The family of Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), who has been tipped for a Nobel Peace Prize and disappeared weeks ago, has defected to the US, supporters said.
The wife and two children of Gao — who said he was tortured after drawing international attention to China’s rights abuses — sneaked out by foot into Thailand and arrived in the US on Wednesday, rights groups said.
“It was extraordinarily difficult to get us out of China. The friends who helped us escape took enormous pains, some even risking their own lives,” Gao’s wife, Geng He (耿和), told Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin service on Thursday.
The defection came during a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), who has warned US President Barack Obama’s administration to “stop meddling” in Beijing’s affairs over human rights.
Gao, once a prominent lawyer and communist party member, has been an outspoken defender of people seeking redress from the government, including coal miners, underground Christians and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
After he wrote an open letter to the US Congress in 2007, Gao said he was subjected to several weeks of torture including suffering electric shocks to his genitals and having his eyes burned by cigarettes.
In its latest annual human rights report, the US State Department said Gao’s whereabouts were unknown. Gao was considered among the front-runners last year for the Nobel Peace Prize.
New York-based Human Rights in China said Gao was again taken away by state security from his home village in central Shaanxi Province on February 4 — about a month after his family fled — and has not been heard from since.
ChinaAid, a US-based group assisting Christians in communist China, said it helped the family fly to Los Angeles and then to Phoenix, where they are now staying.
Geng told Radio Free Asia that her daughter, 15, and son, 5, were under virtual house arrest in Beijing. The girl attempted suicide several times out of desperation as she was unable to attend school, Geng said.
“I had no place to turn. So I fled with my children,” she said.
The US-based radio service said the family was seeking asylum.
Geng said Gao could not defect as he was under constant police surveillance. She said the family managed to evade detection by traveling by train and then crossing into Thailand on foot.
“We walked day and night. It was extremely hard,” Geng told Radio Free Asia.
She said that members of the Falun Gong helped her escape.
Her husband wrote a rare open letter in 2005 accusing Chinese authorities of persecution, including torture of members of the movement.
Falun Gong, which combines meditation with Buddhist-inspired teachings, was banned in mid-1999 by Beijing as an “evil cult.” China has a long history of folk religious movements challenging the central government’s authority.
Gao, a Christian, resigned his membership in the Chinese Communist Party in 2005 to protest the repression of Falun Gong.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in