China’s Dissident Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Released From Prison But Under Close Surveillance

Authorities at remote Shaya Prison in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang on Thursday released prominent dissident and rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng at the end of a jail term of nearly three years.

Two More House Churches Raided by Police in China’s Xinjiang Region

China Aid has learned of two more police raids on house churches in Xinjiang.

13 American scholars barred from traveling to China for their book on Xinjiang

(washingtonpost)- Thirteen American scholars say they have been barred from traveling to China because of a book they wrote, an incident that raises awkward questions about academic freedom at a time of unprecedented collaboration between U.S. and Chinese universities.

The academics have taken to calling themselves the Xin­jiang 13 to emphasize their shared misfortune. Seven years ago, they assembled a book about Xinjiang, a vast region of western China that has a large Muslim population and an occasionally violent separatist movement.

They say their book triggered a backlash from the Chinese government because of its sensitive topic. Contributors have repeatedly been refused visas, thwarted from returning to the region that is the focus of their careers.

Senior Chinese reporter dies 10 days after being beaten, may related to his reports critical of the local officials, colleagues believe

Committee to Protect Journalists-

New York, December 28, 2010–The death of Sun Hongjie, a senior reporter at the Northern Xinjiang Morning Post, must be fully investigated by regional authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and by central authorities in Beijing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sun died in a hospital in Kuitun today, 10 days after being beaten by several men at a construction site, international news reports said.

At least six young men attacked Sun at the Kuitin construction site, where the reporter had gone to meet a source, according to international news reports. Authorities dismissed journalism-related motives last week, saying the attack stemmed from an online dispute involving a social media acquaintance of Sun.

Nearly 100 children hurt in northwest China school stampede

AFP, Nov. 29, 2010 –

BEIJING — Nearly 100 children were hurt in a stampede Monday at a primary school in China’s far-western Xinjiang region but no deaths have been reported, state media reported.

The accident occurred in the city of Aksu as school children were rushing outside to a playground around lunchtime when some students in the lead tripped and fell, Xinhua news agency said, quoting an unnamed city official.

(photos) China’s Public Shaming Rallies Recall Maoist-Era Tactics

By Lou Ya, Via The Epochtimes, Nov. 17, 2010 –

In a scene that could have been lifted from the Cultural Revolution, 17 Chinese villagers who petitioned against government land-grabs were recently subjected to a public humiliation session by district officials, in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province.

A public, Cultural Revolution-style shaming session in Ankang City, China, Nov. 2, 2010

Human Rights in China Have Worsened in 2010, New U.S. Congressional Annual Report shows

Radio Free Asia, Oct 18, 2010 –

Human rights in the world’s most populous nation have worsened in 2010, according to the new edition of an annual report by a congressionally mandated commission on China.

“We are deeply concerned, as the findings of this Annual Report make clear, that human rights conditions in China over the last year have deteriorated,” the chairman and cochairman of the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC) wrote in a statement.

The 2010 Annual Report, which was released along with a list of more than 1,000 political prisoners currently detained or imprisoned in the country, provides members of the U.S. Congress, administration officials, and the American public with an examination of human rights and the rule of law in China.

Nearly-completed residential building collapse kills eight workers in China

AFP, Oct 3, 2010 –

BEIJING — A four-storey residential building under construction in northern China collapsed, killing eight workers and injuring three others, state media reported on Sunday.

The nearly-completed building collapsed in the city of Xian early Saturday and more than 300 rescue personnel worked until 3 am Sunday (1900 GMT Saturday) to free survivors, Xinhua news agency reported.

Redundant workers protect homes with gas and pesticide in Northwest China

SOH News,Oct. 3, 2010 –

Authorities in Gansu Province have seized a paper mill and are moving to seize surrounding lands. In Zhenyuan County, 400 mill workers were driven out of their homes. Two workers were interviewed by SOH, one of them Mr Liu said the remaining residents were arming themselves with pesticide and gasoline to defend themselves against government officials.

The mill occupies 58,000 square metres of land. It was built over 40 years ago and has fixed assets worth tens of millions of Yuan and cash assets worth 13 million Yuan (AUD$2 million). The local authorities became interested in the property and took control of it. The mill was forced into bankruptcy by the authorities. The company name was changed to the ‘Jiahe Beer Packaging Factory of Qingyang’. The accounts and books were then prepared under the name of a separate company. Tens of millions of dollars of assets were then embezzled.

Explosion attack of police kills 7, in Xijiang, Northwest China

By Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, August 19, 2010 –

BEIJING — An attacker riding a three-wheeled vehicle attacked a contingent of security volunteers Thursday in Aksu city, in China’s restive western region of Xinjiang, killing seven people and wounding 14 others in the first such incident since bloody ethnic rioting shook the area a year ago.

A statement posted late Thursday on the Web site of the autonomous Xinjiang regional government said the volunteers were on patrol and standing in a line when the attacker struck. The statement said five security force members died at the scene, and two others died later in a local hospital.

The attack occurred in Yoganqi township, on the outskirts of Aksu city, on the highway linking Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, to Kashgar in the west, the statement said. ……(more details from The Washington Post)

Over 2,000 Dead Or Missing In Giant Northwest China Landslide

“Then on Sunday a huge landslide in Northern China wiped out a village. Over 2,000 villagers are missing and 127 confirmed dead, according to China Daily.” –from businessinsider.com

images come from a CCTV video-- Zhouqu, Gansu Province, China

images come from a CCTV video-- Zhouqu, Gansu Province, China

Uyghur journalist and website editor sentenced to 15 years in jail for criticising China

Reporters Without Borders, July 24, 2010-

Reporters Without Borders said it was outraged at the harshness of a 15-year prison sentence handed down today to journalist Gheyret Niyaz by a court in Urumqi, in Xinjiang province.

He was arrested in October 2009 following ethnic unrest in Xinjiang in July 2009 and found guilty of “threatening national security” after criticising Chinese official policy towards the Uyghurs, sending news about the riots to foreign journalists and contributing to a website accused of inciting violence.

“We are utterly astonished at the outcome of this trial,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “Gheyret Niyaz did indeed make some criticism of Chinese policy in his region, but he is neither a criminal nor a dissident. He is seen by Uyghurs based abroad as supporting China’s administration of Xinjiang and even shares some of the Chinese government’s views of the summer 2009 unrest.

“In giving him such a heavy sentence and imprisoning other journalists and netizens whose sole crime is to have spoken about these events, the Chinese authorities are not encouraging a negotiated solution. On the contrary, this shocking sentence shows that the authorities put control of news above the reconciliation process. Prisoners of opinion should be released and the verdict against Gheyret Niyaz quashed on appeal”, the organisation added.

Niyaz gave an interview to Hong Kong magazine Yazhou Zhoukan (www.yzzk.com), in July 2009 in which he supported the official version of events that implicated external agents in the rioting, saying that the Islamic Liberation Party, Hizb-ut-Tahrir al Islami, was behind them. He also claimed to have warned the authorities that things were getting out of hand. In the same article he raised the issue of economic inequalities in Xinjiang, as well as some aspects of the struggle against “separatism”.

He also contributed to the website Uighurbiz.cn, a bilingual forum on Uyghur life and culture that the government accused of inciting violence by posting news about clashes between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in another region of the country……. (more details from Reporters Without Borders)

China police detain 13 Uyghur Flood Rescuers

Radio Free Asia, 2010-06-18 –

HONG KONG— Authorities near the Silk Road city of Kashgar have detained around a dozen ethnic Uyghurs after they organized themselves to help local residents hit by huge rainstorms and massive flash flooding, overseas groups and officials said.

“We are all engaged in flood relief work,” said a police officer who answered the phone at Yengisar [in Chinese, Yingjisha] county’s Uchar [in Chinese, Wuqia] police station in the Kashgar region of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

He said local officials had already implemented flood prevention measures in case the floods came back.

But he declined to comment on the reported detentions of 13 Uyghurs for disturbing public order.

“I can’t answer that question,” the officer said.

“Can you get your information from the Internet—we are very busy here,” he said.

An employee who answered the phone at the Wuqia village credit union said the flooding had been going on for three days, and was still causing disruption for local residents, some of whom had been made homeless.

“There was some very heavy rain here,” she said.

“And 330 people had their homes damaged or destroyed.”

Flash flooding

“We can lend them up to a maximum of 20,000 yuan. Some people have asked for 5,000 yuan, so we have made some loans of 5,000 yuan.”

According to official media, heavy flash flooding in Yengisar county caused flooding in villages No. 3, 4, 5, and 6 lasting longer than three hours in a region that had no recorded floods for at least a century, knocking out water supplies, communications, and transportation links.

A large number of houses collapsed, reports said.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, said 13 Uyghur residents had been detained on public order charges after local officials said their assistance efforts had too strong a religious flavor.

“They were detained by the local public security department, and the local authorities said they were disturbing public order,” Raxit said.

“The people were organizing themselves to help people out after the floods, and relaying information of the flood situation everywhere. The government said they were disturbing the peace.”

He said residents had begun to organize themselves in the face of a slow response to the disaster from local officials……(more details from Radio Free Asia)

An Chinese school teacher’s account of Yushu Earthquake (3)

Secret China Staff, May 26, 2010 –

<< previous

Looking for Food from a Heap of Rubble

In the afternoon, we dug out some food from a heap of rubble. Some people even robbed the supermarket and small merchants from the city. A friend of mine from Xining called and asked me about the earthquake. I told him that we had nothing to eat. However, food was a small matter. More serious, was the lack of drinking water. Everyone was very thirsty including the patients. Some people got polluted river water and boiled it for drinking after the water was somewhat settled. We drank very little and gave most of the water to the patients.

The media said that food was not a problem. And that was a lie. We did not see food or water. Some people were lucky enough to rob a truck but most of us had nothing. All we had was what we dug out from the rubble.

The presence of Special Police Forces

At night, there were many special police officers present to direct traffic. The traffic started to move at 12:00pm but the whole day was wasted due to the traffic jams. Because of that, no victims had been rescued.

My students were still under a building. And many people were under collapsed buildings. When I went to the intersection again, I saw some places that had military units and rescue teams, but very few people. The team that was on top of a building was asked to get off by police declaring that a high level official was coming. Soon the roads were cleared. An hour later, Premier Wen Jiabao came. At that point the rescue operation started to move slowly.

The Coming of Premier Wen Jiabao

On May 16, the third day after the earthquake, at 7:00am the special police force was there to watch the roads and make sure no more traffic jams developed. But where were they yesterday when the traffic jam blocked the roads for an entire day? They only showed up because the the premier had arrived.

My students have been buried for two days. But we are too weak to help and so are many of their parents.

I won’t show the pictures and the video. I don’t want to lose my job. Who knows, they may even put me in jail. My family needs me now more than ever. (End)

– Secretchina.com

Related:
– An Chinese school teacher’s account of Yushu Earthquake (1)
– An Chinese school teacher’s account of Yushu Earthquake (2)

An Chinese school teacher’s account of Yushu Earthquake (2)

Secret China Staff, May 26, 2010 –

<< previous

Rescue Team Put on a Show

At 2:00am I rode my motorcycle back to town. In the city I saw the rescue team still working to save people, but I was angry at the fact that only a few people were working, while a lot of rescue team members spent their time chatting and laughing. The locals were telling me, “They were on the building since noon hour. And now it is night and nothing has changed.” They are not saving people but doing a show of saving people.

In addition, many statements made were false. One reporter was telling a lie right in front of us: She said that now it is 2:00am and the rescue team is still working on saving people. Another reporter from a different TV station said that now it is 3am and the rescue team is still working tirelessly to save people. That is a big fat lie! The so-called rescue team, a total less than 10 people, has been on top of a building since lunch hour and has not moved a single stone. The victims under the building were calling for help when suddenly a fire started from inside the building and then was followed by silence. The rescue team did not even try to extinguish the fire!

They were here talking about saving people and did not go anywhere else. My students were all under the collapsed building, but they did not go there. However they said that they went. Honestly, we did not have any rescue team at all.

Plenty of Food and Water for the Rescue Teams but not for the Victims

On May 15, the rescue team did not save any victims. I saw them standing on the same building. At other places, only the locals were saving their relatives or friends. When I rode my motorcycle around the city to look for food, water, tents and quilts, I asked many police for these items. But the police officers all said they had nothing to give away. By then, it was almost noon and the roads were filled with vehicles from adjacent counties. The cars and trucks were loaded with food, tents etc,. Unfortunately, they were all for private usage.

The rescue team stationed above the race track had plenty of food and water. The people from the expedition team, or other rescue teams from certain units, also stayed at the stadium and had plenty food and water. Many families here did not have a tent to sleep in. After I came back from scouting, I found many families were putting up tents. I asked them where they got their tents. They said that they robbed others. By then the street was blocked with vehicles and all the goods on the pickups and trucks were being taken.

Later on, I rode the motorcycle around, but I did not see any more trucks with goods because of the traffic jam. Nothing was moving.(to be cont’d)

– Secretchina.com

Related:
– An Chinese school teacher’s account of Yushu Earthquake (1)

Photos by Google Earth: Pre- and post-quake in qinghai, China

Google Blog –

Pre and post-earthquake images of Qinghai, China

After Quake, Ethnic Tibetans Distrust China Government’s Help

By ANDREW JACOBS, New York Times, April 17, 2010-

JIEGU, China — The Buddhist monks stood atop the jagged remains of a vocational school, struggling to move concrete slabs with pickax shovels and bare hands. Suddenly a cry went out: An arm, clearly lifeless, was poking through the debris.

But before the monks could finish their task, a group of Chinese soldiers who had been relaxing on the school grounds sprang to action. They put on their army caps, waved the monks away, and with a video camera for their unit rolling, quickly extricated the body of a young girl.

The monks stifled their rage and stood below, mumbling a Tibetan prayer for the dead.

“You won’t see the cameras while we are working,” said one of the monks, Ga Tsai, who with 200 others, had driven from their lamasery in Sichuan Province as soon as they heard about the quake.

“We want to save lives. They see this tragedy as an opportunity to make propaganda.”

Since a deadly earthquake nearly flattened this predominantly Tibetan city early Wednesday, killing at least 1,400 people, China’s leadership has treated the quake as a dual emergency — a humanitarian crisis almost three miles above sea level in remote Qinghai Province, and a fresh test of the Communist Party’s ability to keep a lid on dissent among restive Tibetans. …… (new York Times)

Western China Quakes Kill at Least 300 in Qinghai Province

A magnitude 7.1 temblor struck shortly before 8 a.m. in a remote, mountainous area near the border between China’s Qinghai province and the Tibet Autonomous Region, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a 6.9 magnitude quake in southern Qinghai followed by two other temblors in the region.

In Yushu prefecture, an area predominantly inhabited by ethnic Tibetans, witnesses said that many houses had collapsed, according to state media. The prefecture has a population of about 252,000 people, about 97% of whom are Tibetan.

A prefecture official quoted by Xinhua said that in the town of Jiegu near the quake’s epicenter, more than 85% of houses had been knocked down by the quake. Rescuers were digging through the ruble by hand to try to find survivors, Xinhua said.

“Many are buried in the collapsed houses, and there are still lots of others who are injured and being treated at local hospitals,” the local official, Zhuohuaxia told Xinhua. He said local authorities needed excavating equipment and medical supplies.

Guo Yang, a resident of Jiegu interviewed by phone, said: “It is the most devastating thing I’ve ever seen.” Mr. Guo said nearly all the homes in the town had collapsed. “We are busy with rescuing people who are trapped,” he said.

Hundreds of People’s Armed Police were on the scene searching collapsed buildings and thousands more rescuers had been dispatched to the area, state media said.

Earthquakes are a frequent occurrence on the Tibetan plateau, but there are usually few casualties because the area is so sparsely populated. A massive earthquake in May 2008 in Sichuan, in southwestern China, however, left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. (The Wall Street Journal)

Two Tibetan Student writers arrested by 16 armed policemen at Northwest China University

Reporters Without Borders, 9 April 2010 –

Reporters Without Borders condemns the detention of two young Tibetan writers who are studying in Lanzhou, in the northwestern province of Gansu. Identified as Tashi Rabten (pen-name Therang) and Druklo (pen-name Shokjang), they were arrested on 4 April, apparently because of what they have written about the situation in Tibet.

“We fear that these two young Tibetan writers will be mistreated during their first few weeks in detention,” Reporters Without Borders. “We urge the authorities in Gansu province to provide information about what is happening to them. And if their arrests are linked to their writing, we call for their release.”

Tashi Rabten and Druklo were arrested when 16 armed policemen raided their hostel at the Northwest National Minorities University, where they are students. The police searched their rooms, confiscating books in Tibetan, their mobile phones, their laptops and their course material.

Tashi Rabten was the editor of a book in Tibetan called Trakyig (Blood Letter) about the March 2008 unrest in Tibet. Published in January 2009, its sale was stopped by the Chinese authorities because of its “suspicious” political content, and the security forces seized copies already distributed. Thereafter they were kept under surveillance and Tashi Rabten was briefly arrested in July 2009.

“If the government continues to violate our freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought and our private lives, we are surely going to protest,” a student representative at the university told a Tibetan journalist based abroad.

– The Reporters Without Borders

China’s Missing Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng

By JEROME A. COHEN and BETH SCHWANKE, Via New York Times, March 18, 2010 –

Peter Gao is six and wants to be an astronaut. If you ask him why, he’ll explain that he wanted to be a lawyer, but the Chinese government “really hates lawyers.” He’s pretty sure that it likes astronauts.

The Chinese government “disappeared” Peter’s father, Gao Zhisheng, on Feb. 4, 2009. According to various Chinese officials over the past year, Mr. Gao is, “in Beijing,” “gone missing,” “where he should be,” “working in Urumqi,” the capital of China’s northwestern Xinjiang Province, and now “sentenced for subversion.”

We call on the Chinese government to stop stalling and produce Gao Zhisheng: a literal case of habeas corpus.

Mr. Gao’s efforts as one of China’s leading human rights lawyers made his latest detention inevitable. In 2006, after representing individuals persecuted by the government for their religious beliefs, Mr. Gao was convicted of “inciting subversion” and began serving a suspended sentence under 24-hour police surveillance — and harassment.

In 2007, after he wrote an open letter to the U.S. Congress detailing human rights violations in China, authorities again detained and tortured him.

Mr. Gao’s publicly released account of this torture, which included toothpicks in his genitals and electric shocks, ends with the admonition of authorities not to tell anyone of his torture — or be killed.

Mr. Gao’s extraordinary journey to become “China’s conscience” and a recurring nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize began in his family’s traditional home. After time as a coal miner and in the People’s Liberation Army, Mr. Gao took his legal exams without the benefit of university. The government later named him one of China’s 10 best lawyers. And, despite the risks, he began defending those people the government persecutes.

Perhaps even more extraordinary is the Chinese government’s failure to officially acknowledge Mr. Gao’s detention. It’s unmistakable that Beijing is increasing its crackdown on political dissidents; however, the Chinese government’s complete abandonment of even the pretext of the rule of law with regards to Mr. Gao’s detention is unprecedented.

China adds to confusion over missing rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng

DPA Via earthtimes.org, Mar. 16, 2010-

Beijing – China on Tuesday said it had sentenced a leading rights lawyer to three years in prison but it was apparently referring to a sentence passed in 2006, adding to the confusion since the lawyer disappeared 13 months ago. “What I can tell you now is that Gao Zhisheng was sentenced to three years imprisonment suspended for five years for inciting and subverting state power,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

Qin declined to elaborate on his statement or say if he was announcing a new sentence against Gao, referring questions to “judicial authorities.”

China had tried to silence Gao by passing a three-year suspended prison sentence for subversion at a closed trial in December 2006.

Gao, 44, who was nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, was detained by police again in February 2009, and relatives and supporters said they have not seen him since then.

Qin’s comment is the latest in a series of vague and sometimes bizarre statements on Gao’s whereabouts by Chinese officials.

Last month, a Chinese embassy official in Washington told the US-based Dui Hua Foundation that Gao was “working” in Urumqi, the capital of China’s far western region of Xinjiang, and “has been in contact with his wife and relatives in China.”

Gao’s wife, Geng He, who lives in exile in the United States, later denied that she had any recent contact with Gao.

His brother, Gao Zhiyi, was told by a Beijing police officer who detained the lawyer that he “got lost and went missing while out on a walk” on September 25, US-based China Aid and other groups reported in January.

Asked about that report in mid-January, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Gao was “where he should be” but declined to elaborate.

In another statement when asked about Gao’s whereabouts in February, Ma said, “I don’t know where he is. China has 1.3 billion people.”

Gao’s last contact with his brother was a telephone call in early September, when he was only able to say, “I’m OK,” before the line went dead, China Aid said.

Geng and the couple’s two children made a dramatic escape from close police surveillance and arrived in the United States in January 2009 after travelling overland from China to Thailand.

Gao is a self-taught lawyer who built a reputation as a stout defender of people who suffered injustices at the hands of Chinese government officials and the police.

The government closed his Beijing-based Shengzhi law firm in 2005 after he called via the internet for an end to the persecution of members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement who were sent to a re-education camp.

– Earthtimes.org

Dispelling the Lies: ChinaAid Calls for the Truth about Gao Zhisheng

ChinaAid, February 16, 2010 –

CHINAAID— “This is nonsense!” Gao’s wife Geng He furiously refuted the rumor which first broke out on February 12, 2010. In response to the San Francisco-based think tank Dui Hua Foundation’s request for information about Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. said that Gao Zhisheng was alive, working happily in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, more than 1,800 km from Beijing. Around the same time, a Chinese informant then posted photos of Gao Zhisheng online in a Chinese report, claiming he worked in the same company as Gao Zhisheng. He said that Gao was a talkative, even funny man, who had allegedly become a successful operational manager, talking about his wife and family and even “whistling a happy tune” daily.

On February 14th, the story broke to western media, leading to speculation as to whether the reports were valid. One American legal expert Chinese government’s disclosure a “step in the right direction,” but has called the Chinese government’s treatment of Gao’s case highly irregular. Gao’s wife, Geng He has denounced the claim as false, greatly frustrated by the lack of communication and deception. Neither she nor Gao’s brother or sister have been able to contact him, much less acquire “useful information” about his whereabouts and condition.

On February 15th, China Free Press agency Canyu released an article exposing the fake photos and highlighting an interview with Geng He. Tell-tale marks of tampering in the photos include the discrepancy of the time of year, based on Gao wearing a summer shirt while sitting beside a Uyghur man in a winter jacket, as well as striking similarities between the images allegedly taken of Gao very recently, and a set of photos taken before his arrest and torture in 2007. (See the Canyu report)

President of ChinaAid Bob Fu anticipates a more sinister angle to the false reports: “With no evidence to suggest otherwise, this appears to be a ploy by the Chinese government to confuse people and cover up the truth. By telling reporters and advocacy organizations that Gao is in Xinjiang, it will keep them from hunting around Beijing for answers. The Chinese government is just playing games now.”

There has also been evidence to suggest that Gao’s wife and children continue to be held under close surveillance by the Chinese spy network while living in the United States. In the Chinese informant’s report, he referred to Gao’s son accidentally eating a pesticide pallet, and becoming ill. No reports of the event had been recorded prior to that, and Geng He herself only mentioned it in a phone call conversation some months ago. Other details of Gao’s daughter’s recent hospitalization and emotional troubles indicate the informant had access to inside information, which could only be obtained by close monitoring of the family.

The Gao family is not alone. One recent report, released on February 9, 2010, used the stated number of  informants in Kailu County, Inner Mongolia, to estimate the number of Chinese spies at nearly 3% of the Chinese population, a low estimate considering other regions like Xinjiang and Beijing have higher security threats. It has been a stated goal of the Chinese government to use punishment as a preventative measure, relying on paid and unpaid informants to provide timely inside information to preserve stability. (See the report at Telegraph.co.uk).

For the Gao family, the danger is very real. Gao Zhisheng has still made no personal contact with them, and the Chinese government continues to withhold verifiable information about his condition and whereabouts.

ChinaAid urges you to act now. Call on the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to press the Chinese government for the truth. Urge your U.S. Congressman or local representative to denounce the punishment of those who disagree with the Chinese government.

We question the motives of the Chinese government, and urge them to contact Gao’s family directly and to make his information public. We call on the Chinese government to disclose verifiable information about Gao Zhisheng, and to cease the intentional misdirection of those who seek the truth.

For more ways to get involved, visit www.FreeGao.com

– China Aid

Chinese Embassy Says Missing Lawyer Gao Zhisheng is in Xin Jiang

BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese embassy in Washington has said the country’s best known activist lawyer, missing for a year after being taken from his home, is working in the western city of Urumqi, a U.S.-based rights group said late on Saturday.

Gao, a Christian lawyer who helped defend members of China’s banned Falun Gong spiritual group, was abducted from his relative’s home in Shanxi province on Feb 4, 2009. Chinese authorities have not provided consistent information on his fate.

“On Feb 12, the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC informed John Kamm, executive director of The Dui Hua Foundation, that Mr. Gao Zhisheng is working in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and that he has been in contact with his wife and relatives in China,” said the foundation, which campaigns for the rights of prisoners.

At the time of Gao’s disappearance, his wife and children had already escaped from their home, ultimately arriving in Bangkok where they applied for asylum to the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu in January told reporters Gao was “where he is supposed to be,” but the following week said he did not know Gao’s whereabouts.

Gao’s family had feared he was dead, after a cryptic comment from police that he had “lost his way and gone missing” in September.

“This really is a case that calls for ‘habeas corpus’,” said Jerome Cohen, an expert on Chinese legal issues who is active in pressing Gao’s case.

Gao was sentenced to four years in jail for subversion in 2006 but won a good behavior reprieve. He has, however, since been under constant police watch and periods of secretive detention, his wife, Geng He, told Reuters after her escape.

Dui Hua said it was trying confirm the information on Gao’s whereabouts, adding that Gao’s wife had had no contact from him.

Gao had previously published instances when he was tortured while in detention. Self-educated, he had grown disenchanted with the Chinese system while representing other activist lawyers, Falun Gong practitioners and underground Christians.

In 2005, he wrote an open letter to China’s president and premier, calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, which China regards as a dangerous cult.

– The Reuters