[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 60 (Thursday, April 23, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4658-S4660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CHINA

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I am chairman of the Congressional-
Executive Commission on China, and I want to say a few words about 
China and a very courageous man in China who we believe now is in a 
Chinese prison and likely being tortured. I think it is very important 
for our country to speak out about this issue.
  Let me say first, there are many thoughtful and independent people in 
China today who understand the importance of fundamental rights and the 
role of strong and independent legal institutions. A few of these 
people work for the Chinese Government. Many work at universities or 
with U.S. companies and law firms. They care about the rule of law. 
Some of have cooperated with US agencies to increase food

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safety and improve security for coal miners, and others. Those are the 
folks in China who get it.
  There are also independent men and women in China who take a 
different approach. They apply what they know about the rule of law and 
the role of fundamental rights in very much the same way. Except that 
they choose to sound the alarm when the rights of vulnerable people are 
violated. And in so doing, they go to great lengths and place 
themselves at enormous personal risk. They defend the interests of 
consumers whose children are poisoned by powdered milk. They help the 
families of earthquake victims. They seek to represent the rights of 
illegally detained Tibetan monks. They stand up for their country and 
its people. By doing this, they are claimed to be enemies of the state. 
So who are the enemies of the state?
  I want to tell you about one man today, a man who is very courageous, 
a man named Gao Zhisheng. His wife is visiting Washington, DC, today. I 
want to tell you about him because it is so important for me to do so.
  This is a photograph of this courageous lawyer from China: Gao 
Zhisheng, with his son, his wife, and his daughter. He disappeared 80 
days ago and has not been heard from since. We know 2 years ago he was 
arrested by the Chinese secret police and put in prison and tortured--
tortured with electric shock and other devices I will not describe.
  What was his transgression then? He wrote an open letter to the U.S. 
Congress asking us to pay some attention to the lack of human rights 
that existed in China. For writing an open letter to Members of the 
U.S. Congress, in 2007, Gao Zhisheng, one of the most noted and 
distinguished human rights lawyers in China, was imprisoned for over 50 
days and brutally tortured.
  Now, in 2009, he taken from his bed by 10 members of the secret 
police, and has not been heard from since. Let me tell you what has 
transpired.
  Mr. Gao Zhisheng has represented some of the most vulnerable people 
in China. They include persecuted Christians, exploited coal miners, 
banned Falun Gong practioners, and so many others. He has always 
believed in the power of law, using the law to battle corruption, to 
overturn illegal property seizures, to expose police abuses, to defend 
religious freedom. He is a devout Christian. He has fought to protect 
those who engage in peaceful spiritual and religious practice in China.
  In 2005, the government took away his license to practice law, closed 
his law practice. As I said, in 2007, they arrested him, threw him in 
prison, and tortured him. Eventually, he was released and brought back 
home and placed under house arrest. The police surveillance proved 
almost harsher than prison. In fact, authorities monitored the family's 
every movement, stationed an officer in the family's living room, 
prevented his daughter from going to school, a kind of collective 
punishment. His 16-year-old daughter was barred from attending school. 
There was 24-hour surveillance of this traumatized family.
  The treatment for that family in recent months was so brutal they 
decided their survival depended on escaping China. But Gao was too 
closely monitored and could not think of leaving them without placing 
his family at even greater risk.
  So in January, Gao's wife, 6-year-old son, and 16-year-old daughter 
were smuggled out of China. They then traveled to the United States. 
After his family fled China, security agents seized Gao from his bed 
and he has not been seen or heard from since.
  We know this situation is extremely grave because we know what the 
Chinese have done to him in their prison system previously. They have 
not offered the slightest word about his whereabouts, despite repeated 
requests from United Nations agencies, the US government, foreign 
governments, NGOs, and the media. All have asked for information about 
the whereabouts of this courageous human rights lawyer, and the Chinese 
Government has said nothing.
  The Chinese Government has signed or ratified many international 
human rights commitments about Mr. Gao Zhisheng that require it to come 
clean about Mr. Gao. I call on, and we call on, today, the Chinese 
Government to allow Mr. Gao to have access to a lawyer, access to his 
family, and for the government to publicly state and justify the 
grounds for the continued detention of this courageous person.
  The right to speak freely and the right to challenge the Government--
all of these are enshrined in the Chinese Constitution. Yet it appears 
the Chinese Government and the Communist Party that runs that 
Government is intent on upholding the violation of these basic 
constitutional rights in the case of Mr. Gao.
  As I indicated, I am chairman of the Congressional-Executive 
Commission on China. We have the largest and the most significant 
publicly accessible repository of political prisoners in China. We have 
the largest, publicly accessible data base of information about many 
thousands of Chinese political prisoners.
  There are many people today who languish in dark cells--dark cells--
of Chinese prisons because they spoke out to defend the rights of 
others. None has done so more than Mr. Gao, who is a noted and 
celebrated human rights lawyer, who has lost his law office, lost his 
legal license, been imprisoned multiple times, has now been 
``disappeared'' into the prison system, was tortured before, and we 
expect has been tortured again. We need to put a stop to it.
  We need to find a way to convince the Chinese Government to tell us 
what has happened to Mr. Gao. What have they done with him? How do they 
justify it? And when, when, when will they tell us they will release 
this man to be with his family and begin to accord people like Mr. Gao 
and others, who stand up for the rights of others, the same human 
rights we would expect them to be given?
  China will be a significant part of our future. I understand that. My 
plea today is to the Government of China to do the right thing with 
respect to this courageous and brave man.
  As I indicated, his wife, Geng He, is with us today here in 
Washington, DC. I am not permitted to point her out in the Senate 
galleries. But she, too, is a very courageous woman, and she wishes 
very much to have this courageous man, her husband, released from 
detention in China and be given his freedom.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, will my colleague yield?
  Mr. DORGAN. Yes.
  Mr. DODD. I wish to thank my colleague from North Dakota. This is a 
very valuable contribution my colleague has made. It may only be one 
individual, one family, but I think when we speak up on behalf of an 
individual such as Mr. Gao, we do so for a lot of other people across 
the globe who face the same kinds of restrictions he is going through. 
I wish to join with him in expressing our concern.
  I urge my colleagues to maybe craft a letter of some kind we might be 
able to send to the Ambassador here in Washington or to the appropriate 
governmental personalities or agencies in China to express our 
collective concern about this. I am the second-ranking member of the 
Foreign Relations Committee, and I have a deep interest in what he is 
talking about.
  I thank him immensely for taking a few minutes this afternoon to 
address this issue. As the Senator points out, we are not allowed to 
recognize people who are in the Chamber, but let it be said that there 
is an individual who is with us during these remarks who is the wife of 
this individual. We thank her for her courage, her family's courage, 
and we will do everything we can to support the efforts of our 
colleague from North Dakota.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I know the Senator from Utah will be 
recognized. I wish to say that earlier this week and later today I will 
be here to talk about Roxana Saberi, who is imprisoned in Iran. She is 
a constituent of mine. I have great concern about these circumstances 
in Iran and China and elsewhere, as all of us do. My thoughts and 
prayers are with Roxana and her family. Similarly, my thoughts and 
prayers are with the family of Mr. Gao.
  I am happy to yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I am indebted to the distinguished Senator 
from North Dakota for his remarks today, and I certainly join with him 
in

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requesting the Chinese Government to make this matter right. I am very 
grateful he has taken the time to come and tell us about Mr. Gao as 
well as this wonderful woman who is being held in Iran. I wish to 
compliment him for it and say that I wish to be identified with his 
remarks.

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