Gao Zhisheng published three open letters in which he called for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. Previously, The Epoch Times had published this, the translation of the second letter, in an abbreviated form. We are now proud to bring our readers the complete letter.
October 18, 2005 Beijing, China
Dear 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 fellow citizens, out of solicitude for another group of our common fellow citizens, Falun Gong believers, I went to several places outside Beijing to investigate the real situation about Falun Gong believers who are 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, organized, and brutal persecution targeting our fellow Chinese citizens who believe in Falun Gong is an ongoing reality. Recent letters addressed to us from different regions reveal this reality, and we also personally witnessed it during our trip outside Beijing. As a Chinese citizen, and as a lawyer, I am willing to bear any legal responsibility for witnessing and publicizing these facts.
Because I trust 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 as soon as possible the continuing persecution of our fellow Falun Gong citizens by authorities in all regions and at all levels.
It is not only a necessity 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 Yantai 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 are not capable of handling the case regarding the cause of her death almost two years after 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 got 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 appeal for 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). Sixteen 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 practitioner from Shihuiyao Village, Songcun Town, Wendeng City, was arrested in May. He was sentenced to labor camp. After more than 50 days of detention, he was dying and so was released. On September 27, he was again arrested by police. So far his whereabouts are unknown.
Yu Zhenghong, from Wendeng, in her forties, 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, and the hospital later notified police that she was “about to die.” Later she was sent home by police.
Lin Jixiao, female, 40 plus years old, is from Dachuang Village, Songcun Town, of Wendeng City. 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 center to check but was told that she was not there. Her family then went to ask the 6-10 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 (by her request, I am not using her real name here) quietly sat down and talked for almost two 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 6-10 Office. I talked to staff at the 6-10 Office and our school director many times. I cannot 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. The whereabouts of our only bank account that he used to take care of is unknown after our home was ransacked. He could not remember it. During the 2003 Spring Festival, I gave 100 yuan [U.S.$12.50], which was all I had, to my husband who was in jail. My daughter and I had not a single penny left during the Chinese New Year.
In June 2003, four to five police 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 to beat people. They were yelling while beating me: ‘Beat you–so what!’ They interrogated me for a whole day and night. One police whose last name is Zhang said, ‘If you do not confess, you will really have bad luck!’ He copied a written statement from another policeman’s writing and asked me to sign my name. I refused. Then he signed my name himself. The other policeman 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 let 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 center. At the brainwashing class, they did not allow me to sleep, and forced me to ’reform.’ Until 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 the 6-10 Office, sent me to a labor camp. The labor camp did a physical examination on me. Because my health was so poor, they refused to accept me. But Wang Yuefeng insisted on the forced labor camp taking me. They whispered for a while, and then a doctor gave an injection. I resisted, so four to five people pushed me to a bed and forcibly give me the injection. In the end, they saw that my physical condition was too poor, I was sent back by Wang.
On Nov. 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 confiscation of my salary. I arrived at Che’s office, and after I introduced myself, he stood up and went out. After I waited for a long time, he came back and told me: ‘I will let Secretary Zhao talk to you. You need to go to his office.’ So I went to Zhao’s office.
Immediately after I entered the door, about four or five policemen rushed in from outside and dragged me into their car without giving any reason. They forcefully took me to Fushan brainwashing center where I was taken into custody. I was not released from the brainwashing center until Nov. 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 the practice [of Falun Gong], they released me.
On Nov. 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 brainwashing center 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, they would wake me up by beating me. 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 Oct. 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 Aug. 15, 2005, I was in a friend’s house. 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 abruptly picked up a chair and beat me with it. The chair immediately broke into pieces. After the blow, I was down on the ground and could not 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 fallen. 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 six people were arrested, and among them was Xuejin Sun, an old man in his 70s. Afterwards, they sent me to the detention center, and forced me to register for the brainwashing class. I refused. The policemen in the prison twisted my handcuffs, asking me, ‘Are you going to sign or not?’
I refused. They twisted the handcuffs until they 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 security guard interrogated me once. Since I didn’t cooperate with them, they sent me to the brainwashing class in Yantai City.
At the beginning, I was not allowed to sleep; instead, I was forced to sit on a little stool. They attempted to force me to write “three statements,” including a letter to pledge (not to practice Falun Gong), a statement to 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 Mouping national security staff discussed with Yu Gang, head of the 6-10 office at the Yantai Police Station, about sending me to Zhaoyuan brainwashing center. I heard them saying that only Zhaoyuan center could handle people like me. At that time, I already had had no food or sleep for seven or eight consecutive days.
After arriving in Zhaoyuan, they dragged me, kicking me at 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. As a result, I had to lie on the ground. They continued to torture me. The director of the center 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 letting 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 center, every practitioner was locked in one small room that 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, cuffed my hands, and shackled my feet. I still refused to give up practicing [Falun Gong].
On the 10th day they started to force-feed me [a form of torture that can cause death]. I began to vomit blood continuously. At that time, even they themselves could not bear the scene and started to vomit with me. They pressed down my head and force-fed me. The head asked me if I would give up practicing. I responded no. He said, at Zhaoyuan, don’t even think about getting out of here if you do 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 the handcuffs tied to a heat pipe. Only the tip of my toes could touch the ground. There was no light in the cell; it was dark 24 hours a day. I could somewhat sense that someone kept coming into the cell and putting 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 the tight strap. At that time, they also used wires to tie 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, until I fainted and lost consciousness.
After I woke up, I found my legs had already changed color and had started to turn 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 up on torturing me. When I wanted to go to the 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 die at any moment and that 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 life, I had to be taken care of by my 80-year-old mom.”
Wang Dejiang was handed over to his family by the local police when he was near death, and the nightmarish experience 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. Because he openly announced his 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 ‘6-10 Office’ conducted a thorough search among all higher institutions in the country. In May 2005, Weihai City’s ‘6-10 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 Aug. 20, ‘6-10 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 Sept. 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 till today.” A teacher named Wang revealed 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 offices. At 1 a.m. on Sept. 29, the aforementioned seven people were arrested. In fact, many police here don’t want to search and arrest Falun Gong practitioners, but what other choices do they have? Also people from all over the country came to the Zhaoyuan Brainwashing Center to learn from their experience so that they could apply more cruel methods. While Hu Jintao was visiting the U.S., an order was issued from the CCP Central Committee to focus on handling those persecuting Falun Gong. They were criticized for not having done their best recently and were told to intensify their effort to suppress Falun Gong. 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. ‘This kind of model center is a horrible place, even worse than hell. Very few people could survive there’ 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 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 four 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, to force him to 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 shocks, his scorched skin started to slough off layer after layer. Later after my parents both went 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 Sept. 30 this year. More than 20 armed police from Laiwu City police rushed 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 with an auntie and they themselves went wandering abroad with my brother. Since their abduction, the whereabouts of my younger brother is 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 police broke into our home while we were all away. A police car with license plate 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. 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 Aug. 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 is 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 on a construction job. Not until 54 days later was his family notified of his sentence to three years of 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 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 the beating. Attorney Gao, we are simply too helpless. So far they have not provided any legal document.” Mrs. Shi told me her family’s tragedy over the phone while sobbing.
On Sept. 6, 2005, 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 Oct. 1, the National Day, large-scale arrests of Falun Gong practitioners occurred in different regions such as Beijing and Heilongjiang Province. During Mr. Hu Jintao’s visit to other countries, the arrests in these regions obviously were carried out in a way that was 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 any evil methods as 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 cannot yet be called anarchy.
You two, as well as all of us, have to face the following reality. On the one hand, when you first got your positions, people inside China as well as the outside civilized world had great expectations of you. The principals you promote such as “govern the country according to the Constitution,” “the people are our fundamental concern”, “build 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 aspect is worse than that of ordinary people. 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 sin and that of the evil persecutors? In the same spirit that I am writing this open letter to you because I still have faith in you, so are many of those who are crippled and those who lost their loved ones or have their love 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 of 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 evil which is utterly against humanity has not only caused devastation to an inconceivable number of kind men and women. Many were persecuted to death, but also the damage to the image of our government and our country in many areas such as legal, moral, and human civilization, continues as such brutal persecution continues. Even though this catastrophe didn’t start with you, the fact that it continues under your administration, and because the tragedy targeting the spiritual believers hasn’t been brought to an end by you, you are also liable for these crimes. If you don’t make it stop right away, this will be the conclusion formed by history and not just one person’s opinion. The continuous creation of tragedies aimed towards 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. For example, the director from Zhaoyuan Brainwashing Center who routinely trampled on the private parts of Wang Dejiang, or the director of the “6-10 Office” and the two school principals who illegally withheld Liu’s wages and denied numerous appeals for four years by Liu, threatening her survival. In a sense, they were also victims of the atrociousness of the persecution.
The officers and staff who carried out the appalling brainwashing and transformation against Falun Gong practitioners were only measured by the results of the reformation. They 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 was 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, finally knelt in front of her dying body. While enumerating the appalling sufferings she underwent, her relatives saw tears from the eyes of her “dead” body. Relatives wailed and ferociously tried to find a doctor. The doctor was indifferent. The coolness was only softened when one of the villagers who came to the funeral procession loudly blamed the doctor. When that doctor found out her heart was still beating, his first reaction was not to rescue her, but to tear the electrocardiogram into pieces. “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 don’t know what your feeling is in face of such a reality! Our nation, our people, the values of our nation which we inherited from our ancient ancestors, as well as the moral image of all those state governments in the international society who have shamefully remained silent in face of this great calamity, have all practically become victims 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 the great economic growth. In a peaceful society in which the suffering from wartime has long become history, in a society that places the economy first, 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 that 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 arrived at the conclusion that they serve their respective purposes and each should be confined within its own realm. The liberty of an individual’s belief will for sure result in the disintegration of a collective ideology. The expansion of individual’s rights will for sure 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 should 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 crackdown? 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 a damaged personality. From the perspective of the suppressors, their choice only serves to alienate themselves into a savage and illegal position, and serves to continually worsen their already extremely vile personality, the kind of vileness and viciousness that can make a normal person feel chilled to the bone. Other than that, there is nothing worthwhile or meaningful in their choice.
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, the failure of the persecution. Based on our observation 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 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. It is an utter crime, impinging 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 of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” The declaration states 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 with any excuse. This is precisely based on the belief in the universal values for mankind and the respect for rule of law. I solemnly suggest to both of you to decide as soon as possible to stop persecuting spiritual believers and amend your ties with the Chinese people, to truly achieve “rule of law and the constitution” and establish a new China on the basis of democracy, rule of law, and constitutional government.
Your doing this 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 more brutal persecution because of this letter. We have to remind you of this matter because we had such an 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 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.
Best Wishes for Both of You!
Respectfully,
Your fellow Chinese Gao Zhisheng
