October 18, 2005
Beijing, China
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao:
Greetings from Chinese citizen Gao Zhisheng!
Before I could sit down and send my greetings to you, my two compatriots, out of solicitude for another group of our common compatriots, Falun Gong believers, I went to several places outside Beijing to investigate the real situation about Falun Gong believers suffering a new wave of systematic, large-scale, organized illegal persecution. During my days outside Beijing, I was hiding, laying low like a thief. That’s why many in the outside world spread the hearsay that I was “missing.”
This new round of continued, systematic, large-scale, and organized brutal persecution targeting our fellow Chinese citizens who believe in Falun Gong is an ongoing reality, not only revealed in recent letters addressed to us from different regions, but also a reality we personally witnessed during our trip outside Beijing. As a Chinese citizen, and as a lawyer, I am willing to bear any legal responsibility for bearing witness to and publicizing these facts.
Because I trust in your basic human nature, I have decided to report to you what I have witnessed in the form of an open letter. I again put my trust and hope in you; I hope you will take prompt measures to halt the continuing persecution of our fellow Falun Gong compatriots by authorities in all regions and all levels as soon as possible. It is not only a must-do for those citizens who are suffering illegal persecution to be set free from the tragedy, it also involves the issue of universally recognized values such as the value of China’s constitution and rule of law, moral values and justice. These are fundamental values for mankind. How can these values be allowed to become worthless in today’s China?! How can these values be allowed to become worthless in your eyes?!
On October 15, I met Xu Chengben of Wendeng City, Shandong Province. As soon as he saw me, he said to me:
“My wife He Xiuling’s body has been kept in a frozen state for almost two years, but to date no one is able to provide an explanation for her death, that’s why we cannot go ahead and bury her. They were capable of subjecting her to prolonged torture and eventually torturing her to death; however, they have not been capable of handling the case regarding her cause of death for almost two years since she passed away.
I was not allowed to see her until she was tortured to the brink of death. When I got there, she had already lost consciousness, but even so, she was cuffed to a bed and her lower body was completely naked. When I saw my loved one in such a tragic state, my heart broke! They are truly inhumane; I was only allowed to stay with her for a few minutes before they pushed me out of the room. She was only in her forties. That is the situation I witnessed on the evening she passed away, after I was notified by the police and hurried to see her.
When my wife was alive, she was arrested five times. Once, she was detained in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province for three months for going to Beijing to lodge an appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. She was held in the restroom of a hotel in Zhifu District. The hotel was rented by the police specifically for detaining Falun Gong practitioners. The restroom is less than three square meters (32.3 square feet). 16 people were locked inside. Many of them could not bear the suffocating environment.
Because we demanded to have an autopsy performed to show the cause of her death, they did so. However, the officials responsible have refused time and again to give me the autopsy report. After numerous requests for the results of the autopsy, they told me verbally that she ‘died because she practiced Falun Gong.’”
Du Kesong, a Falun Gong disciple from Shihuiyao Village, Songcun Town of the City of Wendeng, was arrested in May. He was sentenced to a labor camp. But he went on a persistent hunger strike in the detention center. After more than 50 days of detention he was dying and so he was released. On September 27 he was again arrested by police. To this day his whereabouts are unknown.
Disciple Yu Zhenghong, from the City of Wendeng, of age 40 plus, is from Siqian Village of the Town of Songcun. On September 27 she was arrested and taken from her home. After the arrest she went on a hunger strike for 15 days. She was then sent to a hospital. The hospital later notified that police that she “is about to die.” “Later she was sent home by undercover police. They dared not say they were police.”
Falun Gong Disciple Lin Jixiao, female, of age 40 plus, is from Dachuang Village, Songcun Town of the City of Wendeng. On September 28 she was arrested and locked up in a detention center. She went on a hunger strike. When her family went to demand her release, the detention center said she had been sent to the Wangcun Labor Camp. But someone who had been released from the detention center said she was still in there and was dying. Her family went to the Wangcun brainwashing base to check but was told that she was not there. Her family then went to ask the 610 [Office] officials, but they said she had been sent to the City of Qingdao. Is she still alive? Where on earth is she? So far it is not clear.
Xiao Yong from Funshan District of the City of Yantai, has always been law-abiding and enjoyed a very good reputation. Just because he practiced Falun Gong for a few days, he was sentenced to 3.5 years imprisonment in July.
A retired teacher Liu Li (per her request, I am not using her real name here) quietly sat down and talked for almost 2 hours straight. She said, “I was first arrested in June, 2001. After one year of torture my health became very poor, so they released me. After I was released in 2003, I found that since 2000, all my wages were confiscated by the 610 Office. I talked to staff at the 610 Office and the head of our school many times, I could not even remember how many times, and the issue is still unresolved. My husband was also jailed due to his practice of Falun Gong. He lost his memory as a result of brutal torture in jail. Since the time when our home was ransacked the whereabouts of our only bank account that he used to manage is unknown. He could not remember it. During the 2003 Spring Festival, I gave 100 Yuan, which was all I had, to my husband who was in jail. My daughter and I had zero cents left during the Chinese New Year. In June 2003, four to five police from Fushan District Police Department came to ransack our home. They found two Falun Gong books, and so they forcefully took me to the local police station and beat me. I asked why police were allowed beat people. They were yelling while beating me, ‘Beat you, so what!’ They interrogated me for a whole day and night, one policeman whose last name is Zhang said, ‘If you do not confess, you will really have bad luck!’ He copied a written record from another police’s writing and asked me to sign my name. I refused. Then he signed my name himself. The other police with last name Chen could not stand watching this and asked, ‘Why did you sign her name, since she refused?’ He gnashed his teeth and said, ‘I’ll make her suffer badly.’ Later they used this fake record made in front of me to detain me for 15 days. Then I was sent to the Fushan brainwashing base. At the brainwashing class, they did not allow me to sleep, and tried to force me to ‘reform.’ Through January 2002, I still did not ‘reform,’ then they used that fake record and directly sentenced me to one year in prison. Wang Yuefeng, Director of 610 Office, sent me to the forced labor camp. The forced labor camp did a physical examination on me. Because my health was so poor, they refused to accept me. But Wang Yuefeng insisted that the forced labor camp take me. They whispered for a while, and then a doctor used a needle about 1 inch wide and 1 foot long to give me injection. I resisted, so four to five people pushed me onto a bed and forcibly gave me injections. In the end, they saw that my physical condition was too poor, so Wang Yuefeng sent me back home.”
On November 20, 2002, I once again went to the Communist Party Committee in Fushan Town to ask the mayor of the town, Mr. Che, about the illegal deduction of my salary. I arrived at Mayor Che's office, and after I introduced myself, he stood up and went out. After I waited for a long time, he came back tell me, ‘I will have Secretary Zhao talk to you. You need to go to his office.’ So I went to Mr. Zhao's office. Immediately after I entered the door, about 4 or 5 policemen rushed in from outside, and dragged me into their car without giving any reason. They forcefully took me to Fushan brainwashing base where I was taken into custody. I was not released from the brainwashing base until November 17, 2003. During the time I was in prison, the policemen employed absolutely inhumane means to torture me. Once I was continuously hand-cuffed for as long as 43 days. With both of my hands cuffed behind my back, I was hung on an iron door and was beaten. After I was in prison for about a year, since they could not achieve the goal of having me give up cultivation practice, they had to release me. On November 28, 2004, I was arrested again. The local police station sent me to Qixia detention center. After I was detained for seven days, I was transferred to Qixia Brainwash Base and was not released until March 18, 2005. Within this period of time, they continued to torture me by depriving me of sleep. Once I was deprived of sleep for 26 consecutive days. Once my eyes closed, I would be woken up by being beating. I fainted many times. They had me stand continuously so I could not rest. In the meantime, they beat me. Each time they beat me so hard that they themselves became very tired and out of breath.”
On the morning of October 15, 2005, we met with Wang Dejiang, who is crippled. Even now, Wang's legs are still so swollen that no shoes can be worn. Wang said "In the evening of August 15, 2005, I was in a friend's house which was located in Xiayu Village, Gaoling Town, Mouping district. Three men from the village security and Gaoling police station suddenly broke in, so my friend and I ran out. But they yelled loudly: ‘Catch the thieves!’ The villagers were fooled and we were caught. They began to beat us. The head of security picked up a chair and smashed it into me abruptly. The chair immediately broke into pieces. After the hit, I was down on the ground and could move. They still kicked me. One kicked my liver, and I lost consciousness right away. They lifted me into a car and took me to the emergency room at Gaoling Hospital. After I woke up, I found myself being cuffed in the hospital bed. When trying to catch me, one policeman had tripped and fell. Once I woke up in the hospital, he beat me with the sole of a shoe. The other policemen on the scene said, ‘Do not make too much noise when beating him in the hospital.’
On the same night two families were searched and ransacked. As a result, a total of 6 people were arrested, and among them an old man, Xuejin Sun was already in his 70s. Afterwards, they sent me to the detention center, and forced me to register for the brainwashing class. I refused to; the policemen in the prison twisted my handcuff, asking me: ‘Are you going to sign or not?’ I responded no. They twisted the handcuff until it cut into my flesh. I still refused to sign. They had to turn away and leave. After that they ordered a prisoner to drag me into the cell and the prisoner began to beat me. The national security guard interrogated me once. Since I didn't cooperate with them, they sent me to brainwashing class in Yantai City. At the beginning, I was not allowed to sleep; instead, I was forced to sit on a little stool, undergoing forced reform. They attempted to force me to write the ‘three statements,’ including a letter to pledge (not to practice Falun Gong), a statement to expose and denounce Falun Gong, and a repentance statement. They tried to break my will by incessant brainwashing, such as forcing me to watch videos that defame Falun Gong. On the fourth day, they could not get any results. The head of the 610 office at Yantai Police Yu Gang and Mouping national security staff talked about sending me to Zhaoyuan brainwashing base. I heard them saying only Zhaoyuan base could handle people like me. At this time, I already had no food or sleep for seven or eight consecutive days.
After arriving in Zhaoyuan, they dragged me and kicked me as they made every single step. They repeated, ‘Let’ s wait and see if you reform or not.’ After they put me down, I no longer had the strength to stand up, and as a result, I had to lie down on the ground. They continued to torture me; the director of the base began to step on my private parts. There was no expression on his face. He even lifted my head with his foot, then quickly removed his foot, repeatedly let my head hit the ground. He also kicked me. Only when he was tired of torturing me did they lift me into the cell. I felt that they had already completely lost their human nature. At the Zhaoyan base, every practitioner was locked in one small room, this was specially designed for brainwashing purposes. Although I could not even stand up, they still tied me to an iron chair with an iron chain, and my hands were cuffed and my feet were shackled. I still refused to give up my practice.
On the 10th day they started to force-feed me. I began to constantly vomit blood. At that time, even they themselves could not bear with the scene, they started to vomit with me. They pressed down my head and force-fed me. The head asked me if I would give up my practice. I responded no. He said, at Zhaoyuan, don't even think about getting out of here if one does not give up. We have a lot of ways to deal with you. They cuffed my hands behind my back and had one end of handcuff tied to a heater pipe. Only the tip of my toes could touch the ground. There was no light in the cell, it was very dark 24 hours of day. I could somewhat sense that someone kept coming in the cell and reached his hand under my nose to test if I was still alive. I didn't know how much time had passed by, my wrists had big cuts as the result of tight strap. At that time, they also used wires to strap my mouth shut, making me unable to speak. Even now my mouth still drips as I speak. Being incessantly tortured, I suffered excruciating pain that was beyond description. Consequently, I had the thought of killing myself. I wanted to bite my tongue. But they added a few more wires into my mouth, making my mouth not able to move, till I fainted and lost consciousness.
After I woke up, I found my legs had already changed color, and started to turn into dark black. The left leg became wider and wider, until it was twice as wide as the right leg. But the right leg got thinner and thinner. They still would not ease on torturing me. When I wanted to go to restroom, they supported my arm and lifted me up. At that point, I found that I could no longer walk; instead, I fell to the ground. Then they lifted me onto the bed, and still had my right leg tied and both hands cuffed. At the time, the doctor there found my health condition was extremely bad, and asked them to send me to the hospital. The doctor at the hospital said I could be dying at any moment and my legs had to be amputated. After that they sent me to Yuhuangding hospital, where the medical facility was the best. After spending a few days in the hospital, they asked my family to pay for my treatment. My family had no money, but later they took me home. Once I was back home, since I no longer could take care of my daily needs, I had to be taken care of by my 80-year-old mother.”
Wang Dejiang was handed over to his family by the local police when he was near death, and the nightmare he and his family have gone through is still being experienced by many, many innocent fellow Chinese!
“Mr. Yang Kemeng is a sophomore in Automobile Engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai campus. From the university president to his classmates, everyone likes him. Because he openly announced resignation from the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL), he was singled out by a central government official who issued an order to locate him. Since he didn’t put down the name of his school in his resignation statement, the ‘610 Office’ conducted a thorough search among all higher institutions in the country. In May 2005, Weihai City’s 610 office staff found him and asked if he practiced Falun Gong and whether he had withdrawn from the CCYL on the Internet. Mr. Yang replied: ‘I may withdraw as I wish.’ When the new school year started on August 20, 610 office staff came to Mr. Yang’s school again and took him away on the 29th. His parents didn’t know about it until they made a phone call to his dorm. On September 7, Mr. Yang’s parents Mr. Yang Pinggang and Ms. Chang Lijun, Mr. and Mrs. Wang Shengli, and Ms. Wang from Jining City were arrested at the same time. Their whereabouts remain unknown.” A teacher named Wang related his story to us.
Before the National Day of 2005, major officials in Shandong Province notified Laiwu City Police Department that if they could not catch Qi Yingjun, Chen Lianmei, Wang Jing and four other people, all departmental leaders would be removed from their positions. At 1 a.m. on September 29, the aforementioned seven people were arrested. In fact, many police here don’t want to search for and arrest Falun Gong practitioners, but what choice do they have?! Also, people from all over the country came to the Zhaoyuan Brainwashing Center to learn from the staff there so that they could administer more cruel methods. While Hu Jintao was visiting the U.S., an order was issued from the CCP Central Committee to focus on disciplining those who were persecuting Falun Gong. They were criticized for not having done their best recently and were told to intensify their suppression effort. The Zhaoyuan Brainwashing Center in Shandong Province and another center in Shanxi Province were labeled as model centers by the CCP Central Committee. The outside world never knows the real situation inside these centers. These model centers are horrible places, even worse than hell. Very few people could survive there and the people torturing [us] “have all become demons,” said a believer who was once detained in the Zhaoyuan Brainwashing Center.
“My name is Qi Xin. I am 19 years old and from Laiwu City, Shandong Province. I am the daughter of Qi Yingjun and Chen Cuilian. I have a younger brother who is 10 years old named Qi Yao. My parents started to practice Falun Gong in 1998. In 2000, my father was kidnapped from a park by the Laiwu City police while doing Falun Gong exercises. He was later sentenced to three years in Wangcun Forced Labor Camp of Zibo City. My mother had to leave home to avoid pursuit by the police. But she was later caught and detained at the Xiaocaocun Division in Laiwu City. I was 13 years old and my brother was only three at that time. So I had to look after my younger brother at home alone, waiting for my mother’s return. My father told me after his release, that in order to force him renounce his belief in Falun Gong, police at the forced labor camp in Zibo used eight electric batons on him simultaneously. His body could not help trembling incessantly on the floor and his skin gave off a burnt smell. Several weeks after the electric shock, his scorched skin started to slough off layer after layer. Later, after my parents both came back home, our family started to live together again. They re-opened their store selling military supplies. We thought that our ordeal was over until 1 a.m. on September 30 this year. More than 20 armed police from Laiwu City police went into Aunt Shang’s home in Wenyang Village and kidnapped her, her husband and my parents. Aunt Shang practices Falun Gong but her husband doesn’t. In August, one month before the incident, learning that the police were after them, my parents left me to an auntie and they themselves went wandering abroad with my brother. Since their abduction, the whereabouts of my younger brother are unknown. I worried about him a lot and prayed for him everyday. At 3 p.m. on October 1, Liu Qing and Zhang Baode from the Laicheng District Office, Shao Shiyong from the Guansi Police Station and 20 other more police broke into our home while we were all away. A police car with a license plate reading Shangdong-S1030 parked outside of our apartment building. They opened our storage room downstairs with a key and broke our door lock. They searched our place until 7 p.m.. As of now, our family of four has been separated and displaced to four different locations, and nobody knows where to find my 10-year-old brother.”
Jia Juxi of Fugou County, Henan Province, 58 years old, was abducted by local police on August 18, 2005. He died after enduring over ten days’ torture. His family requested an autopsy; but local police forcibly took his body to a crematory to be cremated. The police told his family: “Even if you appeal to Beijing, it will be no use.”
On June 8, 2005, Zhu Jiawen (I am not using his real name here) of Huizhou City, Guangdong Province was arrested when he was working in a construction field. Not until 54 days later did his family get notified of his sentence to three years of forced labor.
On September 2005, late in the evening, several policemen broke into Shi Lei’s (not his real name) home in Dongshan District, Guangzhou City. Before Shi Lei could argue with them, they hastily abducted him and ran away.
“My husband didn’t even have time to put on his shoes. As soon as the police went downstairs and got into their police van, they started beating my husband. I felt as if a knife were piercing my heart upon hearing the sound of beating. Attorney Gao, we simply have nowhere to turn. So far they have not provided any legal documents.” Mrs. Shi told me her family’s tragedy over the phone while sobbing.
On September 6, 2005, practitioners Duan Sheng and He Li of Shi Jiazhuang City were arrested. As of today, their whereabouts are unknown.
On July 19, 2005, Yuan Yuju, her son Liang Jinghui and another eight practitioners were arrested and have been incarcerated to date.
Shortly before the passing of October 1st, the National Day, large-scale arrests of Falun Gong practitioners occurred in different regions such as Beijing and Heilong Province. During Mr. Hu Jintao’s visit to other countries, the arrests in these regions obviously were carried out in a way that is meant to be shocking and terrible. All these plain facts happened in broad daylight; they simply cannot be covered up.
Mr. Hu and Mr. Wen, some local government authorities have been persecuting our fellow countrymen, Falun Gong practitioners, to such an extent that they use whatever evil methods they wish. We cannot accept that such blatant and brutal violence against humanity is still happening in the 21st century, or the reality that it is happening in today’s China, where the situation is not quite anarchy. You two as well as all of us have to face the following reality. On the one hand, when the you first got your positions, people inside China as well as the outside civilized world had great expectations for you. The principles you promote such as “governing the country according to the Constitution,” “the people are our fundamental concern,”, “building a harmonious society” have for a long time raised people’s expectations. However, the reality is cruel yet factual. Those citizens who are being persecuted have to face this reality, and so do you and so do we. Since you are the leaders of such a great nation, we of course are not willing to believe or accept that your judgment in this respect is worse than that of regular citizens. If you are not aware of the situation that innocent Falun Gong believers are being brutally persecuted in broad daylight – a fact that even housewives and children are aware of ¬¬¬– you are liable for such ignorance to your citizens. If you are aware of the situation and not trying to stop it, then what’s the difference between your crime and that of the wicked persecutors? Just like the fact that I am writing this open letter to you because I still have faith in you, so do many of those who are crippled and those who lost their loved ones or have their loved ones crippled due to the persecution. During our investigation, we were moved to tears many times by those people’s compassion and their high expectations for you. But what you and I have to painfully face is that in this catastrophe that targets Falun Gong practitioners, some evil spirit lingers. The continuous evilness which is utterly against humanity has not only caused devastation to an immeasurable number of kind men and women—many were persecuted to death—but it has also tarnished the image of our government and our country in many regards, such as legal, moral, and civil, which continues as such brutal persecution continues. Even though this catastrophe didn’t start with you, the fact that it still continues under your administration, and since the tragedy targeting the spiritual believers hasn’t been brought to an end by you, you are also liable for the crime. If you don’t make it stop right away, history will come to the same conclusion [as I have] and it will no longer be just one person’s opinion.
The continuous creation of tragedies aimed at a targeted group has harmed not only the victims and their relatives but also the persecutors. We observe with utter grief that the persecutors who cruelly crippled and killed Falun Gong practitioners have completely lost their human nature. Examles are: the director from Zhaoyuan Brainwashing Base who routinely trampled on the private parts of Wang Dejiang, the director of the “610 Office,” and the two school principals who illegally withheld Liu’s wages and had denied numerous appeals for four years by Liu, threatening her survival. In a sense, they are also victims of the atrociousness of the persecution.
The officers and staff who carry out the appalling brainwashing and transformation of Falun Gong practitioners are only evaluated by the results of their reform work. They have completely lost their human nature and yielded to economic gains. They lost their inborn instinct for sympathy, fear, guilt, shame, and morality.
The common sense shared by our civilization has been ignored; the value system based on human conscience has been completely reversed. People for ages will condemn the horrible and inhumane suffering that He Xiuling underwent before her ultimate death. She was dying but was already pronounced dead and was sent to the mortuary. Her relatives, who were not allowed to visit her before, finally knelt in front of her dying body. While enumerating the appalling sufferings she underwent, her relatives saw tears in the eyes of her “dead” body. Her relatives wailed and did everything they could get a doctor to come. The doctors were indifferent. Their coolness was only softened when one of the villagers who came to the funeral knew one of them. When that doctor found out her heart was still beating, his first reaction was not to rescue her, but to break the electrocardiogram apart. “I didn’t see anything. I knew nothing,” the doctor said while escaping. He Xiuling died with tears in her eyes while her relatives cried in despair.
I really can’t imagine what your feeling is in the face of this reality! Our nation, our people, and the values of our nation which we inherited from our ancient ancestors, as well as the moral image of all those governments in the international community who have shamefully remained silent in the face of this great calamity, have all practically been sacrified because of this catastrophe.
It is worth emphasizing that the current reality has said it all: China’s ruling leaders fall far short in terms of foreseeing and recognizing the changes in a society’s spiritual realm as a natural result of expansive economic growth. In a peaceful society in which suffering during wartime has long since passed, in a society which places the economy in a position of priority, there is no way its people will forever indulge in all kinds of material interests. People’s growing need for spirituality will naturally bring about the large-scale grass-roots resurrection of religion and spiritual beliefs.
Spiritual pursuit, just like the science and culture which our government advocates as mainstream trends, comprises one aspect of a society; there is no contradiction among them. Modern civilization has long solved the issues of science and faith and has arrived at the conclusion that they serve their respective purposes and each should be confined within its own realm. Individual freedom of belief will surely result in the disintegration of a collective ideology. The expansion of individual rights will surely turn into a reduction of the infinite authority of the government. It is a reality that the ruling leaders must face and have to adapt to. This is the historical trend.
Here I have to say that, as for the cause and motivation behind the persecution, I am very confused and bewildered; so are many of my colleagues, friends and neighbors. Why shall a citizen’s belief based on his own free choice and which has no pursuit in this mundane world, incur such a lasting, inhumane and illegal suppression? What on earth is the point?! We cannot rationalize the persecution, other than arriving at the conclusion that those who initiated and continue to partake in the persecution are in a morbid state and have degenerate minds. If we look at the suppressors, their choices only serve to alienate themselves and put themselves into a worsening and illegal position, and serve to continually worsen their already extremely vile personality, the kind of vileness and viciousness that can make a normal person chilled to the bone. That is all—there is nothing worthwhile or meaningful in their choices.
During the investigation, we not only learned the fact that the persecution, which was started six years ago, is still going on, but we also learned another fact, a concrete fact, which is that the persecution has failed. Based on our observations at the places we visited, the more cruel the orders of suppression are and the more lasting the suppression is in a certain region, the more prominent the signs of the failure as well as the extent of the failure. For example, in three cities of Shandong Province, Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai, posters and flyers posted and distributed by Falun Gong believers and their supporters to protest the suppression and expose the crimes against them are everywhere. Falun Gong posters can be easily spotted at the front entrance of many police departments and police stations. Tenacious and enduring resistance is growing and intensifying, signaling how unpopular the suppression policy is. Conversely, the regions where the suppression isn’t as harsh manifest a different scene. For example, in several districts in Shaanxi Province, the overall situation is relatively calm. In front of this plain fact, those who love and advocate violence should really feel ashamed.
Immeasurable capital resources and police manpower are being groundlessly exhausted on the suppression of Falun Gong practitioners—who simply practice peacefully to cultivate their minds and improve their health—further turning the society into one of chaos. It is an utter crime and it impinges on basic human rights. Frankly, I would like to tell you that both of you don’t have any reason, any excuse, or any authority not to take immediate action to change the current situation.
China is one of the member countries in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The declaration has stated explicitly: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.” “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.”
Also, in the current constitution of China, article 33 states: “The State respects and preserves human rights.”
Be it international law and standards or China’s constitution, it is absolutely not allowed for anyone to violate human rights and persecute his own fellow citizen inhumanely, no matter the excuse. And it is precisely out of my belief in the universal values for mankind and the respect for rule of law that I solemnly suggest to both of you to make the decision as soon as possible to stop persecuting spiritual believers and amend your ties with the Chinese people, to truly achieve “rule of law and constitution” and establish a new China on the basis of democracy, rule of law, and constitutional governance.
If you do this you will gain infinite support from Chinese people and people all over the world!
Lastly, I need to stress specifically that you need to ensure that all individuals mentioned in this letter who have suffered tremendously will not have to suffer additional violent persecution because of this letter. We have to remind you of this matter because we had that experience before; Falun Gong practitioner Hao Qiuyan of Shijiazhuang City was incarcerated for eight months because I mentioned her case in another open letter.
As long as I still enjoy personal security, I will continue to pay close attention to these people’s safety. It is my right to be concerned about them, as a member of a civilized era, as a Chinese person, as a citizen, and as a lawyer, even though I know it is still very dangerous to do so in China.
Best regards to both of you!
Respectfully,
Your fellow Chinese citizen,
Gao Zhisheng
# # #
NEWS - Nov. 09, 2005
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net
Background
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa (about), is a Buddhist practice of meditation and exercises, with teachings that emphasize living by three principles: truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Originating in China, Falun Gong is now practiced in over 70 countries. With Chinese government estimates of 100 million practicing Falun Gong in China, in July 1999 the Chinese Communist Party-state launched a nationwide, violent campaign to “eradicate” the practice. The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 2,747 deaths and over 44,000 cases of torture (reports / sources). Millions have been detained or sent to forced labor camps.