[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 43 (Friday, March 14, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E387-E388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR GAO ZHISHENG

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 14, 2014

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit a piece published in the Wall Street 
Journal on February 27 highlighting the latest disappearance into the 
Chinese security system of the prominent human rights defender Gao 
Zhisheng. It is deeply alarming that Mr. Gao has been in and out of the 
Chinese prisons, disappeared, and tortured for almost a decade now. As 
the op-ed piece by Jared Genser, Gao's pro bono legal counsel, notes, 
``. . . no one has seen or heard from him since January 2013.'' 
Following his most recent disappearance, Gao's courageous wife, who has 
testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, filed a 
complaint to the United Nations, urging it to conduct an investigation 
into his whereabouts.
  I have ``adopted'' Gao through the Defending Freedoms Project, an 
initiative of the Lantos Commission, launched in conjunction with the 
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and Amnesty 
International. I am committed to continuing work towards the day when 
he can breathe the fresh air of freedom. I echo the sentiments of Mr. 
Genser, who concluded in the Journal piece, ``It is time to reunite Gao 
Zhisheng with his family. He and his loved ones have suffered long 
enough.''

                   Demanding Justice for Gao Zhisheng

                           (By Jared Genser)

       Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most prominent and courageous 
     human-rights lawyers and prisoners of conscience, has again 
     disappeared into the bowels of the Chinese state's security 
     system. For more than a year, his family has desperately 
     tried to access him in Shaya prison in Xinjiang, a remote 
     province in western China. But all these efforts have been 
     rebuffed and no one has seen or heard from him since January 
     2013. In response to Mr. Gao's most recent disappearance, his 
     wife on Thursday in Geneva filed a complaint to the United 
     Nations, urging it to conduct an investigation into his 
     whereabouts.
       A self-taught advocate and legal rights defender, Mr. Gao 
     was once recognized among the country's top 10 lawyers by 
     China's Ministry of Justice. Yet his advocacy for the 
     country's most vulnerable, including factory workers, coal 
     miners, victims of land seizures, and persecuted Christians 
     and Falun Gong practitioners, led the authorities to target 
     Mr. Gao and his family with threats and intimidation starting 
     in 2005. He has been in and out of prisons and subject to 
     disappearances and torture for nearly a decade.
       Officials closed his law firm, disbarred him and placed his 
     wife, Geng He, and their young children under 24-hour 
     surveillance. Police stationed inside the family's home 
     repeatedly harassed them. In school, the children were 
     taunted and put under constant watch by the police--even when 
     using the restroom. Because of this unbearable treatment, 
     Geng He and her children fled China and have since been 
     granted asylum in the United States.
       Mr. Gao's family is safe now, but he remains in danger. In 
     2006, he made a coerced confession to ``inciting subversion'' 
     and was given a suspended three-year prison term. In 2007, 
     Chinese officials tortured him by shocking him with electric 
     batons, holding lit cigarettes up to his eyes, and piercing 
     his genitals with toothpicks. On other occasions, they put 
     him in restraints and beat him repeatedly with handguns. In 
     2009 and 2010, police disappeared Mr. Gao and tortured him 
     further.
       In December 2011, just before the expiration of his 
     suspended sentence and after 20 months of having been held in 
     unknown locations, the Xinhua news agency announced that Mr. 
     Gao would be imprisoned for the remainder of his original 
     sentence. Since then, family members have been allowed to 
     visit him only twice for half an hour on each occasion. 
     Although scheduled for release on Aug. 22, he has now 
     disappeared once again, leaving his family with renewed and 
     urgent questions about his health and safety.
       Mr. Gao's imprisonment, torture and disappearances have 
     brought tremendous suffering to him and his family. In 
     testifying recently before the U.S. House Committee on 
     Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gao's daughter Grace

[[Page E388]]

     reflected on her family's insurmountable pain and loneliness. 
     ``I believe that when we speak out for my father . . . we 
     protect our own freedom and values,'' she said.
       Despite Mr. Gao's latest disappearance, it is hoped he is 
     managing to endure. But hope must be accompanied by action 
     and it is more urgent than ever that China not be allowed to 
     disappear Gao Zhisheng again with impunity.
       On Thursday, his wife lodged a complaint with the U.N. 
     Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, a 
     body of the Human Rights Council. The submission notes that 
     Mr. Gao's family is ``distraught because they have no idea 
     whether he is even alive.'' It goes on to emphasize the 
     Chinese government is violating its own laws allowing for 
     regular family visits, written correspondence, and access to 
     counsel.
       Ms. Geng hopes the Working Group will urge the Chinese 
     government to conduct an investigation into Mr. Gao's 
     disappearance. Although the process itself can take many 
     months, the Working Group has a good history of receiving 
     specific replies from the Chinese government to its concerns. 
     In addition, merely by highlighting Mr. Gao's disappearance 
     publicly and triggering a U.N. inquiry, his family has put 
     intense pressure on the Chinese government to respond. While 
     this alone is a helpful step forward, much more needs to be 
     done.
       The international community, including the United States 
     and United Nations, must demand proof from the Chinese 
     government that Mr. Gao is alive and insist that his family 
     be granted monthly access to him as is required by Chinese 
     law. The world must urge Mr. Gao's immediate and 
     unconditional release.
       At a minimum, foreign leaders should press Beijing to 
     release Mr. Gao on time instead of finding renewed excuses to 
     extend his detention, as it has done in other cases. 
     Washington must also exert pressure on the Chinese government 
     to confirm that Mr. Gao will be provided a Chinese passport 
     and the ability to travel to America upon his release.
       It is time to reunite Gao Zhisheng with his family. He and 
     his loved ones have suffered long enough.

                          ____________________