months ago, our commission held a hearing on lee xiabao after he was awarded the nobel peace prize. no one, not even his wife, was allowed to travel to oslo to receive that award and he remains incarcerated unjustly by the chinese government. in november of 2011, we held a hearing on the illegal detention and abuse of chen guanjen and his family. he was wrongfully imprisoned for exposing china's brutal forced abortion policy and his heroic activism on behalf of the women victims which caused the eyre of the dictatorship to come down. we know the one-child policy is state-sponsored cruelty and constitutes a massive crime against humanity. the war crimes tribunals properly construed forced

abortion as a crime against humanity. nothing in human history compares to the magnitude of china's 33-year assault on women and children. chen spoke out. chen and his wife continue to pay a price. that policy, as we all know, has made brothers and sisters illegal. it has led to the absence of upwards of 100 million girls who have been killed by way of sex-election abortion as part of this one child per couple push, and that has led to a massive increase in human trafficking, because the women simply aren't there. we held a hearing at which we heard that between now and 2020, something on the order of 20 to 40 to 50 million -- 40 to 50 million men will not be able to find wives because they have systemically been killed as part of the one child per couple policy, so, it is a very serious policy. chen spoke out and paid the price. i will also note that i and members of our staff have tried

to visit chen guanjen. we have appealed and applied repeatedly to the chinese embassy here for a visa to go and visit him. turned down. it's an ongoing request. my hope is that they will grant it and grant it soon. again, i want to thank our distinguished witnesses. i'd like to turn to my good friend and colleague, co-chairman brown for any opening comments he wants to make. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i will be brief. thank you all for attending today's important hearing on the treatment of chinese human rights lawyer gao zhisheng. we are here to show support to a man who has devoted his life to defending the rights of his fellow citizens. a special thank you to his courageous wife, ms. geng ho. thank you very much for being here today. we look forward to hearing from you about your husband's life and career defending marginalized groups defending the human rights of china and we know that your devotion to human rights is a source of inspiration to many in the united states and china and

across the world. thank you. thank you also to li jing, the wife of imprisoned chinese dissident gao tron. she will talk about standing up to human rights in the face of imprisonment. this is an important time in the relationship between the united states of america and the people's republic of china. as the chinese vice president attends meetings minutes away from here with our top officials, we're reminded that the real china is represented by the brave individual imprisoned in china under a cloud of secrecy who's the focus of today's hearing. in understanding gao's story, we understand not only what gao stands for, but the challenges that we face in china today. mr. gao has devoted his life to trying to make the law work for those he represented, the underprivileged and the underserved. he stood up for those kicked off their land by greedy and corrupt officials and developers. he stood by factory workers protesting low wages and long

hours. he spoke out for persecuted practitione practitioners. in stark contrast, chinese authorities showed no concern for mr. gao's rights or the law. they disbarred him. they jailed him. they have tortured him and somehow made him disappear. chinese authorities have used mr. gao to send a chilling message to other would-be human rights defenders -- stay quiet, don't challenge us, don't hold us accountable, or else. mr. gao himself would say that his case is about more than just his own experience. as he wrote in his book "a china more just," "behind each case in china are systemic problems." and from the problems mr. gao's faced, the utter disregard for the world law by his government and the communist party, we see why our nation faces so many systemic problems with china today. mr. gao's case and the cases he worked on show us how easy it is for chinese officials to cheat, to bend the rules, to game the

system. they show us how easy it is for china to ignore labor laws and environmental standards, raw materials, manipulate its currency. they tell us, this the brazenly tell us and sell us with the help of some of our own companies, i might add, in this country, toxic toys, tainted pet food, consumer products made by overworked and underpaid workers. and while i and others in our government are doing what we can to ensure the safety and health of our citizens and a fair trading relationship with china, we know that we can't do it alone. we need brave citizens like the men each of you are married to, to defend their rights to make sure they have a fair living wage, their food is safe, their environment is clean. that's why mr. gao's case is so important, because if chinese citizens can defend their rights, we all benefit. we all benefit in my state and in my country and around the world when we know the products we buy from china are made by

workers who are treated well in good, cleaner conditions. we all benefit from a rule of law that ensures the citizens of china the possibility to hold their government accountable and to petition grievances to effect change. but until mr. gao and countless other political prisoners in china are released from their shackles, that day will remain in the distant future. that's why we on this commission and our government must continue to do all we can to spotlight these cases and secure mr. gao's release. we want to help in any way we can. treatment of basic human rights deserves nothing less. thank you, all of you, for joining this hearing. >> thank you, senator brown. i yield to ranking member tim wallace. i yield to the chairman of the lantos human rights commission and outspoken advocate on behalf of human rights abuse in china, against it, of course, frank wolfe. >> i want to thank you, mr. smith and also senator brown, for your work on these issues.

i do have a statement i want to read and say. i woke this morning to read a thoroughly unsettling piece by a chinese dissident in "the washington post." he opens with the following. he said "chinese dissident writers exiled to the west today get a very different response than soviet writers received not long ago. i would even go further than mr. yu. chinese defectors get a very different response as evident by a story that broke days ago about a senior communist party official in china that reportedly attempted to defect to the u.s. and was turned away after his request for asylum was rejected. returning to yu ji, the soft-spoken man i recently met, endured beatings and torture from chinese police. he asserts that china is a greater threat than the soviet union ever was, but now the west, he says, lacks visionary politicians such as ronald reagan to stand up to that threat."

i could not agree more. and in fact, just last week along with a number of other members, we urged president obama in a letter signed by a number of other members to do what reagan has done. we urged him to meet with the families of these dissidents. we urged the president to publicly and privately raise the cases of six prominent chinese citizens who have suffered greatly at the hands of their own government, among them, gao. we will have the honor of hearing his wife momentarily. we also urge the president and vice president to meet with mr. gao's wife prior to the meeting with the chinese vice president to hear first hand about the plight of these dissidents. while the vice president's trip to the u.s. is already under way, the administration could still give gao's wife the courtesy of a meeting, the courtesy of a meeting after the fact, given that they're rolling out the diplomatic red carpet for the very government who has imprisoned and tortured her husband. so, can't they now meet with her, even if it's afterward if

they ignored her before? it's clear that the current approach to china is not working. we're losing jobs. quiet diplomacy whereby grave human rights and religious freedom abuses are reportedly discussed in private meetings but rarely, if ever, raised publicly, has not yielded any results, and in fact, has emboldened, it has emboldened the chinese government. and we should not forget the persecuted church. cardinal kuhn foundation said 25 catholic bishops, underground church, are under house arrest. protestant pastors are in jail. a tibetan nun just set herself aflame on sunday because of activity. and the list goes on. but when you look at this in context with this next thing, these issues would have featured, i'm sure, prominently in a trip to suzanne johnson cook, the state department's ambassador for international religious freedom, was ready to take to china last week. it is my understand iing that h

trip has been canceled, her request to meet with chinese government officials were denied, and a visa was denied, so that the special ambassador for this administration can't get to china, can't even get a visa. and yet, you have people who are putting in jail and torturing people. it begs the question, has the department protested this action? has the secretary or the white house protested that their own ambassador cannot even get a visa to go to china? i have more, mr. smith, but i would end on this last comment. martin luther king famously said, "in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. america is a friend to the imprisoned human rights lawyer, america is a friend to the young tibetan nun who just set herself aflame. america is a friend to the tortured human rights that catholic bishops, that protestant pastors, and we

should not be silent as this administration has been. and i yield back. >> thank you, chairman wolf. i'd like to introduce our distinguished panelists. without objection, a full vibio will be available. but briefly, geng ho, wife of human rights lawyer gao zhisheng. she completed a study of accounting in china. she and gao zhisheng made in august of 1990. in 2006 she worked as a pa paralegal and accountant at a beijing law firm founded by her husband. in july 2009, a month after chinese officials reportedly detained her husband, geng left china with her children and since being in the u.s., she has advocated tenaciously for her husband, by interviews and today by testifying. but she has been just everywhere speaking out for her persecuted

husband. we will then hear from li jing, wife of human rights and democracy advocate kwo kwan. she and democracy advocate married in 1999. she worked for "modern express" newspaper for five years. li also worked in import and export businesses. she arrived in the united states in january of this year, 2012, and has publicly advocated on her husband's behalf. kwo is currently serving a ten-year sentence for subversion of powers after a court found he used the internet to organize an illegal political party and publish allegedly reactionary statements online. we'll then hear from jared genser, founder of freedom now, an independent non-profit organization that works to free prisoners of conscience worldwide.

he is also managing editor of a law and consulting firm focusing on human rights and humanitarian projects. he was a partner in the government affairs practice of dla piper and a management consultant with mckinzie & company. he has worked for this commission as well as for my committee. i share the human rights committee of the house of representatives, has been a great source of actionable information concerning human rights in general, but political prisoners in particular. then we'll hear from bob fu, one of the leaders of the 1989 student democracy movement in tiananmen square, and later became a house church pastor and founder along with his wife. in 1996, authorities arrested and imprisoned them for their wo work. after their release, they escaped to the united states and founded china aid foundation. he has been, again, like mr. genser, a great source of

information and is accurate as well as actionable, so i thank him for his leadership on behalf of people of all faith, including and especially christians, who are suffering so much in the people's republic of china. i'd like to now ask geng ho to present her testimony. >> louder, please? [ speaking foreign language ] >> can you hear me? okay, yes. [ speaking chinese ] >> greetings, everyone. greetings to chairman and mr. co-chairman. thank you for inviting me to speak about my husband, imprisoned human rights lawyer. i would like to thank the commission for holding this hearing and everyone in attendance for interest in this case.

[ speaking chinese ] >> translator: my husband is a lawyer in china. he represented some of the country's most vulnerable citizens. he represented the plaintiffs who lost their lives to development projects like the 2008 summer olympics. he defended factory workers who were arrested demonstrating against low wages and long hours. he also represented numbers of christian health churches and prisoners of special movements and his righteous actions has brought himself the persecution by the chinese authority. as the lawyer once said, you cannot be a rights lawyer in

china without becoming a rights case yourself. [ speaking chinese ] >> translator: on november 2005, the government suspended his law license and closed his law firm after he refused to drop his most sensitive cases. he was committed of inciting subversions in 2006 after confessing in the face of stress against our children. since then, our lives have been turned upside down. the government placed our families under constant surveillance and police moved into our apartment building and follow us everywhere. the government has repeatedly

abducted and tortured gao zhisheng for the past six years. [ speaking chinese ] [ speaking chinese bloc [ [ speaking chinese ]

>> translator: he in 2007, authorities disappeared zhisheng and held him for over 50 years after he wrote an open letter to the united states congress exposing human rights abuses in china. policemen covered his head with a black mask and took him into a room where they stripped him naked and beat him. they used electricity to shock him all over his body, especially his private parts and turning his skin totally black. it was so painful, zhisheng was rolling all over on the ground. and after losing consciousness from the torture, he woke up covered in urine. later, his captors used cigarette smokes to burn his eyes so severely that he could not open them. they even stepped his genitals. they locked him up in a prison but he refused, said you are simply dreaming. if you want to go to prison. we can make you disappear

wherever we want to. that is what they have done, and this torture lasted more than three days. [ speaking chinese ] >> translator: in order to protect our children, i escaped with my children to the united states in january of 2009. in the next months, authorities abducted zhisheng again. this time, the government held him for over a year before he briefly reappeared the following spring. in an interview with "associated press," zhisheng described even more torture during the disappearance. police beat him with handguns for two days and nights. he said these were the worst beating he had ever endured, that his life hung by a thread. soon after the interview, he disappeared again.

[ speaking chinese ] >> translator: i last spoke to zhisheng on april 17, 2010, on the birthday of my daughter, grace. since then, our family has been burdened with the constant uncertainty. zhisheng's absence has caused my daughter severe emotional anguish. she dreams often that her father is dead. my son has tears in his eyes on father's day. he tells his teacher that he doesn't have a father. recently, we were forced to endure rumors that guards had tortured zhisheng to death. [ speaking chinese ]

>> translator: then in december 2011, less than one week before zhisheng's probation was scheduled to end, chinese authorities added to our uncertainty by claiming that he would spend the next three years in prison in xinjiang. this news came just before the holidays. and as some people have asked us if we are relieved because the gunman says that he is alive, but the news has not brought us any peace of mind. in fact, we are more worried

than ever before. how can we try this gunman, how many times they have lied to us? we don't know what to believe. we don't know if he's still imprisoned. [ speaking chinese ] >> translator: this morning, vice president xi jinping was meeting with president obama and vice president biden. before their meeting, i relatesed to meet with them, but i didn't get any reply. i was very disappointed. [ speaking chinese ]

>> translator: i am so grateful that the united states has provided protection to my family from the chinese government, and i also need to ask that all of you, including president obama and vice president biden and secretary hillary to continue to call on the gun government of china to respect human rights for all of its citizens and i would like to request a meeting with them to tell them the story face to face. i ask you to continue to report on this case so the truth about his treatments and the chinese government will be known to the world. and i hope and pray that with your help, my husband will regain his freedom and my family can be together once again. thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak here today. i welcome any questions you may have. [ speaking chinese ]

>> translator: i would request the congress to include the following articles as permanent records. the first one is a case regarding a persecution on christians in china and the second one is an open letter by lawyer zhisheng following a persecution and the third is a letter zhisheng wrote entitled dark knight and dark mask and kidnapped by the black mafia. and the fourth one, the last one, is an interview with the "associated press" by lawyer gao zhisheng. thank you. >> ms. geng, thank you very much for your very moving testimony, an appeal of a wife on behalf of her husband who's been persecuted and disappeared and the terrible, devastating impact it is having on you, your

family, and of course, on gao zhisheng as well. without objection, the request you have made for those documents to be made a part of the record will be made a part of the record, and i would include another one, one that i remember we received on september 27th of 2007 that was actually used against gao zhisheng. it was an open letter to the united states congress, a very, very decisive letter, and with quotations from madison, the quotation from martin luther king, where king said, dr. king said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." without objection, that will be made a part of the record. i would like to now invite our second wife, whose husband is being unjustly persecuted, li jing, for your testimony. >> distinguished chairman, co-chairman, ladies and gentlemen and friends, my name is li jing. i would like to thank you for

giving me this opportunity to speak out the persecution of my husband and our family. my husband, guo quan is currently in prison serving a ten-year sentence for peacefully expressing his opinions about democracy and human rights. after several years of harassment, my son and i arrived in the united states three weeks ago. we are exiled in this country currently enjoying freedoms here that hopefully will some day be enjoyed by everyone in china. because i now have a freedom to speak, i want to tell you a little about my husband's case. he is an academic and a professor with a degree in law and a doctorate in philosophy. he started to publicly advocate

for great democracy and human rights in 2007. because of his public advocacy, my husband suffered. he cannot teach again. he was stripped of his associate professor salary and to work only for minimum wage. it makes him to feel human rights have not improved, even worse. of course, this demotion did not stop his advocacy. in less than a year's time, he published online "the herald of democracy," a collection of 347 articles criticizing one-party dictatorship spreading the ideas of democracy and constitutional

government. to push democracy in china, in december 17, 2007, my husband posted the china new peoples party charter just online announcing the founding of this party, even without action and members he suffered. on november 13, 2008, nanjing police detained my husband on the charge of subversion of state power. he was formally arrested on december 19, 2008, and sentenced on august the 7th, 2009, to ten years in prison. with three years the probation of political rights, i also forbidden by nanjing police to go to the trial or speak to international media about this case. he is currently serving his

prison terms at the prison. from the first published letter, my family experienced the continuous harassment by police. our lives have been turned upside down for the simple expression of political opinion. our home was raided several times in the middle of the night and forcefully confiscated our computers and some of my husband's manuscripts which were never returned. they even once gave our house right certification which belongs to my family. my employees told me that the public security officers visit him three times and that he ask -- and he was asked to monitor my activities. i had no opportunity to be promoted and my career also