More than three years after the disappearance of gao Zhisheng, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer, the Chinese Communist Party has yet to give any notice to his family. At the beginning of 2021, news broke that Gao Zhisheng’s sister had committed suicide in despair. Geng He, Gao Zhisheng’s wife, said her sister had attempted suicide twice before, and her brother’s fate had left her living in white terror for a long time.
More than 1,200 days after gao Zhisheng, a Chinese human rights lawyer who has repeatedly represented human rights cases, disappeared again in August 2017, the Chinese Communist Party authorities have yet to give any legal notice or explanation to his family. Gao zhisheng’s wife, Geng He, said it was the longest gao Zhisheng had ever gone missing, and she feared he had been tortured and had strong concerns about his health.
On the first day of the New Year, Geng he posted on Twitter that Gao Zhisheng’s sister, who was in Shandong province, jumped into a river and killed herself in May 2020 because she was so worried about her brother’s fate that she became so depressed that she became ill.
Has been China’s justice department named the “China top ten lawyers” gao zhisheng for persecution of falun gong student representative cases, and published three times from 2004 to 2005 to the Chinese communist party general secretary hu jintao, premier wen jiabao’s then open letter, exposing labor camp torture of falun gong students across the country, asked the Chinese government change of falun gong illegally. Gao zhisheng’s advocacy for the disadvantaged led to his lawyer’s license being revoked in 2006, before authorities seized him from his sister’s home in Shandong province and sentenced him to three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” After being released from prison, he disappeared in 2017.
In 2006, gao Zhisheng went to his sister’s home in Shandong province to visit her brother-in-law, but law enforcement officers broke into his home and arrested him. His sister and children were also taken away and placed under house arrest, geng he told the BBC, who is now in the US. After seeing what had happened to her brother, Gao Zhisheng’s sister lived in constant fear: “When she couldn’t sleep, she became depressed and committed suicide by jumping into a river. The family said it was the third time she had jumped to her death. She was saved after two attempts.”
Geng said his sister’s home in Shandong province had long been monitored by authorities. The Chinese government has pressured the family, including by erecting barriers to the children’s work, to force Gao’s family back home to sever ties with Geng He, who lives in exile in the US. At this point, Geng he choked up: “The last time I spoke to my sister was in 2012. I had two phone calls with my sister during the Spring Festival. There is this state of persecution in the house, and the atmosphere is oppressive.”
During the more than 1,000 days when Gao’s whereabouts were unknown, geng said, his family and lawyers applied for information from the Ministry of Justice and the General Administration of Prisons several times, but after a lot of shuffling, the matter fell through: “People send cards and meal tickets to prisoners of conscience every Chinese New Year, but we couldn’t send them if we wanted to. This rogue government is afraid of everything. What are you afraid of when you have done everything? What’s wrong with telling your family where Gao Zhisheng is?”
The founder of the American civil rights group “humane” China Zhou Feng lock said, nearly 30 years activists and their families for persecuted in indignation and spread the news of the death of the gao zhisheng’s sister because brother is missing for many years, and his face all kinds of, death ultimately choose to against authoritarian rule: “let me very sad, this is the Chinese communist party regime and owe a blood, death is the charge of darkness on the Chinese communist party regime. We pro-democracy activists felt so ashamed that we could not really help them. Only changing this dark regime one day sooner can end this tragedy.”
Chen Jiangang, a Chinese human rights lawyer living in the US, told THE BBC that the Chinese authorities’ reckless crackdown on Democrats was designed to preserve their authoritarian rule: “In the nature of the Communist Party, the persecution of Democrats and their families is not surprising, it is even an inevitable result. The Chinese Communist Party is itself against human rights, and it is a ruthless and vicious organization that does not care about the consequences. So whatever the consequences were in order to maintain domination over the Chinese. As long as the Communist Party rules the country, this is inevitable.”
Last September, Gao zhisheng’s daughter, Geng Ge, delivered a speech at the 45th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, urging The Chinese authorities to immediately release human rights advocates and lawyers, including her father, from enforced disappearances. In addition, the case of Gao Zhisheng’s enforced disappearance was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, and relevant international human rights organizations have demanded that China face up to the human rights issue.
Chen jg, said the Chinese government has long defied the United Nations and other international human rights organizations condemnation of its human rights abuses and pressure, he called on the international community to give China a tougher sanctions to force the government to make concessions: “there is a word called ‘authoritarian ruler can understand the only sound is the sound of the artillery,’ so this kind of communication of civilization for the communist party of China is of no effect. If the international community, the civilized countries just through no substantive appeal, condemnation, it will be of little practical use to the Chinese Communist Party. The whole civilized world should be tougher on China and even tougher on sanctions.”
Chen jiangang believes that the international community should be more vigilant against China. In the long run, he says, the communist Party’s authoritarian rule will not be confined to China, but its authoritarian governance model will surely spread globally.
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