Gao Zhisheng went missing from his home in northern China’s Shaanxi Province in August 2017.
U.S. officials and rights advocates have called for the immediate release of Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese lawyer whose whereabouts have been unknown for the last seven years.
Gao went missing from his home in northern China’s Shaanxi Province on Aug. 13, 2017. At that time, Gao had already been subjected to
prison, house arrest, and torture after providing legal aid to Chinese people who were targeted by the ruling Communist Party for their spiritual and religious beliefs.
“Today marks the seventh anniversary of the disappearance of #GaoZhisheng, who bravely defended religious believers and others persecuted by Chinese authorities,” the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said in an Aug. 13
statement on X. “The Chairs demand his immediate and unconditional release and reunification with his family.”
Vicky Hartzler, a commissioner with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), issued a
statement on Gao, who, she said, “courageously defended the rights of religious minorities such as house church Christians [and] Falun Gong practitioners.”
Asif Mahmood, also a USCIRF commissioner,
urged the U.S. government to impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for abusing Gao and persecuting other rights lawyers for advocating religious freedom, especially those with ties to Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP)
United Front Work Department, public security, and state security organs.
Mahmood’s call came days after nearly 100 rights activists—including Gao’s wife, Geng He—gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, demanding the Chinese regime disclose the lawyer’s whereabouts and allow him to communicate with his family.
“The CCP has no justification for forcing Gao Zhisheng, a citizen and human rights lawyer, into disappearance for seven years,” Geng told the rally on Aug. 10.
“I just want to know if he is still alive.”
Gao’s Appeal for Human Rights
Calling for Gao’s rescue, the Falun Dafa Information Center
posted on X, “The world remembers Gao’s bravery. Governments must call for his immediate release.”
Beginning in late 2004, Gao began publishing multiple
open letters to CCP senior officials, raising concerns over political and social issues, including the nationwide campaign to
locate and arrest Falun Gong practitioners.
Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline consisting of meditation exercises and teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, has been subjected to brutal persecution since 1999 after state surveys found over 70 million people had taken up the practice.
Millions have been thrown into prisons, brainwashing centers, and detention facilities, where they suffered torture,
forced labor, drugging, and
other abuses in a bid to break their faith,
according to the Falun Dafa Information Center. A large but untold number of practitioners died as a result of
forced organ harvesting practiced in Chinese prisons and hospitals.
“Immeasurable capital resources and police manpower are groundlessly exhausted on the suppression of Falun Gong practitioners who simply practice peacefully to cultivate their mind and improve their health. The suppression is turning the society into a chaotic place.” Gao said in
a 2015 open letter. “It is an utter crime, impinging on basic human rights.”
“As long as I still enjoy personal security, I will continue to pay close attention to their safety. It is my right to be concerned about them, as a member of a civilized era, as a Chinese, as a citizen, and as a lawyer, although it is still very dangerous to do so in China,” Gao wrote.
‘Conscience and Courage of China’
Before his disappearance, Gao had been repeatedly abducted and imprisoned. In 2006, Gao was convicted of “subversion” and sentenced to three years in prison, where he suffered torture.In December 2011, he was once again sentenced to three years in prison and, after his release in 2014, remained under house arrest. His current whereabouts have been unknown to the public since his disappearance in August 2017.
On Aug. 11, in front of the Chinese consulate in Iceland, Chinese dissident Zhou Feng called on the CCP to disclose whether Gao Zhisheng was still alive.
“Gao Zhisheng’s name represents the conscience and courage of China,” Zhou told The Epoch Times.
“Let us work together to ensure that this courage is not swallowed by darkness.”
Li Xi and Yan Yu contributed to this report.
