As horrid details of the brutal torture and treatment of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng have recently become known, a human rights leader in the U.S. Congress is urging the Chinese government to immediately allow Gao to come to the United States for medical care.
“Gao Zhisheng has suffered unspeakable and repeated torture because he has championed freedoms respected worldwide, but hated by China’s leaders,” said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on China (CECC), and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs global human rights subcommittee. Gao was released from a Chinese prison on August 7th but remains under de facto “house arrest.”
“The Administration should be working overtime to help Gao return to the care and comfort of his wife and children,” Smith said. “They are here in the U.S. and he should be, too.”
Gao’s family recently reported that he is suffering from acute physical and mental problems related to the torture, malnutrition, and lengthy solitary confinement he experienced in prison. He was reportedly beaten repeatedly, kept in a small, dimly lit cell, denied any human conversation or reading materials, and fed a piece of bread and cabbage once a day. Gao’s family has asked for an immediate medical parole so he can travel to the U.S. for medical treatment. (South China Post article)
“The life of a dissident in China is brutal and nasty,” Smith said. “The U.S. cannot persist in the fantasy that China’s communist rulers will treat people justly--particularly those who advocate for freedom, liberty and the rule of law. Gao’s freedom should be among the Administration’s top priorities with China.”
The bipartisan U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China estimates there are over 1,200 known political prisoners suffering in China. (Click on http://www.cecc.gov/resources/political-prisoner-databaseto view the CECC’s prisoner information.)
“More needs to be done for the thousands of other prisoners of conscience in China,” said Smith, who has held more than 45 hearings on human rights abuses in China. “That is why I’ve introduced H.R. 5379 to give the President and Secretary of State tools to deny entry visas or freeze the assets of any Chinese official who tortures and abuses freedom-loving dissidents like Gao Zhisheng. China’s police and government official must know that entry into the U.S., or owning property or sending their children to U.S. schools, is a privilege, not a right. Those who so brutally denied freedom to Gao Zhisheng, and so many others, should not benefit from our freedoms.”
Gao’s account of the 50 days of torture he endured while in detention can be foundhere. (click here to read Gao’s biography).
