Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng missing again, last seen with police
On April 6, Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng thought he could return to a normal life after 13 months of imprisonment. But his “release” was a farce to please the international media, and on April 20 Gao disappeared again, last seen with four policemen, Compass Direct News (CDN) reported.
Gao, a self-taught lawyer and Communist Party member until 2005 was once viewed by China’s Ministry of Justice as among their top 10 lawyers, according to CDN.
Gao defended some of China’s most vulnerable people, including workers seeking redress, underground Christians and the banned Falungong spiritual movement, according to Telegraph.co.uk.
In a press conference held shortly after his April 6 release, Gao said he wanted to be reunited with his family, who fled to the United States in January 2009 over his daughter’s attempted suicides when she was blocked from entering school.
Meanwhile, Gao hoped to visit his in-laws in Urumqi, according to CDN. Gao would no longer continue his legal work, he said, and he could not comment on his treatment while in captivity. Now, no one knows where Gao is.
On Feb. 4 last year Gao was taken from his Shaanxi home and held incommunicado for 13 months. Chinese authorities filed no formal charges and issued no arrest warrant while he was jailed, Telegraph.co.uk reported.
A demonstration in Hong Kong to demand information about Gao Zhisheng's whereabouts on 4 Feb 2010/Credit: Voice of America
The Telegraph quoted friends and colleagues who said that when he was released on April 6 he was still being tailed by police. On April 30 Gao visited his father-in-law in the company of four police officers. He just spent one night there before the police took him out again.
Gao’s brief release from jail is believed to be in response to demands by western governments and international rights groups who repeatedly demanded to know his whereabouts and sought his release. It is believed the police feared Gao would talk of his treatment while he was incarcerated, according to the Telegraph and CDN.
In 2005 Gao wrote open letters to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao accusing the government of torturing Falungong members. As a result his law license was revoked and his law firm shut down.
In 2007 Gao was detained, tortured and threatened with death. His captors also threatened to harm and torture his wife and children if he spoke of his treatment in jail. Under duress, Gao “confessed” and was under house arrest, the CDN said.
An AFP report said human rights lawyers in China are constantly harassed and threatened. For example:
- Tang Jitian, 41, lost his livelihood, rarely sees his family, and must constantly change homes because authorities pressure his landlords. He has defended the Falungong, people who were displaced from their lands, and hepatitis B carriers who are subject to discrimination.
- Authorities once set up video cameras outside Tang’s home in Jilin, filming through the windows.
- Tang and colleague Liu Wei, in her 30s, have had their licenses revoked while defending Falungong. In April last year they walked out of court due to constant interruption of their defense by the judge.
- A legal research center for human rights was shut down on July 2009, and the Beijing Justice Bureau suspended the licenses of 53 lawyers.
- Authorities set restrictions on lawyers taking up cases related to the 2009 protests in Urumqi.
- New rules will be enforced in June this year stipulating punishments for lawyers and their firms that are so vaguely written that they can be arbitrarily interlpreted in terms of disciplinary measures.
China foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said last week that attorneys are free to work as they please. “Chinese citizens enjoy their lawful rights and interests, which are also guaranteed by the laws and the Constitution,” Yu said, according to the AFP.
In the past few years, the number of rights lawyers in China has soared — from about 10 in 2007 to around 100 today in Beijing alone.
Thank you to the ‘Underground’ press for your bold report regarding the persecution and suppression of the voices of the truthful and upstanding persons of Gao Zhisheng and Tang Jitian, etc.. It seems a rare thing to find anyone to report so ‘up front’ and without fear. God bless you! One day we will all reap our rewards of what we did in this life, and God is no fool. Perhaps some think that Gao’s God is weak to let him suffer in this way, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It is in such suffering that we find the ultimate judgement of God. How much are we willing to subject another human being to, in order to ‘be right’, in order to elevate our own pride and egos? The Bible says that we will all likewise perish, except we repent. The Chinese government, even through their treatment of Gao and others like him, are being given a chance to repent. To look at the blatant evil they are doing and to repent. How arrogant is a human being willing to be, and now even before a watching world. I hope you will repent soon, powers in China that be, and bow the knee to God who is merciful and willing to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, if only we will confess our sins and determine, with His help to forsake them. It is why Jesus died for us. He is our only and last chance. God loves us but He will not continue to tolerate this kind of unbridled wickedness. It is He that put governments in their place for the good of the people. If that government forsakes that path of good and that opportunity to do good to its citizens, it is time either for that government to repent and to ask God to help them to change, or else for them to step down and to let the people democratically vote in someone else. It is not for them to abuse their power of authority. They will pay dearly before God ultimately, if they continue to do such things. Herod, king of Israel, simply made a speech as if he was God, and it says in the Bible that an angel smote him and he was eaten, (right where he sat, as I understand it) by worms! Beware the judgement of God! Please take this very seriously, all of you ‘dictatorships’, so called, who seem to think that you hold ultimate power over the innocent and ‘helpless’, because the almighty God is their/our help. Fear God while you still have breath, while you still have a chance, because there is a time of reckoning soon, and it won’t tarry. We are finite, God is infinite. The Bible says to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Everyone knows that Gao Zhisheng has been tortured… why deny it? Not even those who are on your side believe you, so why even lie about it? The best thing you can do is to let him go, while as yet you do not have his blood on your hands. And take a piece of godly advice: Repent while you still have the chance. You don’t have to live all your lives as slaves to the Devil. He was defeated at Calvary, so that as many as repent could simply walk free. That is why Gao and others like him have resisted your ‘bullying’ even if it threatens to cost them their lives. They are resisting Satan, not you. So please, don’t continue in arrogance. You will never in your lifetimes, I think, be shown greater examples of love. Give in now, while you still have a chance, while you are still in life. We will all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ… not of Buddha, and not of Allah, not of Vishnu or of any of the other ‘deities’ that you might care to name. God loves you.
The Chinese government fears the Power of The Lord God, or they would not be doing the things to Gao to break him as they do, or to the other Chinese Christians. Chinese Christian Brothers and Sisters we in the USA know you suffer for your love of Jesus1 Stand Strong. We Pray for you. We Pray for your families. We even Pray for those who despitefully use you because Jesus Told us to do this. This is Through God’s Power that we are able to do this. We Ask for a Prayer Walk and those of you in China understand the meaning of this. Do not fear, God Is With you, as are our Prayers for you. Eternity is near. Lean hard on Jesus!