Michael Scammel reads from A China More Just by Gao Zhisheng at the 2009 Human Rights Book Fair.

Repeatedly kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured by Chinese authorities for defending the rights of Chinese citizens, the activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng was seized by a dozen police officers on February 4, 2009. In December 2009, Gao’s wife, Geng He, who is residing in the United States after leaving China with their daughter and son in early 2009, received information that Gao was held in detention in Beijing. In A China More Just, published in the United States in 2007, Gao chronicles his life and discusses his ordeals.

From A China More Just

China’s leadership is making a fuss over the idea of “building a harmonious society.” Usually whatever the authorities shout about the most is the thing that is in the most deplorable condition. While discovering deficiencies is not a bad thing, given the values of our current leadership, the thought of them building a harmonious society is like a foolish dream. Ours is a society without justice; a society with no ability to address injustice; a society that has systematically brought about a huge gap between rich and poor, and between social strata; a society in which crooks control the corporate sector and knowingly exploit consumers while being protected by the system; a society without checks and balances (other than by the people’s pens); a society in which individual citizens’ needs do not receive the attention and respect they deserve; a society where the judicial system is unequivocally controlled by the Communist Party and the administrative authorities; a society where the power of the government is under the control of special-interest groups (and inclividuals), treated as a commodity, and wielded on personal whims; a society that has a constitution but continuously shuns any notion of a constitutional government; and a society in which the whole nation looks at the government’s handling of the Tiananmen Massacre and the Falun Gong emotionally instead of rationally. Given all of this, isn’t it beyond the capacity of any human being to build a harmonious society?

With a trembling heart and a trembling pen, I record the tragic experiences of those who have been persecuted in the last six years. Of all the true accounts of incredible violence that I have heard, of all the records of the government’s inhuman torture of its own people, what has shaken me most is the routine practice on the part of the 6-10 Office and the police of assaulting women’s genitals. Of those persecuted, almost every man’s and woman’s genitals and every woman’s breasts have been assaulted in a most vulgar fashion. Almost all who have been persecuted, be they male or female, were stripped naked before being tortured. No words can describe our government’s vulgarity and immorality. Who, that can rightly be called a human being, could possibly stay silent in the face of these facts?

The experiences above were relayed to me by a woman who spoke so rapidly she almost told the entire story in one breath.

“At 4:20 P.M. on October 28, 2005, Ms. Wang Shouhui and Mr. Liu Boyang, mother and son, were followed by Changchun city’s 6-10 Office personnel and illegally arrested. The two were brutally tortured by the police. By about 8 P.M., Liu Boyang, who was only twenty-eight, was dead. About ten days later, his mother was also tortured to death. The bodies of the unfortunate pair are still in the hands of the 6-10 Office. Liu’s father scoured the city for a lawyer, but no one would dare take his case. He said, ‘In this kind of society, it’s harder to live than to die. Living brings more pain. After I take care of their burials, i’ll follow them and leave, too.’”

Finally, with all due respect, I would like to say the following to my fellow countrymen Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. You must summon the courage and moral strength to admit that every part of the political machinery used to torment our people over the past half century is stained with the blood and tears of the innocent. You must summon the courage and moral strength to admit that there is no end in sight to the misery of the Chinese people, who have lived under oppression for thousands of years. You must summon the courage and moral strength to admit that our people have the right to pursue democracy, freedom, the rule of law, and human rights, and that this desire has never been as fervent as it is today. You must summon the courage and moral strength to admit that any attempt to obstruct people’s pursuit of these rights in China today will be in vain. Pardon my frankness, but you cannot deny that the bloodshed our people have seen and experienced remain in their memories. Gentlemen, a word of advice. Only when we take the safety of our afflicted fellow citizens to heart may we be truly safe. Likewise, only when genuinely care about our nation’s future will you have a good future.

May the new year bring Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao peace and good health! May the new year bring a world of difference to all fellow Chinese!

God bless the Chinese people!

Your fellow citizen,
Gao Zhisheng
Changchun City, Jilin Province

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