Senator Dorgan’s Speech on the Floor of the United States Senate, April 23, 2009

Well, Madam President, let me thank my colleague from Connecticut, and let me also thank my colleague from Utah for his forbearance so that I might make a few comments. I appreciate the courtesy of Senator Hatch. Madam President, I am chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and I wanted to say just a few words and ask that it be placed in the morning business section of today's record.
         
I want to say a few words about China and a very courageous man in China who we believe now is in a Chinese prison and likely believe he is being tortured and I think it's very important for our country to speak out about this issue.

Let me say first there are many thoughtful and independent people in China today who understand the importance of human rights, individual rights, the importance of legal institutions.

Some -- a few -- work for the Chinese government. Many work at universities or are at universities. Many are with U.S. companies and law firms. They care about the rule of law. They work with our agencies in our country on food safety, improving safety for coal miners and others. Those are the folks in China who get it.

There are independent men and women in China who also take a different approach. They apply what they know about the law and rights in a very aggressive way and they choose to send the alarm when the rights of vulnerable people are violated. And they do so at great, great risk.

They defend the interests of consumers whose children are poisoned by powdered milk. They help the families of earthquake victims. They represent the rights of illegally detained Tibetan monks.

They stand up for their country and its people. And for doing this, they are claimed to be enemies of the state. So who are the enemies of the state?

I want to tell you about one man today, a man that is very courageous. A man named Gao Zhisheng. His wife is visiting Washington, D.C. today, and I want to tell you about him because it is so important for me to do so. This is a photograph of this courageous lawyer from China. Gao Zhisheng, his son, his wife, his daughter.

He disappeared 80 days ago, has not been heard from. We know that two years ago he was arrested by the Chinese secret police and put in prison and tortured. Tortured with electric shock and other devices I won't describe.

What was his transgression then? He wrote an open letter to the United States Congress asking us to pay some attention to the lack of human rights that existed in China. For writing an open letter to members of the United States Congress in 2007, Gao Zhisheng, one of the most distinguished human rights -- noted and distinguished human rights lawyers in China, was imprisoned for 58 days and brutally tortured.

Now, in 2009, he was detained 80 days ago by ten members of the secret police in China and has not been heard from since.

Let me tell you what his transpired. Mr. Gao Zhisheng has represented some of the most vulnerable people in China. They include persecuted Christians, coal miners and others. He always believed in the power of law; using the law to battle corruption, to overturn illegal property seizures, to expose police abuses, to defend religious freedom. He's a devout Christian. He fought to protect those who engage in peaceful spiritual and religious practice in China.

And in 2005, they took away his license to practice law, closed his law practice. As I said, in 2007, they arrested him, threw him in prison and tortured him. Eventually he was released and brought back home and placed under police surveillance at home. The surveillance proved almost harsher than prison. In fact, a member of the communist police moved into their living room, prevented his daughter from going to school; his 16-year-old daughter barred from attending schools. 24-hour surveillance.

The treatment for that family in recent months was so brutal that they decided their survival depended on escaping China. But Gao was too closely monitored and could not think of leaving them without placing his family at great, great risk.

And so in January, Gao's wife, six-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter were smuggled out of China. They then traveled to the United States. And after his family fled China 80 days ago, ten security agents took Gao from his bed and he hasn't been seen or heard from since.

Now, we know this situation is extremely grave because we know what the Chinese have done to him in their prison system previously. They have not offered the slightest word about his whereabouts, despite the repeated denials by United Nations agencies. We know he was seized by ten agents of the Chinese government. And our government, foreign governments, NGOs and the media have all asked for information about this courageous human rights lawyer.

And the Chinese government has said nothing. Chinese government has signed or ratified most of the international human rights commitments that require it to come clean about Mr. Gao. And I call on and we call on today the Chinese government to allow Mr. Gao to have access to a lawyer, access to his family and to publicly state and justify the grounds for the continued detention of this courageous person.

The right to speak freely and the right to challenge the government, all of these are enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, yet it appears the Chinese government and the Communist Party that runs that government is intent on upholding the violation of these basic constitutional rights in the case of Mr. Gao.

As I indicated, I am chairman of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China. We have the largest and the most significant repository of those who are imprisoned in China based on human rights violations and other issues; those who are being held in Chinese prisons, we have the largest repository of information about all of them.

There are many today that languish in dark cells, dark cells of Chinese prisons, just because they spoke out to defend the rights of others. None have done so more than Mr. Gao, who is a noted and celebrated human rights lawyer, who has lost his law office, lost his license, been imprisoned now twice, has now  disappeared into the prison system, where tortured before, we expect is being tortured again, and we need to put a stop to it.

We need to find a way to convince the Chinese Government to tell us what has happened to Mr. Gao; what have they done with him, how do they justify it and when, when, when will they tell us that they will release this man to be with his family and begin to accord people like Mr. Gao, and others who stand up for the rights of others, the same human rights that we would expect them to be given?

China will be a significant part of our future. I understand that. My -- my plea today with respect to China is to ask the Government of China to do the right thing with respect to this courageous and brave man. And as I indicated, his wife is with us today here in Washington, D.C. and I am not permitted to point her out, but she too is a very courageous woman and she would like very much to have this courageous man, her husband, released from detention in China and be given his freedom.

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