The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) abducted and imprisoned, and tortured Gao Zhisheng, a prominent lawyer for religious minorities in China, for more than a decade.
His supporters think the US government must challenge China and find out whether Gao is still alive.
Even though the United States and China have met many times for summits, President Joe Biden has never brought up the case.
Gao Zhisheng was given five years of release and called to a “re-education” conference on September 21, 2007.
He was abducted from his home in Shaanxi province on August 13, 2017; his location and health are still unknown.
During a meeting, he was struck in the back of the neck, had a black hood thrown over his head, and was forcibly removed from a car before being brought into a room. He claims that one of his kidnappers threatened to force-feed him his feces and urine.
There has never been an admission of guilt regarding Gao’s disappearance from any Chinese public security agency. The most crucial information here is that the United States has failed to hold China to account for its human rights violations and that the United States has a “legal and moral duty” to confront China on its widespread human rights abuses and find out whether or not Gao Zhisheng is still alive.
Since granting China’s Most Favored Country (MFN) trade status in 1994, the United States is under “legal and moral responsibility” to confront Beijing on its endemic human rights abuses and at least find out whether Gao is alive or dead. To bring Beijing’s human rights atrocities to the attention of the American people, activists must raise “particular names” with the U.S. and Chinese governments.
The United States firmly opposes the PRC’s unlawful arrest of lawyer Gao Zhisheng; the United States ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlight the issues of political prisoners at every opportunity. Gao calls out both the United States and the Chinese people in his 2009 letter for trying to pacify the Chinese Communist Party, which he claims is to blame for the CCP’s hardening stance towards the Chinese people.
