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| Chris Smith (center) and Bob Fu (right) visit Chen Guangcheng and wife Yuan Weijing in New York City on May 26. |
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| Human rights lawyer Zhang Kai handled the Tibet case, which was settled in the plaintiff’s favor on April 7. |
Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Confirmed Alive!
On March 24, the brother and father-in-law of prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng were finally allowed to visit him in prison, putting to rest fears that the pioneer in the growing Christian legal defense movement in China had died during the two-plus years of his forced disappearance into police custody.
Gao’s older brother, Gao Zhiyi, and his father-in-law were permitted a half-hour meeting with Gao at Shaya prison, in a remote part of Xinjiang in far western China. It was the first time his family had seen Gao since he disappeared back into police custody in April 2010 after briefly resurfacing from a previous long period of “forced disappearance,” one of several since 2006 when he was convicted of subversion for his rights defense work. Gao broke into tears when his father-in-law told him, “My health is greatly improved now that I have seen you.”
ChinaAid has been campaigning worldwide for Gao’s freedom since 2007. Go to www.freegao.com to sign the Free Gao petition, which already has 151,510 signatures from around the world.
Escape of Blind Legal Activist Chen Guangcheng Stuns World, Rocks Sino-US Relations
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| At a May 3 congressional hearing, Chen Guangcheng speaks through Bob Fu’s cell phone to tell the world that he and his family hope to go to the United States. |
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| Dream comes true: Chen Guangcheng and his family’s May 18 arrival in New York, where he is now a visiting scholar. |
From the end of April through most of May, the world was captivated by the saga of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, who miraculously escaped captors who had been holding him under cruel extra-legal house arrest conditions in his home village in Shandong province. With the help of brave supporters, Chen made his way to Beijing where he took refuge in the U.S. Embassy before he was handed over by U.S. officials to Chinese authorities at a Beijing hospital. ChinaAid has been one of Chen’s greatest champions, and we were one of the first groups to notify the international media of Chen’s escape. When Chen’s case threatened to turn into a diplomatic quagmire, Rev. Bob Fu enabled Chen to speak directly to U.S. lawmakers about his wishes by calling Chen’s cell phone and then putting him on speakerphone at two specially convened congressional hearings.
Victory in Tibet: Pastor Wins Suit Against Police
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| Human rights lawyer Zhang Kai visits Tibetan children adopted by Christians during his work for the Tibetan house church. |
In the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, Pastor Song Kuanxin won an out-of-court settlement after suing the Lhasa police for its illegal law enforcement actions. The settlement was reached the day before a scheduled hearing in the suit brought by Song, a missionary to Lhasa from Henan province. Song was represented by prominent Christian lawyer Zhang Kai. Lhasa police had criminally detained Song for a month, during which he was abused and tortured. Police also confiscated church and personal items.
Song was one of 11 Christians in Lhasa detained around the Oct. 1 National Day holiday—believed to be the first time Christians in Tibet had been arrested. In the settlement, which the police initiated, all the items confiscated from all the house church leaders were returned, including Bibles and other “illegal” Christian literature.
In addition to international advocacy, ChinaAid immediately provided $5000 to cover the cost of launching a legal defense and also allocated prisoners’ families support funds to Pastor Song, who was the only one of the detained house church leaders willing be named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Lhasa police.
Download ChinaAid June 2012 Newsletter in PDF:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_YUgSyiG6aIVUpYdmpHcnpXbTg
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