One Year After the Nobel Peace Prize Award to Liu Xiaobo: Conditions for Political Prisoners and Prospects for Political Reform
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ONE YEAR AFTER THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARD TO LIU XIAOBO: CONDITIONS FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PROSPECTS FOR POLITICAL REFORM HEARING BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION DECEMBER 6, 2011 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 73–764 PDF WASHINGTON : 2012 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS House Senate CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, SHERROD BROWN, Ohio, Cochairman Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana FRANK WOLF, Virginia CARL LEVIN, Michigan DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California EDWARD R. ROYCE, California JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon TIM WALZ, Minnesota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio JAMES RISCH, Idaho MICHAEL HONDA, California EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS SETH D. HARRIS, Department of Labor MARIA OTERO, Department of State FRANCISCO J. SA´ NCHEZ, Department of Commerce KURT M. CAMPBELL, Department of State NISHA DESAI BISWAL, U.S. Agency for International Development PAUL B. PROTIC, Staff Director LAWRENCE T. LIU, Deputy Staff Director (II) CO N T E N T S Page Opening statement of Hon Christopher H. Smith, a U.S. Representative from New Jersey; Chairman, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ....... 1 Walz, Hon. Tim, a U.S. Representative from Minnesota; Ranking Member, Congressional-Executive Commission on China ................................................ 4 Link, Perry, Chancellorial Chair for Innovative Teaching, Comparative Lit- erature and Foreign Languages, University of California, Riverside; Pro- fessor Emeritus, East Asian Studies, Princeton University ............................. 6 Li, Xiaorong, Independent Scholar ......................................................................... 7 Botsford Fraser, Marian, Chair, Writers in Prison Committee of PEN Inter- national ................................................................................................................. 9 Gershman, Carl, President, National Endowment for Democracy ...................... 11 Chai, Ling, Founder, All Girls Allowed ................................................................. 24 Wu, Harry, Executive Director, The Laogai Research Foundation and Laogai Museum ................................................................................................................ 26 Littlejohn, Reggie, President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers ...................... 28 Fu, Bob, Founder and President, ChinaAid Association ...................................... 30 APPENDIX PREPARED STATEMENTS Link, Perry ............................................................................................................... 42 Li, Xiaorong .............................................................................................................. 47 Botsford Fraser, Marian .......................................................................................... 49 Gershman, Carl ........................................................................................................ 53 Chai, Ling ................................................................................................................. 55 Wu, Harry ................................................................................................................ 77 Littlejohn, Reggie ..................................................................................................... 79 Fu, Bob ..................................................................................................................... 82 Smith, Hon. Christopher H. .................................................................................... 84 SUBMISSION FOR THE RECORD The Chen Guangcheng Report: Coercive Family Planning in Linyi, 2005, drafted by Teng Baio, submitted by Reggie Littlejohn ..................................... 87 (III) ONE YEAR AFTER THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE AWARD TO LIU XIAOBO: CONDITIONS FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PROSPECTS FOR POLITICAL REFORM TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2011 CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA, Washington, DC. The hearing was convened, pursuant to notice, at 12:05 p.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith, Chairman, presiding. Also present: Representatives Tim Walz and Frank Wolf. Also present: Anna Brettell, Senior Advisor and Paul Protic, Staff Director, Congressional-Executive Commission on China. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY; CHAIRMAN, CON- GRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA Representative SMITH. The Commission will come to order, and good afternoon, everyone. One year after the independent Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, who as we all know is a Chinese intellectual and democracy advocate, Liu remains isolated in prison thousands of miles away from his wife, who authorities are holding under house arrest in Beijing. In February 2010, I led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in nomi- nating Liu Xiaobo for the prize, at the same time nominating two other persecuted human rights advocates, Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng, to be joint recipients as part of an international tide of support for the awarding of the prize to Liu Xiaobo. The Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his ‘‘long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.’’ H. Res. 1717, which I authored, congratu- lating Liu on the awarding of the prize passed the House with a vote of 402 to 1 exactly one year ago. Chinese authorities, on the other hand, tried Liu and sentenced him to 11 years in prison for ‘‘inciting subversion of state power,’’ the longest known sentence for that crime, simply for exercising his internationally recognized right to free expression. According to Chinese authorities, Liu’s conviction was based on Charter 08 and six essays that he wrote. Liu Xiaobo signed Charter 08, as we know, which is a treatise urging political and legal re- forms in China based on constitutional principles. Charter 08 (1) 2 states that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal val- ues of humankind, and that democracy and constitutional govern- ment are the fundamental framework for protecting these values. Characteristic of the Chinese Government, officials blocked ac- cess to Charter 08. They have questioned, summoned, and other- wise harassed a large number of Chinese citizens for contributing to, or signing, that document. Chinese officials apparently re- mained livid over the awarding of the prize to Liu and they con- tinue in their campaign to malign Liu and the Nobel Committee. In addition, they have nearly suspended political relations with the Norwegian Government, claiming the awarding of the Peace Prize to Liu had done ‘‘great damage’’ to the relations between China and Norway. They blame the Norwegian Government be- cause it ‘‘supported this wrong decision.’’ The apparent violations of Chinese legal protections for defend- ants that have marred Mr. Liu’s case from the outset are numerous and well documented. In addition, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that the Chinese Gov- ernment’s detention of Liu and the house arrest of his wife are in- deed arbitrary. Mr. Liu’s trial and sentence demonstrates once again the Chinese Government’s failure to uphold its international human rights obli- gations and also its failure to abide by procedural norms and safe- guards that meet international standards. While authorities did allow Liu to attend his father’s funeral memorial service in Octo- ber, they continue to limit visits from his wife. Over the past year, authorities have allowed her to visit her husband only on a very few occasions. Beijing authorities are holding Liu’s wife in a de facto form of house arrest. They have cut off telephone and Internet service, and have made her house off-limits to visitors. As we all know, sadly, Liu Xiaobo is not alone. As of September 2011, the CECC’s Political Prisoner Database, perhaps the greatest database in the world, contained information on 1,451 cases of known political or religious prisoners currently detained. Chen Guangcheng is one of those prisoners. Chen is a blind self-taught legal advocate who advocated on behalf of farmers, the disabled, and women forced to undergo abortions. Authorities have held him under a form of house arrest in Linyi County, Shandong Province, since his release from prison in Sep- tember 2011. In effect, Chen’s prison sentence has not ended. Chen served over four years in prison on charges of ‘‘international de- struction of property’’ and ‘‘organizing a group of people to disturb traffic.’’ His real crime, however, was publicizing the abuses of local one- child-per-couple policy officials and trying to use the Chinese legal system to seek justice for the victims of those abuses. For months officials have confined Chen and his wife in their home, beaten them, and subjected them to 24-hour surveillance. Officials have set up checkpoints around the village where Chen lives to prevent journalists and ordinary citizens from visiting him and his family. According to one report, 37 people who tried to enter the village in October