the dictators and the persecutors, and they
    take that as a green light to continue and increasing the
    persecution. It sends the wrong signal to the persecutors, that
    the democratic countries will not care as long as the trade
    continues, as long as the economic relationship is
    strengthened.
        In terms of religious freedom issues, certainly they have
    been worsening. I remembered it took more than a year for the
    current administration to even nominate the Ambassador-at-Large
    for the International Religious Freedom Office in the State
    Department. And unfortunately, after the current Ambassador-at-
    Large, Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook resigned the office, the
    position is still not filled up until today. So I think
    President Clinton would not do that, and President Jimmy Carter
    would not do that. Certainly President Bush, the two Bushes
    would not do that. I think this is very unfortunate. This is
    certainly sending the wrong signal at this critical time when
    the Chinese human rights and religious freedom reached its
    worst in 20 some years.
        Mr. Smith. Mr. Chen.
        [The following testimony was delivered through an
    interpreter.]
        Mr. Chen. Mr. Smith, regarding the question you just raised
    before with whether Ambassador Gary Locke raised the issue to
    local authorities, the answer is no. Regarding whether he has
    raised the issue of persecution of our family to local
    authorities, I am not aware of that.
        Mr. Smith. We will reiterate our request that he do so. We
    will write him today and write the Secretary of State, John
    Kerry, as well, asking them and conveying to them, not only
    your testimony, but all the testimonies. In my opinion, based
    on what occurred during the Chen Guangcheng process, when he
    was in-country still and then when he came here, those promises
    have gone unfulfilled. And so we will follow up on that, I can
    assure you.
        Pastor Fu?
        Mr. Fu. Yes, related to that, I have one final comment,
    actually. I remember last August, Mr. Chairman, yourself and
    Congressman Wolf and several other committee chairmen, as well
    as Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi issued a joint
    letter to the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, then President, and
    the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, to ask them to follow through
    what they promised to Mr. Chen Guangcheng and you actually also
    wrote a letter, along with Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi,
    to President Obama or Secretary John Kerry this year, to ask
    them to meet with Mr. Chen Guangcheng and other family members
    of those human rights campaigners in China such as Gao
    Zhisheng.
        I don't know. So far as far as I know, there is no positive
    response and even I think the leader of Freedon Now, Attorney
    Jared Genser, made a direct appeal to both the White House and
    through Washington Post opinion piece just last month to make
    that point that the quiet, so-called under the table diplomacy
    has failed, and failed miserably. And so it is time for the
    leader of our country, the President himself, to speak up to
    show that he is personally engaging by meeting, listening, and
    hearing directly from these daughters and the family members.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you. Is there anything else any of you
    would like to say before we conclude? Again, I want to thank
    you for your testimony, for your leadership. It is
    extraordinary and since the five daughters are still here,
    thank them again profusely for the love and devotion they have
    shown toward their fathers, their families, and for being
    willing to come here and share that with us on this
    subcommittee. The hearing is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 2:24 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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