ChinaAid Statement: Ding Mao’s Release Shows That Persistent Diplomacy Works

China Aid Association

Ding Mao with his wife and son after his release on Friday. (Photo courtesy of Chinese Human Rights Defenders)

(Midland, Texas–Dec. 3, 2012) On the occasion of the release in China Friday of dissident Ding Mao, who was arrested in February for forwarding Twitter messages calling for a Chinese Jasmine Revolution, ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu makes the following statement:

We welcome this good news of the release of the innocent Chinese Internet activist Mr. Ding Mao.  His release was long overdue.

We believe that the tireless efforts of U.S. officials and diplomats helped win Mr. Ding’s release.  We thank the Administration officials, especially U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner, and congressional leaders, including Chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Congressmen Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Chris Smith, all of whom met with Mr. Ding’s wife, Feng Xia, in person when she was hosted by ChinaAid to visit the United States in late October.

Feng Xia with Joe Pitts, left, and Frank Wolf.

Mr. Ding’s release shows that persistent diplomacy does work.  We therefore urge the Administration and congressional leaders to renew their efforts and press even more fervently for the release of other Chinese prisoners of conscience, the majority of whom have been imprisoned for far longer than Mr. Ding.  We remember in particular the Uyghur house church leader Alimujiang, serving a 15-year sentence; Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who was kidnapped by police nearly three years ago and has disappeared into police custody; and the blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who has been held totally incommunicado with his wife in their home since he finished serving his four-year prison term and who has been brutally beaten by local officials three times this year.

China Aid Contacts
Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.chinaaid.org