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. the

please, president obama, listen to these courageous women, geng ho and li jing, and act decisively. the commission hopes that the human rights issues in china will be raised in a serious way during the vice president's visit and, particularly, that the detention of gao zhisheng, len xibao, pastor lang rong li and others are raised often and discussed in detail. this important and timely hearing recognizes one of china's most important human rights leaders and lawyers, gao zhisheng. in early 2000, mr. gao, a self-trained lawyer, emerged as a champion of human rights causes and a defender of marginalized groups in china. today, we know little about mr. gao's current condition or his whereabouts. then, the issue of an academic and professor who published an open letter to president hu, calling for multiparty elections, posted a charter for a new democracy party online and called for the end of china's notorious re-education through labor system. for that, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. gao zhisheng's brilliant legal advocacy on behalf of marginalized groups in china, includin