This page contains a 1) letter from Mr Gao Zhisheng, a celebrated
human rights lawyer, to Edward McMillan-Scott MEP and 2) an appeal for his freedom.
Gao was arrested on August 15 2006, convicted of 'subversion' and imprisoned.
After an international outcry he was put under house arrest with his family. He disappeared on 22 September 2007 and was tortured for between 40 - 60 days to
denounce Falun Gong, millions of whose persecution he had investigated.
The torture was so severe he tried to commit suicide.
A few days before the Olympics he was removed from Beijing. Gao, a Christian,
had been in regular contact with Edward McMillan-Scott MEP.
See Gao's statement on human rights and the Olympics on YouTube
1) The letter below, which deals with a number of topics including the Olympics, was received in September 2007 through an intermediary, who translated it from a handwritten text
Dear Mr. Scott,
How are you? Writing to you is the only way of communication that I have at present. Although it is somewhat primitive or old fashioned, it is still much less primitive than the way my family and I have been handled by the Chinese Communist regime since last year. Their open disregard of human feelings and conscience in their confinement and harassment against us is simply because we try to stick to human feelings and conscience.
During such long period of loneliness, your words of concern have often been passed over, though the passing over itself has been also quite primitive. Yet, to my family, it is as if a thread of bright sunshine tearing through dark clouds to reach our hearts. On this occasion, please accept our appreciations!
Deep in my heart, I have never thought of gratitude for your persistence of condemnation against present-day Chinese evil dictatorship. In my opinion, we are common warriors conquering darkness.
The Chinese Communist regime continues as an unprecedented evil regime on this planet. Its presence in China is the direct source of all sufferings and injustice there. Its history is one of committing countless crimes and covering these countless crimes. In recent years, its economic expansion, which has been gained at the expense of sacrificing the environment, human justice, human ethics as well as fundamental human nature, has generated for the dictatorship even more brutality and fearful powerfulness.
The ethical values and conscience of the entire human race is being eaten away through “trade relations, Olympic Games” and other “state” visits. Mainstream politicians from the West are aware of the current phenomenon of gaining interests at the expenses of human traditional ethic values. This interest over fundamental ethics and virtue has become a common practice of international politics. Under this situation, anything unrelated to economic interests has been openly neglected for a long time.
About Chinese Communists’ bloody persecutions against Falun Gong, diplomats from all major countries in the world are all well aware of it yet they have also dreadfully and miserably become a part of the silent community on the entire mainland China. Compared with silence from Chinese people, the one from foreign governments looks especially disgusting. To some extent, this indifference paves the way for the Chinese regime’s ruthless crackdown against domestic dissidents. The whole human race will pay a huge price for this numbness, because it has become a shocking humanitarian issue instead of a pure political one.
Today, I am not writing to compliment you, or to release my own complaints. The struggle against the Chinese Communist dictatorship is one for the human race, for lightness or for darkness, for civilization or for savageness. The cruel reality warns us that our peaceful struggle should never be relaxed! In today’s mainland China, changing the dictatorship peacefully has become a common wish.
Dear Mr. Scott, human civilization has entered current era, but this era seems to have no relation with Chinese Communist regime. Although it has got the technology to enter space, it has no intention, politically speaking, to give up its jungle games. Now Chinese Communist Party is preparing its 17th National Party Congress. Its preparation is totally operated in darkness, while its subjects are like animals or private property handed over to the next ruler. This power succession like the mafia’s has lasted since Mao. The only change is today’s successors are all in Western suits. We must work hard to change it, even if it is purely for the humanitarian value.
Dear Mr. Scott, when freedom finally arrives in China, I invite you to drink wine in Beijing, real good wine [in their first telephone conversation McMillan-Scott said he would give Gao vintage whiskey].
Best regards,
Gao Zhisheng
From Beijing, China
2) OPEN LETTER APPEALING FOR GAO'S RELEASE August 2008
We are asking for your help in securing the safety of Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese lawyer renowned for his defense of the rights of the Chinese people who has been missing since last September. We are also seeking help for the release of Hu Jia, a famous human rights activist in China and Cofounder of Friends of Gao Zhisheng, who is also currently incarcerated. Our hope is to call on President Bush to discuss Gao and Hu Jia with China’s leadership when he goes to China for the Olympics. As long as he is not protesting the dire human rights situation by boycotting the opening ceremonies, he can still do something important for human rights at this time. Gao Zhisheng, a Nobel Prize nominee who is sometimes referred to as “China’s conscience,” has been missing since he wrote an open letter to the U.S. Congress expressing his concerns about human rights before the 2008 Olympics. Gao and his family have been persecuted before for open letters he has written to the highest levels of the Chinese regime calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, though he is not a Falun Gong practitioner himself.
The first news of Gao’s whereabouts and condition since his abduction in September has been reported recently by the Sound of Hope Radio Network. It is now known that Gao and his family have been moved out of Beijing because of the upcoming Olympics and that the Chinese Communist Party is very worried about this news coming out because Gao has been persecuted very badly in recent months. Gao was tortured for two months—so severely that he tried to take his own life twice in that time. The torture methods were similar to what Chinese police do to Falun Gong practitioners, similar to what Gao described in his third open letter to the Chinese regime, which described horrific and inhumanly brutal torture.
During the CCP’s torture of Gao, they asked him to write letters denouncing Falun Gong; denouncing the founder of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi; and praising the CCP. He refused all of them. Because Beijing is so concerned about Gao’s situation coming to light, they have kept him completely isolated. After his open letters, Gao found his law practice taken away, constant monitoring and surveillance by police of both him and his family, and later was abducted and tortured. The CCP has not spared his wife, 14-year-old daughter, and 4-year-old son in their efforts to silence Gao. But Gao, with a deep belief in justice, continues to do what he believes is right. As described in his book A China More Just, Gao has defended the rights of house-church members, coal miners, petitioners, home-demolition victims, and Falun Gong adherents. He was deemed one of China’s top-ten lawyers in the past, before his defense of Falun Gong practitioners. Hu Jia is a well-known activist in China and an internationally recognized Chinese rights defender. Hu was involved in the democratic movement, as well as environmental and HIV/AIDS issues. Hu and his wife Zeng Jinyan received a 2007 special press freedom award from Reporters without Borders, and were also nominated for the Sakharov Human Rights Award of the European Parliament. Hu worked tirelessly on the rescue of Gao Zhisheng. He is the cofounder of Friends of Gao Zhisheng. Hu was arrested in December 2007, three months after Gao was taken away from home, and in April of this year was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for talking to foreign media and publishing articles on the Internet. Hu’s wife is now under house arrest with the youngest prisoner in the world – their 11-month old daughter whom has been under house arrest since she was three months old. Your support would be deeply appreciated and may help to protect these crucial figures to China’s human rights movement. Sincerely,Friends of Gao Zhisheng