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 cou