[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
DISAPPEARED, JAILED, AND TORTURED IN CHINA: WIVES PETITION FOR THEIR
HUSBANDS' FREEDOM
=======================================================================
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 FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 18, 2017
__________
Serial No. 115-31
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
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25-459PDF WASHINGTON : 2017
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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 BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina AMI BERA, California
MO BROOKS, Alabama LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
PAUL COOK, California TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
TED S. YOHO, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois NORMA J. TORRES, California
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
Wisconsin TED LIEU, California
ANN WAGNER, Missouri
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
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
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York AMI BERA, California
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
Wisconsin THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
Ms. Chen Guiqiu, spouse of Xie Yang.............................. 6
Ms. Wang Yanfang, spouse of Tang Jingling........................ 27
Ms. Jin Bianling, spouse of Jiang Tianyong....................... 42
Ms. Li Ching-Yu, spouse of Li Ming-Che........................... 47
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
Ms. Chen Guiqiu: Prepared statement.............................. 9
Ms. Wang Yanfang: Prepared statement............................. 30
Ms. Jin Bianling: Prepared statement............................. 44
Ms. Li Ching-Yu: Prepared statement.............................. 50
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 62
Hearing minutes.................................................. 63
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
Organizations:
Testimony of Jiang Tianyong from November 10, 2009, hearing.... 64
Letter from scholars to Xi Jinping on Li Ming-Che.............. 66
List of Xie Yang's torturers................................... 70
DISAPPEARED, JAILED, AND TORTURED IN
CHINA: WIVES PETITION FOR THEIR
HUSBANDS' FREEDOM
----------
THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2017
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 o'clock
p.m., in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon.
Christopher H. Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order, and good
afternoon to everyone and welcome to our hearing this
afternoon.
Lawyer Xie Yang was tortured for the better part of 2 years
because he dared to represent China's poor and persecuted. The
account of his detention is both harrowing and horrible.
Xie Yang was sleep deprived and kept in isolation. Squads
of police punched and kicked him for hours at a time. He was
forced to sit for hours on a precarious stack of plastic
chairs, his feet dangling painfully off the ground. Police made
threats to his wife and children and said that they would turn
him into an invalid unless he confessed to political crimes.
Xie Yang and his fellow human rights lawyers wanted the
best for China but what they got was the very worst. Since July
2015, almost 250 lawyers and legal assistants were detained,
sending a chilling message to those fighting for legal reforms
and for elemental human rights.
We are here today to shine a bright light on the brutal,
illegal, and dehumanizing use of torture and forced
disappearance of human rights lawyers and rights advocates in
China. We shine a light on dictatorships because nothing good
happens in the dark and, as we will learn today, there are some
very, very dark places in China.
Chinese officials repeatedly tell us and they tell me all
the time that I should focus more on the positive aspects of
China and not dwell so much on the negative. That is a
difficult task when you read Xie Yang's story or read Gao
Zhisheng's account of his torture, and his wife and his
daughter previously have testified before our subcommittee, or
read the account of many other very, very brave women and men
who are standing up for human rights in China.
It is a difficult task when you look at Li Chunfu and his
brother, Li Heping. These are some of China's best and bravest
and brightest, and now women and men with broken bodies,
shattered minds, broken noses and faces, men and women who have
aged 20 or more years after just 2 years or 3 of solitary
confinement or torture. It is shocking, offensive, immoral,
barbaric, and inhumane. It is also completely possible that
Chinese officials believe the international community will not
hold them to account.
While President Xi Jinping feels feted at Davos and lauded
in national capitals for his public commitments to openness,
his government is torturing and abusing those seeking rights
guaranteed by China's own constitution and, of course, its
international obligations. One Oxford University scholar said
that Xi Jinping has built a ``perfect dictatorship,'' an
increasingly repressive garrison state that avoids any
international censure.
Through the United Nations and the sanctions available in
the Global Magnitsky Act, however, we should be seeking to hold
accountable any Chinese officials complicit in torture, human
rights abuses, and illegal detentions. Xie Yang identified at
least 10 police officers who tortured him. We have a list of
those officers who he has named. They need to be investigated
by the administration and sanctions meted out individually to
these individuals who have visited such horror and cruelty upon
him.
We are in the process of gathering names of others as well.
I, as chairman of this subcommittee, will send those names to
President Trump, Secretary of State Tillerson, U.N. Ambassador
Nikki Haley and the chairs and ranking members of the House
Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
pursuant, again, to the Magnitsky Act protocol. We will seek
U.N. investigations into the torture of China's human rights
lawyers and human rights offenders. As we all know, on several
occasions the Special Rapporteur for Torture has looked into
the use of torture in China and has found it to be absolutely
systematic.
If you are arrested and you are a religious prisoner or you
are a political prisoner, a prisoner of conscience, you will be
tortured and you will be tortured with depravity and with utter
cruelty.
We know that this also violates China's obligations as a
signatory to the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Where's the
enforcement?
We will also seek investigations under the Global Magnitsky
Act, as I said. I introduced the House version of that bill,
which as signed into law last year. That law explicitly--and it
says explicitly--that any foreign government officials who
engages in or is complicit in torture can be sanctioned by
denying entry visas into the United States or by imposing
financial sanctions. Those who tortured Xie Yang and Li Heping
should never benefit from access to the United States or to our
financial system. We will hear testimony today from some of the
wives who have suffered.
When a prisoner of conscience is sent off the jail and
suffers it's not just that dissident who suffers. It is the
wives, the families, the extended families. Very often they are
rounded up as well and interrogated and beaten.
You know, we have the great Chen Guangcheng in our audience
today and his wife, Beijing. When Chen suffered the barbarity
of the Chinese dictatorship for speaking up on behalf of women
who have been coerced into forced abortions in Linyi, he
suffered in prison, then under house imprisonment. But his wife
and his children also suffered and showed incredible bravery
during that entire terrible ordeal. But he persevered, he
persisted, and today is now free and speaks out very boldly and
effectively on behalf of human rights abuses in China.
Pastor Bob Fu, who will be doing some of the translation,
he too was incarcerated as a prisoner of conscience. But,
again, he persisted along with his wife as well and found their
way to freedom and now speaks out boldly as leader of ChinaAid.
Finally, we will hear about Mr. Li from Li Ming-Che, his
wife, who will also be providing testimony to us today. After
entering mainland China in March of this year for a personal
trip, Mr. Li went missing for 10 days before the Chinese
officials confirmed that he was being held on so-called
national security grounds.
Let me just say we all know this--what a joke. People ask
for human rights protections and they are accused of national
security violations. It just doesn't pass the straight face
test and it's about time that subterfuge and that lie, that big
lie, is fully done away with and exposed.
Many fear that Mr. Li is being detained under a harsh new
Chinese law to monitor and control foreign-funded NGOs enforced
earlier this year as part of the crackdown on civil society.
As some of you may know, I also chair the Congressional-
Executive Commission on China along with Marco Rubio, and every
year we put out a very extensive account of the human rights
abuses in China. One of the big changes--worsening changes--
there are many--is the fact that the NGOs are now being--who
had very limited freedom to begin with--have far less now just
as religious organizations and denominations are also being
cracked down by this cruel dictatorship.
Let me just conclude by saying that we welcome the
testimony of these wives. I hope and I pray and we will monitor
to ensure that because they have spoken out boldly and in a
open forum like today that any further retaliation against
their husbands or any members of their families will be watched
closely and Xi Jinping will be noticed and I do hope the Trump
administration will be bold and effective as well as Secretary
Tillerson in raising individual cases, because when you raise
the individual cases, obviously, it helps all the others as
well.
I yield to Mr. Castro.
Mr. Castro. Thank you, Chairman, for your remarks and for
your leadership on human rights issues worldwide.
Ranking Member Bass is unable to join us here today. I am
not the superstar that she is but I am glad that she's allowed
me to be the ranking member this afternoon in her absence.
Let there be no doubt that the United States will marshal
its political and economic might for the cause of human rights
around the world and that we will ask the same of our allies.
As we move further into the digital age, information is more
accessible than ever, which means that the suffering and harm
to people is also more visible than ever.
The United States and nations around the world cannot turn
away from what we see and we must take action. The tenure of
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been accompanied by an
increasingly harsh crackdown on any individuals and groups
deemed to be subverting state power. The passage of the law on
the management of foreign NGO activities raises serious
concerns. According to the 2016 State Department report on
human rights, the Chinese law describes foreign NGOs as
``national security threats'' and requires all NGOs to undergo
a difficult registration process.
In doing so, the Chinese Government has greatly restricted
the political space of its civil society. Chinese environmental
activists, ethnic minorities, religious leaders, and political
dissidents, among others, are routinely arrested and given
years long prison sentences, often for actions as trivial as
posting a comment online. And the lawyers representing these
individuals often suffer equally severe treatment. Chinese
human rights lawyers are routinely harassed by the Chinese
security apparatus, detained for extended periods of time,
tortured, charged with crimes, and sentenced to lengthy prison
terms.
Last month, President Trump met with President Xi where
they discussed economic and political issues. The meeting came
at a time when China's crackdown on human rights reached new
heights. While President Trump raised the issue of human rights
with President Xi, Secretary Tillerson dismissed the idea of
discussing human rights in a separate dialogue. The Secretary
instead stated that U.S. core values of human rights would be
part of U.S. economic or political dialogue with China.
Yet, Secretary Tillerson was the first Secretary of State
who did not attend the annual release of the State Department's
human rights report since the mid-1990s.
We here in Congress will pay close attention to the actions
of the administration and ensure they follow through on U.S.
commitments to advancing the cause of human rights in China and
in nations around the world.
Today, we will hear from four brave women who continue to
show their courage by testifying in front of the United States
Congress. Each of their husbands has endured unjust
imprisonment and inhumane treatment under dubious
circumstances. They deserve our appreciation for taking great
risks by providing firsthand accounts of China's increasingly
restrictive political environment.
The perseverance of our witnesses and their families is a
reminder that the fight for just and accountable government is
a cause worth fighting for. It's also a reminder that progress
toward a free and fair society is fragile and must be pursued
every day.
And, of course, being a Member of Congress from Texas, I
want to acknowledge that one of our witnesses has been residing
there. After narrowly escaping Chinese authorities in Thailand,
Ms. Chen made her way to my home state. We are happy to have
you here, Ms. Chen.
Again, I want to thank each and every one of you for
sharing your stories and your family stories with us today. I
yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Castro.
I would like to introduce our distinguished witnesses and
again thank them for--thank you for your bravery and courage in
coming forward.
We will begin first with Chen Guiqui, who is the wife of
Christian human rights attorney, Xie Yang. Xie Yang focused his
professionally life in helping those victimized by the
Communist regime's forced demolitions and migrations as well as
impoverished people whose rights were trampled on by the
Chinese Government.
Because of his work, he was taken away on July 11th, 2015
as part of Xi Jinping's nationwide crackdown on human rights
defenders. I mentioned some of the horrific ordeal that he has
endured in my opening and we will hear from his wife very
shortly.
We will then hear from Wang Yanfang, who is the wife of
Tang Jingling, who is a human rights lawyer whose clients have
included villagers fighting government corruption and victims
of illegal land appropriation. In 2006, Tang's license to
practice law in China was suspended, after which he became
involved in a nonviolent civil disobedience movement in China.
In 2012, he was detained for 5 days following his work
investigating the death of a human rights defender. In 2014,
Mr. Tang was detained on suspicion of inciting subversion of
state power in the weeks leading up to the 25th anniversary of
the Chinese Government's violent crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
He was tried in July 2015 along with two other prominent
political advocates, and Ms. Wang is currently staying in the
U.S. while she advocates for her husband's release.
We will then hear from Jin Bianling, wife of Jiang
Tianyong. Jiang Tianyong is a veteran human rights lawyer who
has worked on prominent cases including those of Chen
Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng. He has also worked on cases
advocating for the rights of AIDS and hepatitis B-infected
people as well as other human rights and humanitarian cases.
From 2009 to 2012, Chinese officials harassed, kidnapped
and physically tortured Tang and on numerous occasions for his
human rights work. In November, he traveled to Hunan to pay a
visit to Chen Guiqui, the wife of the imprisoned human rights
lawyer who will speak momentarily. He was kidnapped while
returning to Beijing on November 21st and placed under
residential surveillance for alleged subversion of state power.
He is now being held.
Finally, we will hear from or we will hear from Li Ching-
Yu, the wife of detained Taiwan community college worker Li
Ming-Che. Ms. Li graduated from the Department of Labor
Relations at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan where she
and her husband met and began to participate in social
movements. Before 2014, Mr. Li began discussing Taiwan's
historical experiences and issues of transitional justice with
a group of Chinese friends through the instant messaging app
WeChat.
In 2015, Mr. Li's WeChat account was blocked from using the
group chat feature and Mr. Li began proactively seeking books
as gifts to his Chinese contacts who are interested in human
rights and/or modern history. Around February, 2016, he was
called on friends through WeChat to raise funds for the family
of a Chinese civil rights activist.
Later that year in August 2016, the books he sent to
Chinese friends were confiscated. He went missing as he was
entering China from the city of Macao, on March 19, 2017, so
that is just a few weeks ago. Ten days later after his forced
abduction, the Taiwan Affairs Office admitted he was in custody
and that is why we are here today to seek his release as well.
Because we do want to hear all of you, Mr. Castro and I
will take a brief respite to go vote. But we will then come
back and we look forward to your testimony and I apologize for
that inconvenience.
We stand in recess subject to the call of the chair.
[Recess.]
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will resume its sitting and I
would like to yield to Randy. Randy, any comments you might
have?
Mr. Hultgren. I'll be very brief but I just wanted to say
thank you for being here. Just humbled and amazed by your
courage, by the stands that you are taking but also that your
husbands are taking and it is so important for us to hear your
stories to be able to share that with others. But also know
this is, it is hard for us to still even comprehend or wrap our
mind around what you are going through and what others like
your families are going through.
So our hope is meetings like this, hearings like this, can
encourage and push those entities that are doing these horrible
atrocities to stop, to free your husbands and to make sure that
this doesn't happen to anyone else's husband. So thank you for
being here.
I'll look forward to hearing more of what we can do and,
hopefully, seeing some positive results in very difficult
circumstances.
So thank you, Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. I thank Chairman Hultgren for coming but also
for his great work that he does as chairman of the Lantos Human
Rights Commission. He does wonderful work there including on
human rights abuses in China. So thank you, Randy.
I would like to now ask Chen Guiqui if you could provide
your testimony.
STATEMENT OF MS. CHEN GUIQIU, SPOUSE OF XIE YANG
[The following statement and answers were delivered through
an interpreter.]
Ms. Chen. Honorable Chairman Chris Smith, Honorable
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organization Representatives, ladies and
gentlemen, I am the wife of human rights lawyer Xie Yang.
I would like to thank God, the Trump administration,
ChinaAid Association, and the hardworking diplomats. I also
want to express my gratitude toward Representative Chairman
Smith as well as other politicians and the friends who are
concerned with the development of human rights and the judicial
system in China.
With your help, my two daughters and I escaped from the
jaws of death and arrived in the United States, the land of
freedom. With your help, I am able to stand here to speak on
behalf of the victims in China who do not have a voice.
I would like to give you a better idea of human rights
conditions in China. And the next I will--with the help of Bob
Fu to help me. So I have a request to submit the torture record
of my husband and also my husband's declaration on January 13,
2017, about his torture as part of the record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, all of those additions will
be made a part of the record and that goes for all of our
wives. Whatever it is you'd like to become a part of the record
will be, without objection.
Ms. Chen. Thank you so much. Xie Yang represented dozens of
cases on behalf of the downtrodden, including poor Chinese
citizens who have had their houses or land seized from them
without compensation, dissidents, members of China's religious
communities, and other marginalized and persecuted groups.
Due to his work defending human rights, he was jailed and
brutally tortured. After Xie Yang was arrested by national
security agents in Changsha and placed in secret detention for
6 months, his captors brutally tortured him attempt to make him
confess and provide evidence against his colleagues.
The methods of torture included beatings delivered in
rotation by a roster of guards, exhausting interrogations for
over 20 hours at once, having cigarette smoke blown into his
face and eyes, starvation, dehydration, and the refusal of
medical treatment for his illness. To force him to surrender,
his interrogators even threatened to arrange a car accident to
injure his wife and children. He was beaten by a prison guard
named Yuan Jin during his detention.
On November 21, 2016, his defense lawyer, Zhang Chongshi,
visited Xie Yang for the first time and witnessed Yuan Jin
beating him while he was waiting. Xie Yang's head swelled up
and began to bleed.
Inmates who have been released from his detention center
told me that he was not allowed to access money so he could not
even buy toothpaste and toilet paper, not allowed to
communicate with others.
He was purposely singled out. The guards specifically
arranged for criminals sentenced to death to live with Xie Yang
so that he would be beaten up and harassed. The publication of
Xie Yang's torture account has had an immediate impact both
inside China and internationally, as I just submitted today.
Xie Yang's court session was held on May 8, 2017. None of
the witnesses showed up. None of the defense lawyers I hired
showed up. I did not even receive a notice of the court
session. Instead, Xie Yang attended the session with an
official lawyer appointed by the government. The friends who
planned to witness the court session were seized and arrested
by the national security agents.
Xie Yang was forced to admit his guilt and deny the torture
he suffered in the detention center. Regarding the fact that he
was not allowed to see his lawyer for 16 months or communicate
with the outside world, he was forced to acknowledge that his
rights were protected. He was bailed out after the court
session but still has not regained freedom. The national
security agents followed him wherever he goes.
I strongly hope the Honorable President Trump and the U.S.
Congress can immediately and effectively urge China's central
government to investigate the actual facts behind the torture
of those arrested in the 709 crackdown, simultaneously enacting
legal sanctions against those who practice torture.
I request that China clearly ensures that other
incarcerated prisoners of conscience do not continue to receive
harm. I call on President Trump to conscientiously implement
the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, punishing
those who we have irrefutable evidence of them practicing
torture and infringing on human rights.
I earnestly request that President Trump meet with the
family members of the Chinese people who have suffered before
he goes to China, as he's visiting with them publicly with this
concern for China's worsening religious freedom, rule of law,
and human rights conditions.
I also ask that he publicly give China's leaders a list of
prisoners of conscience and to free the 709 case's victims.
Chen Guiqui. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Chen follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Ms. Chen, thank you so very much for your
testimony and, again, for you and all of the wives for your
bravery.
We'd like to now ask Wang Yanfang. So Ms. Wang.
STATEMENT OF MS. WANG YANFANG, SPOUSE OF TANG JINGLING
[The following statement and answers were delivered through
an interpreter.]
Ms. Wang. Honorable Chairman Smith, Honorable Subcommittee
on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations representatives, ladies and
gentlemen, my name is Wang Yanfang, wife of human rights
lawyer, Tang Jingling.
I would like to express my gratitude to Representative
Chris Smith, Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Nancy Pelosi,
Representative Hultgren, and many other Representatives, as
well as Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid Association, for your
attention to and support of my husband and many other victims
of human rights abuse in China. I would like to request the
committee to archive my husband's report on the violation of
human rights in Chinese prisons. The rest of my testimony will
be read by Jasmine Chia Shih.
As the institution of religious freedom, rule of law, and
human rights continues to deteriorate in China, support for the
victims of the international community is very valuable and
precious.
This is also an important milestone in joint endeavors to
maintain universal values all over the world. In the past few
decades, people of many countries terminated their seemingly
powerful and long-lasting autocratic regimes through nonviolent
resistance and fulfilled the transition from autocracy to
democracy.
My husband is a well-known human rights lawyer. He is also
the initiator and a keen advocate of the civil disobedience
movement. He is dedicated to promoting the civil disobedience
movement, hoping to bring forth a democratic and free China. In
1995, the national security police began to monitor Tang
Jingling after he expressed his lifelong mission to promote
democracy in China. In 1999, he published an article on China's
democratization in Guangzhou. Then, he was forced to leave the
big law firm he was working for.
As a human rights lawyer, he's been involved in many major
cases of human rights abuse, political rights abuse, and
workers' rights abuse. For example, in 2003, a petition was
initiated to abolish the internment and repatriation
regulations and cancel the temporary residence permits policy
after college student Sun Zhigang's death. Tang Jingling served
as the legal counsel. In 2004, he was the defense lawyer for
the two people charged in the Xingang labor unrest case in
Dongguan.
In January 2005, he defended the newly elected village head
in the Shibi Third Villagers' campaign to remove old village
officials. In August 2005, he was one of the key lawyers in the
case of the Taishi villagers' campaign to remove village
officials. Due to his involvement in human rights cases, the
authorities forced his law firm to terminate his employment and
suspended his lawyer's license.
In 2006, he planned to attend an event in the U.S., but he
was stopped at customs and his passport was confiscated by the
police. He's still not allowed to leave the country to this
day. After losing his lawyer license, he participated in many
human rights cases as a citizen, including the poisonous
vaccine lawsuit, the investigation of Li Wangyang's death, and
many other cases involving land property, forced demolition,
and so on.
My husband graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University in
1993. He began to participate in law in 1998. He lost his
lawyer license in 2005. Due to his work in human rights
protection during the Jasmine Movement in February 2011, he was
charged with inciting subversion of state power and was
detained in a black jail where he was threatened and tortured,
including extensive sleep deprivation for 10 days in a row. He
was allowed to sleep for 1 to 2 hours a day after he began to
have some dangerous symptoms like trembling all over, numbness
in both hands, and heart discomfort until he was released on
August 2, 2011.
He initiated and promoted the civil disobedience movement
to seek justice for people at the bottom of the society. But
his wife was forced to lose her job in May 2008.
During his detention in February 2011, I was forcibly
brought to Conghua and detained. They took my phone, bruised my
arms, and didn't allow me to notify my family and lawyer, which
caused my severe depression and poor health. Then the police
tricked my mother to go to Guangdong to take care of me, and I
was put under house surveillance for a long time. I was not
allowed to meet with any family and friends. I was not even
allowed to leave my home. More than 20 people took turns
watching me. I was completely isolated from the outside world
for almost 5 months. When my husband was released, my physical
and mental health had been severely damaged.
On May 16, 2014, Tang Jingling was criminally detained on
the charge of ``picking quarrels and provoking troubles'' and
was arrested on June 20 with the charge of ``inciting
subversion of state power.''
On September 23, his mother passed away on hearing of his
arrest. His lawyer and I applied to bail him out to attend his
mother's funeral. But the authorities ignored everything on
legal, moral, and humanitarian levels and rejected our request.
They didn't notify him of her death until October and caused
deep sorrow. The authorities forbade his lawyer to meet with
him for 6 months while his case was being transferred to the
procuratorate.
During the 2 years in the detention center all
communication was banned. There was no way to guarantee his
rights.
On January 29, 2016, he was sentenced to 5 years
imprisonment with the charge of inciting subversion of state
power. He's serving the sentence in Huaiji Prison, Guangdong
Province.
Since he was arrested in August 2013, I was put under 24-
hour surveillance, which brought huge emotional pressure and
fear to me. However, I've been appealing for my husband. I
request the release of him.
On July 1, 2014, I went to Hong Kong to attend a
demonstration and appealed in the media to urge people to pay
attention to Tang Jingling and other prisoners of conscience
like Yuan Chaoyang and Wang Qinqying. I was threatened by the
police after returning to Guangdong and my freedom was
restricted during the so-called ``sensitive'' period. After the
massive arrest of human rights lawyers on July 9, 2015, I got
in touch with families of arrested human rights lawyers and
went to the Supreme People's Procuratorate with them.
In August, I was not allowed to leave home. Since Tang
Jingling worked as a lawyer more than a decade ago, he
participated in many human rights cases and promoted civil
disobedience movement. Consequently, he lost his lawyer
license. He was detained, monitored, arrested, tortured and
sentenced, and I lost my job, was harassed, summoned,
monitored, and detained.
Today, other 709 case lawyers are still suffering from such
torture. Many prisoners of conscience are still unable to meet
with their lawyers and families. Christian churches are still
being shut down. Christians are still being detained and
sentenced.
Thus, I sincerely plead with President Trump and the U.S.
Congress to urge the Chinese Government guarantee Tang
Jingling's right to meet with his lawyer and his right to
reading, communication, medical treatment, and food with enough
nutrition as well as ensure that Tang Jingling, Wang Quanzhang,
Jiang Tianyong, Wu Gan, Yuan Xinting, and other 709 case
lawyers and prisoners of conscience have their basic human
rights in prison and make certain that they are not being
tortured and are released to reunite with their families.
I hope President Trump can meet with families of the
victims in the U.S. before his visit to China, talk about his
attention to China's worsening religious freedom and human
rights situation during his visit, and give the list of
prisoners of conscience to the Embassy.
I believe this is also an important action to maintain
universal values all over the world.
Thank you. Wang Yanfang.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Wang follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much for your very moving
statement.
And I would like to now yield such time as you may consume
to Ms. Jin.
STATEMENT OF MS. JIN BIANLING, SPOUSE OF JIANG TIANYONG
[The following statement and answers were delivered through
an interpreter.]
Ms. Jin. Honorable Chairman Chris Smith, Honorable
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations Representatives, ladies and
gentlemen, thank you very much for your attention to my husband
Jiang Tianyong's suffering.
Jiang Tianyong is a Chinese human rights lawyer. He began
to advocate for human rights in 2006, representing hepatitis B
patients, AIDS patients, and numerous Falun Gong practitioners.
In order to promote the legal rights of lawyers, he
contributed to the direct election of the Beijing Lawyers
Association and exposed corruptions within the Beijing judicial
system, such as blackmailing and racketeering. I am willing to
provide photographic evidence of our heavy surveillance
surrounding our house in China and also the audio recording of
my husband when he was disappeared during the Jasmine
Revolution.
On October 29, 2009, Jiang Tianyong participated in a U.S.
congressional hearing and spoke on the main theme, which was
the problem with China's legal system and religion.
I am bearing witness to how the national security police
retaliated against our entire family as a result of this
testimony.
Ever since Tianyong was forced to stay home on sensitive
dates, such as meetings of the National People's Congress, the
Political Consultative Conference, June 4, which is the
anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, or during
important political leaders' visits to China, he could only get
out of the house by taking their police cars. I have videos to
verify all of this.
Beginning on February 15, 2011, Tianyong disappeared for 2
months during the Jasmine Revolution. He was brutally beaten,
deprived of sleep, forced to watch CCTV news, sing songs, and
recite patriotic articles to praise the Chinese Communist
Government, and write thousands of pages of repentance letters.
The videos can serve as evidence.
On May 3, 2012, five national security agents from the
Haidian District, Beijing, represented by Du Yuhui, beat
Tianyong up when he attempted to visit the barefoot lawyer,
Chen Guangcheng, at the hospital. Tianyong temporarily lost his
hearing due to the perforation of his left ear's tympanic
membrane. The police repeatedly took Tianyong away for
questioning and threatened him, saying that our child could not
go to school if he refused to cooperate. They also said that I,
as his wife, could be affected as well. The long-term
harassment and threats consumed me.
I even thought of suicide. My child's mental condition was
severely disrupted. Desperate, I brought my daughter to the
U.S. in May 2013.
On March 20, 2014, the local national security agents
arrested Tianyong again in Jiansanjiang, Heilongjiang while he
was representing Falun Gong practitioners. The police broke
eight of Tianyong's ribs during the 16 days of detention. I
have the diagnosis from the hospital as proof.
On November 21, 2016, Jiang Tianyong disappeared on his way
back to Beijing after visiting the family members of lawyer Xie
Yang. Now the government has already banned him from meeting
with lawyers for 178 days and we do not know where he is
detained. Tianyong's parents have been put under surveillance.
The national security agents follow them wherever they go.
According to the news on May 12, 2017, Tianyong has been
tortured, and his legs are too swollen to walk.
In order to safeguard human rights and the universal worth
of defending legal rights, I strongly hope the Honorable
President Trump and the U.S. Congress can immediately and
effective urge China's central Government to investigate the
actual facts behind the torture of those arrested in the 709
crackdown, simultaneously enacting legal sanctions against
those who practice torture and request that China clearly
ensures that other incarcerated prisoners of conscience do not
continue to receive harm.
In addition, I want to mention that Tianyong has already
received a letter confirming his political asylum in the United
States. I hope that President Trump can negotiate with the
Chinese Government during his visit and let Tianyong reunite
with me and my daughter.
May 19th is Tianyong's 46th birthday. I hereby make a wish
on behalf of Tianyong and our family. I hope he can regain
freedom so his aging parents would not have to worry constantly
and his daughter could have her wish fulfilled and embrace her
father.
I hope I can forever set aside my heart, which anxiously
worries about Tianyong, and a tranquil and merry life can come
to our household.
Thank you. Jin Bianling.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jin follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Ms. Jin, thank you so very much.
I would like to now yield to Ms. Li.
STATEMENT OF MS. LI CHING-YU, SPOUSE OF LEE MIN-CHE
[The following statement and answers were delivered through
an interpreter.]
Ms. Li. Chairman Smith, members of the committee, good
afternoon. I am Li Ching-Yu, wife of Li Ming-Che.
I would like to thank each of you for upholding and
defending the values of freedom and democracy, values that
human rights activists, including my husband, have dedicated
their entire lives and energies to. I would also like to
express my gratitude toward all the congressmen, especially
Chairman Royce and Chairman Smith, who strive to maintain and
further secure the implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act.
I am deeply honored to be here today alongside these three
respectable women who have gone through such perilous
situations for the cause of democracy and human rights.
It's after hearing about their journeys that I realized how
fortunate I am as a Taiwanese. I further understood the
blessings of our democracy, which exists today, thanks to the
support of the U.S. Government and all the 20th century
Taiwanese human rights activists, as mentioned by Chairman
Royce in the March 14, 2014, hearing on the TRA.
My husband, Li Ming-Che is from a--is from a Chinese
refugee family that emigrated to Taiwan following the
nationalist government in 1949.
His background and emotional connection to China have
contributed to his supports of Chinese human rights efforts.
From 2012 until his disappearance, he gave online lectures
through WeChat on the democratization of Taiwan and the history
of the White Terror period. He also managed and contributed to
a social justice fund for the purpose of financially supporting
Chinese political prisoners and their families experiencing
economic hardship that stemmed from their support of the values
of freedom, justice, and democracy.
On March 19, 2017, while on an annual visit to China to
meet with people he worked on the fund with, my husband was
subjugated to enforced incommunicado detention. It's been 61
days since I last saw him. I am concerned. I am concerned about
his health, for he suffers from high blood pressure. I am
concerned for his safety. I do not know where he is for the
Guangdong government has refused to disclose the location of
his detention.
The deprivation of my husband's liberty by the local
Guangdong government is arbitrary and transgresses Articles 9,
19, and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual
Assistance Agreement, and International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights.
It was not long after my husband's enforced disappearance
that I learned about his detainment from a middleman. Since
current cross-strait relations are highly abnormal, many such
cases that involve Taiwanese people being detained or arrested
in China are settled through brokers. These brokers for the
most part represent the interests of the PRC. I was shown a
copy of a letter that was written under involuntary
circumstances by my husband.
This letter was in the hands of Li Jun-min, a
representative of the PRC Taiwan Affairs Office. He threatened
me, insisting that I cancel my trip to Beijing and also silence
myself. Li expressed clearly that the detention originated as a
result of the provincial government of Guangdong's desire to
show its strict enforcement of the newly-passed foreign NGO
management law. He threatened that if I were to go to Beijing,
the local Guangdong government would release a video of my
husband admitting to having committed criminal actions.
The U.S. has long insisted that its policy of no
negotiation with terrorists is to be firmly followed. I also
believe in that policy. I refuse to negotiate with a broker on
such unequal grounds. If I did, it would be harmful and
shameful to my family, my country, and my fellow human rights
activists.
Additionally, to my great disappointment, the Chinese
Government has unreasonably revoked my travel visa, even though
I have clearly and calmly explained that I only wanted to
travel to better understand the situation.
China's position toward human rights and the rule of law is
drastically different from that of Taiwan and other civilized
democratic countries. China should not assume that their
military and economic growth could force Taiwan to be annexed
by it.
If China maintains that my husband's actions of spreading
the values of democracy and aiding the family of members of
political prisoners can pose a threat to its national security,
I believe the people of Taiwan will become not only more
certain of their unwillingness to be annexed but also hesitant
to preserve a close relationship with China. It has only been
around 20 years since Taiwan successfully overthrew the White
Terror's one-party dictatorship. So it is highly unlikely that
we will be willing to accept another despotic government.
I have no other choice but to come and stand before you to
ask for help from you. United States of America is the leading
democracy in the free world. It was built upon the unalienable
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The U.S. has long been the protector of justice, freedom,
and democracy everywhere. It has accepted the moral obligation
to aid people deprived of their natural rights. The American
Congress' unwavering dedication toward these values has
influenced many countries including my home country, Taiwan, to
embrace the spirit of human rights and democracy.
The U.S. Congress has also voluntarily taken the
responsibility as specified in Section 2, Clause 3 of the
Taiwan Relations Act, to preserve and enhance the human rights
of the people of Taiwan.
Therefore, I stand alone before you today to plea for your
help for my husband. I am pleading to the United States to
continue to act as according to the TRA. I am pleading the
United States to continue to support the value of which it has
always unbendingly defended. I am pleading to the United States
to continue to uphold the values of which it was formed upon. I
am pleading to the U.S. Government to pressure China to
recognize the provincial government of Guangdong's illegitimate
detention of my husband, Li Ming-Che, and free him.
Thank you. Li Ching-yu.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Li follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Ms. Li, thank you very much as well for your
testimony.
Finally, the Taiwanese Government is working behind the
scenes to resolve the case of Li Ming-Che, although I am sure
such efforts are hindered by Taiwan's complicated diplomatic
ties with Beijing.
As I've said before, Taiwan is an important democratic ally
and a beacon of peace and democracy in Asia. The U.S. should
remain committed to the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six
Assurances as the cornerstone of U.S.-Taiwan relations.
Political issues between China and Taiwan should be resolved
through appropriate mechanisms between the two sides. The
Chinese Government's decision to detain Li Ming-Che singled
Chinese officials' willingness to break its international human
rights obligations for political gains, again, needlessly
straining the cross-strait ties.
We do have a video, about a 4-minute video. It was sent to
us by the wives of lawyers of Li Heping and Wang Quanzhang. It
features Wang Qiaoling and Li Wenzu and it will now play for
us.
[Video shown.]
Thank you so very much for those insights, horrible and
brutal as they are, concerning the torture.
Let me ask a few questions and then I will yield to my
colleagues for any questions they might have, and first of all,
let me begin by saying to Ms. Jin how heartbroken I and others
are over your husband's incarceration.
I will remind members of our subcommittee that your husband
testified on November 10, 2009, at a hearing that I chaired. He
very much wanted to present testimony as a human rights lawyer.
It was the Tom Lantos Commission and I was chairing that
hearing, and without objection, his testimony from that hearing
will be made a part of this record as well.
But he was very firm, very clear in his testimony. He
talked about working with Chen Guangcheng on behalf of women
who had been subjected to the brutality of the one-child-per-
couple policy--a policy that treats women as chattel and kills
their children and does so right up into the 9th month of
pregnancy. As we all know, under that brutal policy there are
now missing about 62 million females, a direct result of sex-
selection abortion, causing huge disparities in the male-female
ratio.
But, as you know, Ms. Jin, your husband bravely tried to
defend the women from this assault and for that he was
incarcerated.
I would add to that that he returned to China--and this
underscores something that has to come out of this hearing and
all of our efforts going forward. He went back to China.
President Obama was in Beijing. He asked and thought he had a
meeting with him along with some of the other human rights
lawyers. He did not. And hours after the President of the
United States left on Air Force One, he was arrested and his
horrific ordeal that continues to this day continues.
It shows, in my opinion, that there is a consequence for
being so brave, which is why we are all concerned about you and
your husbands and the fact that at the highest levels of
government, and this appeal is to the President of the United
States today and the Vice President, Mike Pence, that our voice
has to be clear.
We have to look Xi Jinping and other top leaders in the
eye, have names, lists, the way Reagan did, and did so
effectively during the worst days of the Soviet Union, when
there was always a list of dissidents, human rights activists,
and Jewish refuseniks that he would tender to the leaders of
the Soviet Union, and those people--not all, but many of them
got out and for many others the torture was ameliorated because
we paid attention to what was going on.
I would also add that we will ask President Trump--we will
present him with your testimonies--and Vice President Pence--
and ask him to meet with you and I would add we would ask him
to meet with the five daughters as well and a few other very
notable human rights activists who have suffered for their
convictions in China.
We had five daughters here presenting testimony in 2013. We
called it the Five Daughters Hearing. They all had a dad who
was incarcerated and subjected to torture. We asked President
Obama to meet with them so that when he met with Hu Jintao, and
after that Xi Jinping, he would have their cases and their
pleas, their appeals, often through tears, uppermost in his
mind to convey that agony to the leader of the Chinese
Government.
We tried for months to arrange that meeting. At the end of
about 6 months we were told by the White House he doesn't have
the time.
Now, if President Trump and Vice President Pence gives the
same indifference, same answer, which I think is a callous
disregard for suffering people, I will be here at this podium
speaking out against that lack of concern and empathy for
suffering people.
Those young ladies said at that hearing President Obama has
two daughters--he'll understand what it's like for a daughter
to speak on behalf of her father. You, as wives, are doing
exactly the same and I want you to know we, in this
subcommittee, both sides of the aisle, have nothing but concern
and empathy for each and every one of you, for your husbands,
for your families.
And just a couple of very quick questions. When your
husbands are incarcerated, and many of you spoke about this--
Ms. Wang, you spoke of being severely damaged physically and
mentally because of your husband's incarceration. The Chinese
dictatorship knows that when they arrest your husbands or any
dissident or prisoner of conscience the whole family goes to
jail.
They know that the friends of the family of the
incarcerated individual goes to jail as well. All the more
reason why we need to significantly up our voices, make our
voices much clearer in Congress and at the White House, at the
State Department, and added to that, we need to use the tools
that are at our disposal from Country of Particular Concern for
religious believers, sanctioning the Government of China for
its egregious human rights violations on religious freedom, use
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and make them a Tier 3
country, which they deserve to be for the government's
complicity in human trafficking which is bad and getting worse.
And then for the political dissidents like your husbands,
who represent a cross-section of suffering individuals in
China, including labor rights. There is no doubt that China
does not respect ILO standards--International Labour
Organization standards--from collective bargaining to even
paying a decent wage, and with impunity they crush independent
trade union efforts. We have had at our hearings in the past
leaders of that movement come and testify and say, yes, they
have a labor union run by the government--it is a farce.
So my question would be the impact on the families and
also, if you would, speak to your hopes and expectations of
what we might do next.
Again, I think you've said it in your testimonies--
implement our laws. We have a toolbox filled with the capacity
to hold China to account. Magnitsky is just the latest
iteration of a tool that can't stay in that toolbox. And the
Chinese Government must know, collectively as a government and
individually, those who commit these crimes need to be held to
account and we have the tools to do it.
So yes, Ms. Chen.
Ms. Chen. I have the latest news today. Those public
security officers threatened my husband and the family members
that if I do not return to China, they will give him a heavier
sentence. So I feel, even in the United States, I don't feel
safe, and I am haunted, and I really seek protection by the
U.S.
Mr. Smith. Would anybody else like to comment before I
yield to Mr. Castro? Yes.
Ms. Chen. So I call upon the U.S. Government to express to
the Chinese Government to stop the--this kind of brutal
persecution against the victims of the 709 cases and their
family members and to restore their dignity. Because the
Chinese Government is also a signatory country of the anti-
torture international covenant. So I want to call upon the
Chinese Government to release the videos of during these
victims' incarceration and to show what they have gone through.
And because all the family members of the 709 cases and
others persecuted, their children are stopped by the Chinese
Government for education and schooling, and President Trump has
his own children, so I do hope he can meet with ours. We can
express that to him face to face, and also our family members
inside China.
Mr. Smith. Ms. Jin.
Ms. Jin. By June 1st, it is already 6 months of my husband,
Jiang Tianyong's, enforced disappearance. Right now, both of
his parents are being monitored and followed closely. They were
forced to write promises that they would not communicate or
have any contact with me. Of course, we just heard from Ms.
Wang Qiaoling, the wife of Li Heping, who revealed the torture
he had experienced. Jiang Tianyong also had been experiencing
torture.
And the similar experience of being drugged was also shared
by other recently released human rights lawyers, like Li
Chunfu, like Li Shuyun, and, of course, Li Heping. And to the
point attorney Li Chunfu was even tortured with serious mental
illness.
Even last night, the Chinese official microblog, Weibo,
showed a short video clip. On that video, it shows my husband,
Jiang Tianyong, was kind of walking, and on that video, it
claims that Jiang Tianyong was not tortured. But when I
observed that short video, I noticed on the legs, both legs of
Jiang Tianyong the kind of black and blue marks are still there
on his legs, and his face has been very swollen and his right
arm cannot move when he walked.
So I could not believe what the government claimed, that he
was not tortured. So I am deeply concerned about what's
happening with Jiang Tianyong and his well-being and his life,
and even until today he was denied lawyer's visitation. And
further, Jiang Tianyong has already been approved as a U.S.
asylee, granted by the U.S. Government in 2016 already. But the
Chinese regime refused to let him exit from China. I hope
President Trump can really express this point with the Chinese
leaders and plead with the Chinese Government release Jiang
Tianyong and to have family reunion here in the United States
with us.
Today is Jiang Tianyong's birthday. My daughter and I have
been here for 4 years but we have never met again. My daughter
is really, really eager to hug her daddy.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Castro.
Mr. Castro. I think they just called votes and so I want to
say thank you to each of you for your courage and your bravery
in coming here to Congress and telling us your stories.
I hope that you'll continue to give us counsel and guidance
on how you believe the United States can be more helpful as it
comes to China and the issue of human rights and we, in turn,
will monitor not only your situations and the situations of
your husbands but also of others who are going through similar
things in China.
And as I mentioned earlier, this should be an effort not
only for the United States but also for the allies of the
United States around the world.
So your suggestions on how you believe that the friends of
the United States, those nations who also believe in strong
human rights can be helpful with respect to China and ensuring
that China is a place that respects the human rights of its
people and the freedoms of its people. Thank you for being
here.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Castro, thank you very much.
Mr. Garrett.
Mr. Garrett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It's troubling as I review the remarks of the ladies here
today and consider that not only were the victims of the 709
crackdown jailed and subsequently tortured because they were
brave enough to take a stand in favor of human rights but that
in fact it would appear that a meeting planned with the United
States President may have been a pretext for an arrest of other
individuals in China.
As a member of this subcommittee, I understand that when we
hold hearings such as this it is our responsibility to try to
work to help people. But it is my fear that your courage in
being here might be used as a pretext again to hurt people.
With that said, I understand that as one Member of 435 and
one of two chambers in a legislative body there is only so much
that I can do. But I want to be abundantly clear for the record
and for these brave women. To the extent that I have the
ability to cast a vote that will deal favorably or unfavorably
with the regime based on how it treats its own citizens and
people who seek to affect positive human rights changes, I will
consider their actions when I make my vote.
To the extent that I have the ability to put forward policy
that will shape the United States policy as it relates to
nations based on how they treat their citizens and other
citizens, I will consider these things in how I advance policy.
And to the extent I am able to influence my colleagues and
the executive branch of this government as it relates to
relations with foreign nations to include dominant global
forces such as the People's Republic of China, I will consider
how they treat their people and other people as it relates to
human rights when I seek to exert that influence.
We shouldn't convene committee hearings to help people that
we know have the potential to lead to greater harm to people
without ensuring the folks that we seek to help, you all, that
we will do everything in our power to make sure that all we can
effect that is good is affected.
With that, I offer my admiration and my thanks for the
courage of these ladies, my encouragement for people who, in
China as everywhere, seek basic human rights as outlined in
foundational American documents--life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness--but as aspired to by people across the globe and
promise that within my small ability to make a difference I
will side with human rights and with people who have suffered
like yourselves wherever possible and I appreciate the chairman
for creating this opportunity and I commend your courage, and
to the extent it is appropriate you have my prayers and my
promise to do what I can.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Garrett, thank you very much for that very
strong statement. And you are right, they all have our prayers
as well as everything we can do as a committee in a bipartisan
way and as a Congress to assist your husbands and the other
lawyers.
I remember years ago at a Northern Ireland hearing we had a
woman whose husband was murdered--a human rights lawyer named
Patrick Finucane--and the bottom line was that by killing and
hurting lawyers who are really one of the last protections that
citizens have to exercise due process rights and to get their
case to resolve grievances, the Chinese Government is going for
the jugular with this and I think all of us in the Western
countries need to realize that our voices have to be raised
higher and louder and more effectively than ever before.
And as I said before, every tool that we have in our
toolbox needs to be deployed on behalf of your husbands. If the
lawyers are silenced, where does any aggrieved party go for
help?
Even in a flawed rule of law country like China, still, as
your husbands did, you effectuated change. They spoke on behalf
of victims and, in some cases, got durable remedy.
So I want to pledge to you that we will all continue. We
will make that request of the Trump administration, that you
meet with him and with the Vice President, and we will do that
immediately by way of letter and by way of phone calls and
visits because he needs to look you in the eyes so that when he
looks Xi Jinping in the eyes, he has your husband and your
interests right there front and center.
So if there is anything you would like to add in terms of
what we might have missed, this is your opportunity before we
run over to vote.
We are joined by Chairman Mark Meadows. But if there is
anything that you would like to add before we conclude. Yes,
Ms. Wang.
Ms. Wang. I would like to add on to what we hope the U.S.
Government will be doing. My husband, Mr. Tang Jingling, was
not participating in anything illegal. These are recognized by
both the international community as well as China.
Although he is sentenced to 5 years, I hope that he could
be released. Mr. Tang was incarcerated due to his participation
in nonviolent civil disobedience, and that resulted in his
mother's death.
I hope he could come home and visit his elderly father. I
hope the U.S. would put extra emphasis and follow these
situations of human rights victims or political prisoners and
their families who are being persecuted. Because these actions
are a violation of human rights, we hope that the U.S.
Government will bring these concerns to the Chinese Government.
The torturing of all the incarcerated people should stop. They
should also stop the persecution against their families,
lawyers, and their children. They should also stop their
persecution against Christians, Buddhists, Falun Gong, or other
religious groups.
Thirdly, I would like to request that the Ambassador to
China, Beijing would meet with these victims and families of
these victims.
I would also like to ask that before President Trump meets
President Xi he would also meet with the families of these
victims who reside in the U.S.
Thank you very much.
Ms. Li. My husband's incidents have caused a panic among
Taiwanese NGO workers. I hope the United States could strongly
pay attention to my husband's incident because all NGO workers
around the globe might face the same situation. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Without objection, a letter signed by several scores--I
think there are about 40 scholars on behalf of your husband--
will be made a part of the record. It includes a very diverse
group of people, including the former the chief of staff for
one of our colleagues, Senator Claiborne Pell, and without
objection this will be made a part of the record.
Anybody else before we close? And Mark, would you want to--
Ms. Jin.
Ms. Jin. I have another small request. I hope the U.S.
Government can raise this issue and ask the Chinese Government
to launch an independent investigation on the torture against
the lawyers in the 709 cases, and especially the torture method
of being drugged. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. I would like to yield to my good friend and
colleague, Mr. Meadows.
Mr. Meadows. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you once again
for being a voice for so many people who don't have a voice.
I mean, there is one person out of 435 Members that is a
champion and that is not to be disrespectful of my colleagues.
I think he would recognize that there is a champion who always
wants to make sure that he reaches out, and you are recognized
by both Democrats and Republicans, and I just want to say thank
you.
But for each one of you, I want to also say that with my
colleague opposite from a Democratic perspective but also on
the Republican side that we will work in a bipartisan way to
address these atrocities and these human rights violations. And
I can assure you, at the very highest levels of our Government,
they will be made aware of the personal tragedy that you have
had to endure and so I just wanted to say that for the record
that your testimony here today is meaningful and it will be
shared in the appropriate way.
And Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows, thank you very much and I really
appreciate your work on behalf of human rights that has been
longstanding and particularly as a member of this subcommittee.
Thank you.
The hearing is adjourned and I thank you all very much.
[Whereupon, at 4 o'clock p.m., the subcommittee was
adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the Record
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[all]