with the help of old friends's in 1999, i escaped to the country that -- i escaped china, that destroyed me, and came tolt free soil of america. my husband came to the u.s. a year later. we were able to mend our past grievance and divorced in 2001. i became ex-claimly depressed after the divorce but as for suggestions of my friends i started attending church where i felt the warmth of christ's family and then lord jesus led me to give up the bitterness in my heart bit by bit. i reunited with my husband in 2009 and we joined together again after i was baptized last year. now two years ago. now we live in a great family of christ, and the free land of america. i feel happiness, but know that back in china there are millions of women who are suffering like

i did every day. thousands of young lives are being destroyed. i beg everyone to save them and wish everyone would join me in prayer for them. may the love of our heavenly father, the grace of jesus christ and the holy spirit fill their hearts and release them from the hellish suffering, in the name of our lord jesus christ we pray. amenchts thank you so much. ms. mei, thank you for your courage in bringing every woman's story in chine nap in a to the attention of this subcommittee and by extension, and i am very grateful that c-span is here, that men and women in their homes will hear what every woman goes through in china and has been going through since 1979 when the one child per couple policy was first instituted. i think it it's very important to point out that in china, brother, and sisters are illegal, and women are treated as criminals fn they have a child without explicit government permission.

and your story and i know chai ling herself has suffered being forcibly aborted and so many women by the tens of millions have suffered this degrading and this horrific abuse of women and, again, that's what chen guangcheng's mission was and that's what his cause was, and for that he has been so brutally mistreated. so i do, again, want to thank you for that. i'd like to now turn to my distinguished colleague henry burkle, who is a registered nurse. she's also a lawyer, a former assistant attorney general for the state of new york. she also chairs the subcommittee on health for the, for the veterans affairs committee, but i understand -- bob fu is going to join us in a moment. we do have chen guangcheng and then we'll go to ann mure murra

burkle. he joined us february 3rd and provided useful insights to say the least and we'll yield to him momentarily so he can speak from his hospital bed again in china. if wanted to say a few words before we -- >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i want to thank the chairman for his steadfast pursuit of human rights throughout the world. as you mentioned 30shgs years, he has just been vigilant for all human rights and i want to thank all 6 are for being here today, for your pursuit of human rights in china. future generations. you talked about some of the past with martin luther king and ronald reagan. future generations will look to you, to your devotion for creating a free china. thank you for your courage and

willingness to be here and testify before us. we so appreciate all that you do, and we just want to work with you to shed a light on this terrible injustice that exists in china. >> we will go to questions momentarily. ms. mei mentioned how her husband was detained. again i think for the purposes of understanding the deprav tiff the one child per couple policy, i invited with the help of harry wu a woman who ran a program in fujing province understand the pseudonym of mrs. gow. when she came here she said, you don't understand, america and west, and, really, the rest of the world what a priority it is to the government to impose this one-child per couple policy, and to use and employ forced abortion and forced sterilization. she self-described before this committee in this room just several years ago at a hearing that i chaired, she said, by day

i was a monster. by night i was a wife and mother of one child. and she said that they used detention against family members, the way mrs. mei talked a moment ago to hold family members. to put them in prison, as they looked to find a woman who was trying to escape the family planning cadres. that is the reality they goes on every day in china, that is so grossly underappreciated by so many of us in policymaking positions. and, again, when you talk about that kind of abuse of women, that is unprecedented in world history, where an entire couple of generations now, of chinese women have been made to suffer that cruelty with barely a peep of dissent from the obama administration from any of our friends in the european nation and elsewhere and you get groups like the population fund hoop say repeatedly that program in china is totally voluntary, when

it is totally involuntary,s it is a whitewash that has no comparison either. so thank you for sharing that detail that is so extremely important, that it's not just -- if that wasn't enough, the mother herself, the woman herself, who is so hunted and degraded by the chinese dictat r dictatorsh dictatorship. they also look at rest of the family in a way that parallels what's going on with chen guangcheng. it's not just him and his family. it is the rest of his family, the extended family, and without objection i will put in the record a list of ten members of his family, including five friends who are deeply concerned, and that's not the extent of it. some other friends might be in trouble as well, that we know the government has either arrested, detained, beaten and that including friends lie hu pei jong, who reggie littlejohn spoked passion fitly about and

suffered, including loss of hearing, and that was just a few week is ago. we do now have shg schen guangc on the line. ann marie, would you join us? >> chen, mr. chen, you are on -- welcome back. [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in foreign language ]

[ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: i just want to talk about what had happened to my other family members after i escaped from my own home. and on april 26th, around midnight, a group of chinese government, the local government hard thugs led by the township leader, and raided my elder brother's home at midnight. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: around midnight there was a group of thugs by the chinese, the local authorities, just broke into my

elder brother's home, and started beating them violently. [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: and my elder brother was taken away by these thugs and without any reasoning,

and then they came back and started beating up my nephew, and for -- used stakes and violently had beaten up him and then for three hours, he's bleeding on his head and his face, which not stopped. so this is so violent, that according to my knowledge he had to defend himself. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: this charge against my nephew for so-called

intentional homicide is totally trumped up charge, and for himself at his own home to -to be accused of committing this crime of intentional homicide to those intruders is totally absurd, and ish rational, unreasonable. chg [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: so this guy, this township leader, had led from 40 to sometimes 80 officials, guards, and thugs, raided my

home and, in the past year, and beat me and my family seriously and so this is a pattern already. it's not the first time. he had -- against my family. [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: and after my nephew was beaten up and he actually was waiting and waiting to surrender himself, and the police come back again, and violently beat up my

sister-in-law. and -- [ speaking in foreign language ] [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: so my brother, of course, was taken away without any reasoning by the authorities, and then my -- the lawyer -- the attorney who has already got the commission paper

signed by my nephew's wife went to the county and even though he has the signature by his wife, the detention center and the public security officers in the county refused to, for him to meet with others and by calling that document a fake document, although they know it is true, and, also, they just want to have my nephew's wife to come and, to surrender herself. [ speaking in foreign language ]

[ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: and what has been done by the chinese, by this public security officers is, is a total of violation against the chinese own constitution and the chinese own criminal law, and, of course, those charges against my nephew for self-defense is in construction of chinese own law as well. [ speaking in foreign language ]

>> translator: the same tactic, the county, that was used against me in 2006 when they tried to prevent -- i mean, they tried every way to prevent my attorneys to defend for my -- for my trial and said now is being used again against my nephew. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: and i do think under those charges, they're trumped up charges, and those people in the county has already been on the wrong side, opposite side -- opposite side of the rule of law in china. [ speaking in foreign language ]

>> translator: and this is, so far what i have learned about my extended family members in the county and so right now i am not able to communicate with them anymore, because all their communication tools were confiscated already. yeah. >> mr. -- >> translator: tranchank you fo your attention. >> i've invited the people who are testifying today on your behalf. first, bob fu. [ speaking in foreign languag ]

language ]. >> the great wei jingsheng. reggie littlejohn. [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> chai ling and mrs. mei. and we're also joined by congresswoman bass. [ speaking in foreign languag ] language ]. >> and congresswoman buerkle from new york. [ speaking in foreign language ]. >> briefly, the focus of the hearing has been about your safety around your wife and children. [ speaking in foreign languag ] language ]. >> with a particular emphasis on your cause, fighting, as you did so bravely to prevent women from forced abortion. [ speaking in foreign languag ]

language ]. >> and to rally congressional support and hopefully executive branch support and hopefully worldwide support for your extended family as well as your friends, like hu kai run. [ speaking in foreign languag ] language ]. >> if i could ask very briefly. >> translator: thank you. >> has the united states government, our embassy, been able to in any way make contact with your extended family and your friends who are at grave risk and are suffering beating? [ speaking in foreign languag ]

languagelanguage ] >> translator: and for that question i'm not very clear on the specifics, but i do know over the u.s. embassy has been communicating with me every day. >> if i could, your wife and your children, how well are they doing under this enormous burden? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> translator: they are doing fine, especially my two children. they kept telling my wife and i that this is such a wonderful pla place. we can play outside, and he said -- he said you can tell from what -- what they told my wife and i how terrible they had been back to our hometown. they were only allowed to have one outing every day.

because my wife and, of course, children had been under such a long time of difficulties with malnutrition and with low blood pressure and when i saw them under this circumstances i felt very saddened. >> wei wanted to ask a couple questions. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> one suggestion for the panel or witnesses is to suggest to mr. chen to hire his own lawyers, not to accept the government-appointed lawyers for his family members. >> right. >> okay, yeah. [ speaking foreign language ] >> this is reggie. i'm wondering -- i'm wondering whether there is any lawyer that has been accepted to be the lawyer for chen. i mean, we've heard there are 13 who offered. at least one has been beaten and one has had his license revoked, and i'm wondering specifically about teng. i understand he's offered, and i wonder how he's doing. we haven't had much news of him.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> translator: i do know that many lawyers are waiting and wanting to go, and i feel they will be able to go to -- and they are planning to go. >> mr. chen, it was just asked

do you know all of america is listening to your voice right now? there are large numbers of people from the media here and c-span is broadcasting this throughout america? what would you like to tell the american public? [ speaking foreign language ]

>> translator: i want to extend my gratitude and thankfulness to all those who care and love my family and myself and our situation. especially to american people who shows your care about the equality and justice. those are universal values, and i'm very, very grateful to all of you. >> mr. chen, the -- chai-ling would like to say something. come in quick. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> i want to -- >> mr. chen -- >> let his answer --

>> translator: i think -- the question was we're very proud of you as a hero of america, chinese and many millions of chinese women are very encouraged by your courageous a act, and what mr. chen just answered he said i'm not a hero. i just do what my conscious ask me to do. i cannot be silent and cannot be quiet when facing these evils and against women and children, and so this is what i should do. >> yeah. i also told him -- [ speaking foreign language ]

>> translator: ms. ling also said many, many christians all over the world had been fasting and praying for