By Chen Guangcheng, originally published by Radio Taiwan International
August 13, 2024, marks the seventh anniversary of the disappearance of Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer who has been nominated for multiple Nobel Peace Prizes.
Gao was a renowned lawyer in China. However, in 2005 he became the target of suppression and persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He had been helping vulnerable groups safeguard their rights and defending Christians who suffered religious persecution, and was therefore regarded as an enemy of the CCP.
In September 2005, the Chinese Communist Party ordered local authorities to abduct human rights activist Guo Feixiong and I in Beijing and illegally detained us back in our hometowns.
In 2006, Gao and his friends drove to Shandong province to support me and were beaten by the CCP’s minions. The T-shirts Gao’s friends wore with my face on them were torn from their bodies and thrown away by the CCP’s lackeys. Shortly after I was sentenced by the Communist Party, Gao was also arrested at his relative’s home and brought to Beijing for detention. He was later sentenced to three years in prison with five years of probation.
However, not long after Gao walked out of court, he was secretly kidnapped by the CCP during his probation period, detained in a black jail, and tortured. For details, please read “Dark Night, Black Hood, and Gang Kidnapping” written by Gao.
Later, after constant pressure from the international community, the Communist Party was forced to let Gao appear briefly – he even gave an interview to the Associated Press. Just days before his sentence was set to expire, the Communist Party shamelessly imprisoned him again. During the next three years, which he mostly spent in solitary confinement, he suffered all kinds of torture. He lost nearly all of his teeth and was unable to eat normally.
After Gao served three years in prison, the Communist Party sent him back to his hometown in northern Shaanxi and illegally detained him again. There, he continued to write articles to advocate for the persecuted, to use his influence to promote China’s democratization, and to call on the international community to pay attention to China’s legal system.
On August 13, 2017, lawyer Gao Zhisheng suddenly disappeared. He seemingly evaporated, with no news about his whereabouts since then.
Gao’s family has called the police many times, asking the CCP authorities to find him and inform them of his whereabouts. However, the CCP has refused to investigate his disappearance.
The brutal persecution of the famous human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng in China is representative of the situation of human rights activists in China. It has also made more people understand the evils of the Chinese Communist Party.
I believe that Gao was kidnapped by the Communist Party and has been detained for seven years. His whereabouts are unknown, and whether or not he is alive or dead is uncertain. Such things happen in modern Chinese society and are unacceptable. It not only marks the shameless obscenity of the Chinese Communist Party, and the complete gangsterization of the entire CCP regime, but the lack of justice for Gao is also a blemish on the free world and even all mankind.
If the Communist Party can use such criminal methods against Gao, then it can use the same methods against anyone. Because of the CCP, law in China is merely a tool to rule the people – law does not ensure social justice nor limit government authority.
Kind-hearted people from all walks of life around the world, governments of democratic countries, and international human rights organizations need to seriously consider how to effectively respond to the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to all human civilization and culture. Making a concerted effort to raise our voices and demand the unconditional release of lawyer Gao Zhisheng from the Chinese Communist regime will be a landmark case for whether Western countries truly pay attention to universal human rights.
It has been seven years since Lawyer Gao Zhisheng, “China’s conscience,” was “disappeared.” Every minute of his and his family’s lives have felt like years. The torture they suffer is unimaginable.
I call on friends from all walks of life to pay close attention to lawyer Gao Zhisheng. In the case of Gao’s kidnapping and disappearance, the free world can fully understand the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party. Let us work together to force the CCP to give back human rights lawyers’ freedoms until lawyer Gao is truly free and there are no more disappearances of lawyers in Communist China.