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THEIR DAUGHTERS’ APPEAL TO BEIJING:

‘‘LET OUR FATHERS GO!’’

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

DECEMBER 5, 2013

Serial No. 113–140

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

TOM COTTON, Arkansas 

PAUL COOK, California 

GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

TREY RADEL, Florida 

DOUG COLLINS, Georgia 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

LUKE MESSER, Indiana 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

BRADLEY S. SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY III, Massachusetts 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

STEVE STOCKMAN, Texas 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Ms. Lisa Peng, daughter of Peng Ming .................................................................. 5

Ms. Grace Ge Geng, daughter of Gao Zhisheng .................................................... 9

Ms. Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of Wang Bingzhang ............................................... 14

Ms. Bridgette Chen, daughter of Liu Xian Bin ..................................................... 18

Ms. Danielle Wang, daughter of Wang Zhiwen ..................................................... 20

Pastor Bob Fu, founder and president, ChinaAid Association ............................. 30

Mr. Chen Guangfu, brother of Chen Guangcheng and father of Chen Kegui .... 44

Devra Marcus, M.D., physician and activist ......................................................... 53

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Ms. Lisa Peng: Prepared statement ....................................................................... 7

Ms. Grace Ge Geng: Prepared statement .............................................................. 11

Ms. Ti-Anna Wang: Prepared statement ............................................................... 16

Ms. Bridgette Chen: Prepared statement .............................................................. 19

Ms. Danielle Wang: Prepared statement ............................................................... 21

Pastor Bob Fu: Prepared statement ....................................................................... 34

Mr. Chen Guangfu: Prepared statement ............................................................... 47

Devra Marcus, M.D.: Prepared statement ............................................................. 56

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 68

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 69

(1)

THEIR DAUGHTERS’ APPEAL TO BEIJING: 

‘‘LET OUR FATHERS GO!’’

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11 o’clock a.m., in 

room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. 

Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order and good morning to 

everyone. When China bullies, incarcerates, tortures, and even executes a prisoner of conscience, their entire family and friends suffer 

an excruciating sense of loss, bewilderment, emotional pain, and 

agony. Often members of the family are themselves subjected to interrogation, mistreatment, and house arrest in order to amplify the 

hurt. 

In a very real sense, everyone close to a prisoner of conscience 

goes to jail and lives a seemingly unending nightmare. Every day, 

family and friends are left to wonder what terrible abuse awaits 

Dad or Mom or a brother, sister or child. Every day, the tears flow. 

The people who rule China today with an iron fist resort to these 

ugly methods of control in the mistaken assumption that the people, the masses, can’t be trusted to govern themselves, practice 

their faith as they see fit, or create a family. China’s barbaric onechild-per-couple policy, for example, in effect since 1979, continues 

despite some of the hyperbole about reform, unabated to make 

brothers and sisters illegal and relies on ruinous fines and penalties, forced abortion, and coercive sterilization, crimes against humanity, to achieve its ends. And all ‘‘news’’ content and commentary in cyberspace, on TV, radio or in print media in China 

today continues to be strictly controlled and manipulated by the 

Communist Party. 

The Chinese Government today is in the business of breaking 

minds, bodies, and hearts. The repression is systematic, pervasive, 

unrelenting, and unnecessary. That is because the people of China 

love their nation and they do deserve better treatment. Even heroic 

persons like Chen Guangcheng, who is with us today, and his dear 

wife who is equally brave; Wei Jingsheng, Rebiya Kadeer, Bishop 

Su of Baoding, Harry Wu and countless others who have demonstrated by their extraordinary perseverance and indomitable will 

2

to advance bedrock human rights principles regardless of cost, 

carry the indelible scars of unspeakable mistreatment. 

The people who rule China today employ these ugly methods of 

control to prop up their own political power and increase their personal wealth. China, a great nation, deserves better. 

Far too many of us who live in freedom often fail to exert ourselves in a meaningful way to assist prisoners of conscience and 

their loved ones, in China, and frankly, elsewhere. Far too many 

of us fail to empathize with their plight or to see what is just below 

the facade of the purported harmonious society. 

How can it be that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu 

Xiaobo remains in prison while his wife, Liu Xia, is forced to endure the extreme isolation of house arrest and is now reportedly 

experiencing severe depression? 

Perhaps we are uninformed or too busy or prefer to look askance. 

However, with so much preventable suffering being endured by so 

many prisoners of conscience and their families in China today, the 

time has surely come for a more serious and sustained defense of 

these heroic individuals and their noble causes. All of us, including 

the Chinese Government, have a duty to protect. 

Today, we will hear the cries for release and freedom from five 

remarkable daughters on behalf of their wrongly imprisoned fathers and from a dad on behalf of his unjustly jailed son. This is 

an appeal directly to Beijing. This is an appeal from five young 

women on behalf of their fathers who they miss so deeply. We hope 

that Beijing will be listening. 

We will also hear expert testimony from a previously incarcerated Christian pastor who cares deeply for the vulnerable and at 

risk, and another human rights activist who was who was detained 

in China after an attempt to visit a dissident. I will provide the introductions as we go to our panels. 

I would now like to yield to my good friend and colleague, Mr. 

Pittenger, for any comments that he might have. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for inviting me and 

allowing me to make an opening statement. I thank you for the 

over 30 years, that I have known you, that you have been faithful 

to the commitment of those who are persecuted for their religious 

faith, for their freedoms of conscience, and for your commitment to 

bring liberty to these individuals. 

I want to thank you for the leadership that you are bringing to 

this discussion which is so important today for all Americans to 

know and to hear, and as well as for Beijing to hear this important 

message. 

I would like to thank these brave witnesses, those who I met earlier today, for appearing before us and I look forward to hearing 

your testimony. 

The issues of human rights, religious liberties, and the rule of 

law in China have been of great importance to me my entire adult 

life. These are issues that I have been dedicated to since I graduated from college and with my 10 years of service with Campus 

Crusade for Christ serving as the president of that organization, 

Dr. Bill Bright, we spent much time overseas and are aware very 

much of the plight of the believers in China and various parts of 

the world. 

3

The United States must remain committed to monitoring the 

continued violation of the rule of law by the Chinese and stand 

with those committed to ending the persecution of Chinese citizens 

for practicing their religious beliefs, for freedoms of conscience, and 

striving for democracy. 

As a Member of Congress, I take an active role on these issues 

as a commissioner on the Congressional-Executive Commission on 

China. America must be the unwavering light for religious freedom, 

freedoms of conscience, and political freedom throughout the world. 

Our stance on issues relating to these freedoms must be resounding. 

As we bring light onto China’s appalling record of human rights 

violations and persecutions of believers of all faiths, we must call 

on them to release their political and freedoms of conscience prisoners. China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998, but 15 years later, they have still not ratified 

the covenant. The time is now for China to take real meaningful 

steps toward reform. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the privilege of being here and I 

yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Pittenger, and for your 

leadership on religious freedom issues and issues related to human 

rights in China especially. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Yes, sir. 

Mr. SMITH. I would like to now welcome our very distinguished 

panel of five daughters to the witness table and I will introduce 

and if they could come and then make their presentations. 

We will begin first with Lisa Peng, a daughter of Peng Ming. 

Lisa’s father, Peng Ming, founder of China Development Federation 

was framed by the Chinese Communists in 1999 and imprisoned 

for 11⁄2 years. When he was released from the labor camp, Mr. 

Peng fled to Thailand and arrived in the United States in 2001. 

There, he founded China Federal Development Committee. In 

2004, Peng was trapped by Chinese special agents and kidnapped 

to China. In 2005, he was sentenced to life in prison on the false 

charge of organizing and leading a terrorist organization. Lisa 

Peng, his 17-year-old daughter, our witness, was born in Beijing 

and suffered doubly as a second child by being denied official, legal 

recognition. Her family fled political persecution in 2000 and was 

accepted by the United States as a U.N. refugee in 2001. 

Lisa is currently a senior at Laurel School in Cleveland, Ohio. 

She is the principal keyboardist of the Cleveland Youth Orchestra, 

and was a featured high school Lincoln-Douglas Debater at the 

City Club of Cleveland, Ohio. 

Lisa, thank you, and welcome. 

We will then hear from Grace Ge Geng, who is the 20-year-old 

daughter of imprisoned Chinese human rights lawyer, Gao 

Zhisheng, was convicted of inciting subversion of state power and 

sentenced to a 3-year prison term. After being arrested and released several times from 2006 to 2010, Gao Zhisheng was accused 

of violating the terms of his parole and sent back to jail to serve 

his 3-year term. Many times during this period Gao disappeared. 

He is currently incarcerated in a prison in far western Xinjiang. 

4

During years of her father’s disappearance and torture under 

Chinese Government persecution, Grace, along with her mom, 

Geng He, also experienced tremendous harassment, intimidation, 

and beatings. She was deprived of her educational opportunity as 

well. Unable to live a normal life anywhere, Grace, her mom, and 

her little brother, Peter Gao, fled to the United States before Gao’s 

2009 re-arrest and re-disappearance. Grace now lives in California 

and is a sophomore in De Anza College in California. Welcome, 

Grace. 

We will then hear from Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of Wang 

Bingzhang. She was born in 1989 and was named to commemorate 

the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Soon after her 

13th birthday, her father, a veteran democracy activist disappeared. After 6 months of secret custody, the Chinese Government announced Wang Bingzhang’s arrest. He was subsequently 

sentenced to life imprisonment on false charges of espionage and 

terrorism. Ti-Anna has spent much of her time and energy working 

for her father’s freedom. This journey has taken her around the 

world in a process of discovery of the ideals that her name embodies and efforts have been fictionalized into a book of young 

adult fiction titled ‘‘Nine Days’’ by Fred Hiatt, which I encourage 

people to read. It is a wonderful book. I originally got it from the 

Library of Congress when it was published and I thank him for 

bringing light to many of the issues here, but especially to Ti-Anna. 

Ti-Anna graduated from McGill University with a degree in East 

Asian Studies and recently spent a year studying Mandarin in Taipei. Currently, she is advocating full-time for her father’s release. 

We will then hear from Bridgette Chen. Many of us know that 

Bridgette’s dad, Liu Xianbin, who used the pen name Wan 

Xianming. He was one of the original signers of Charter 08 and 

participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest. Liu was first 

arrested in 1991 and held in Beijing’s infamous Qiugcheng Prison. 

There he served 21⁄2 years for so-called ‘‘counter-revolutionary incitement.’’ After being released, Liu was sentenced again to a 13-

year prison term for ‘‘inciting subversion of state power.’’ After his 

release, he was detained in June 2010 and then sentenced to a 10-

year prison term in March 2011, again for ‘‘inciting subversion of 

state power,’’ whatever that is. 

Bridgette’s father has been in prison for almost all of her life. In 

2011, after the Chinese Government refused to give Bridgette’s 

mother a passport, Bridgette fled China and arrived alone in the 

United States. Now just 16, Bridgette will speak up for her dad 

and for her family as a witness. 

Next, we will hear from Danielle Wang, on behalf of her father, 

Wang Zhiwen, a PRC Ministry of Railways engineer who became 

a Falun Gong practitioner in 1992. On July 20, 1999, Wang was 

seized from his bed by police and taken away. This was the same 

day the Chinese Communist Party began its crackdown on the 

Falun Gong. On December 26, 1999, Wang was sentenced to 16 

years in prison. The sentencing trial, in which Wang was one of the 

four defendants, was nationally broadcast and it was clear to viewers that defendants had been physically abused. The four were convicted of organizing and using a heretical organization that caused 

death, another big lie, and illegally obtaining state secrets. 

5

Wang Zhiwen’s daughter, Danielle, is a U.S. citizen. Since her father’s arrest, she has been working tirelessly to call for his release 

through public events, hunger strikes, sit-ins at Chinese consulates, and speaking out at various events around the world. 

Danielle has not been able to get back to China since she arrived 

in the U.S. in 1998. She hasn’t been able to speak with her father 

since July 1999. It is her hope that one day soon she can be reunited with her mom and dad as they rebuild their lives together. 

Thank you, ladies, for your bravery, your courage, your extraordinary love which has been ongoing for so many years. Frankly, we 

are all moved by your loss, which God willing, will be turned into 

a release. And when you speak today, know that you are speaking 

right to the Government of China because my hope and prayer is 

that they will be listening. If we can begin now. 

STATEMENT OF MS. LISA PENG, DAUGHTER OF PENG MING 

Ms. PENG. I am Lisa Peng, daughter of political dissident Mr. 

Peng Ming. I would first like to thank you for reaffirming the universal values of freedom, democracy, and justice for my father, and 

other dissidents like him. I know that my father would be very 

grateful for your efforts to revive his mission. 

My father, Mr. Peng Ming, is an environmentalist, an economist, 

and a human rights activist. He is the author of The Fourth Landmark, a book on China’s economic and political growth that was 

sponsored by the Ford Foundation. He was also the founder and 

president of China Development Union, an organization which 

sponsored think tanks that gave his fellow Chinese citizens the opportunity to discuss highly censored topics like freedom, democracy, 

and justice. As a result of his political activism, in 1999, my father 

was sentenced to 18 months of ‘‘reeducation through labor’’ camp. 

At the time, I was 2 years old. Upon his release, my father was 

faced with the possibility of a second arrest, and so my family fled 

from political persecution in China to the United States as U.N. 

refugees in 2001. But 18 months of labor camp did not stop my father from continuing to stand up for human rights. In 2004, when 

I was 8 years old, my father went to Thailand to establish a safe 

haven for persecuted refugees like himself. There, he was lured by 

eight Chinese secret police to the border of Thailand and Burma, 

where he was kidnapped at gunpoint and brought back to China, 

the country that had persecuted him in 1999, the country that now 

sentenced him to life in prison. 

The United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention has 

determined that deprivation of my father’s liberty is arbitrary and 

is in contravention of articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Furthermore, my father is a U.S.-based dissident with U.N. refugee status who escaped political persecution 

in China. Therefore, his kidnapping is in violation of the principle 

of non-refoulment, which forbids the return of a victim of persecution to their persecutor. My father has also been arbitrarily deprived of his right to due process, as he was denied access to a lawyer and to a jury of his peers. 

Although my father has been denied the exercise of his right to 

freedom of expression, he continues to exercise physically and mentally. Despite nearly 10 years in prison suffering heart attacks, arVerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:09 Jun 03, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131205\85791 SHIRL
6

thritis, malnutrition, and kidney stones with no medical care, my 

father still persists and remains hopeful. It is this hope that my 

father has instilled in me despite the thousands of miles that have 

separated him from nearly a decade of my life, a decade during 

which I have been privileged to receive an American education and 

learn about freedom, democracy, and justice, but a decade during 

which my father has remained imprisoned for fighting to secure 

those very same values. 

As an American citizen, I cannot merely stand by and tacitly approve as these fundamental freedoms are undermined. It is Congress’ unwavering dedication to upholding those values and unrelenting efforts to free prisoners of conscience that give me hope for 

the future, for the possibility of telling my father in person how 

much we have all cared about his health and his dream for China’s 

future. I hope that my father will first and foremost be given proper medical attention and visitation rights, and ultimately I seek his 

release. 

I join with my fellow sisters here today to request that Vice 

President Biden ask Chinese leaders to release our fathers, and to 

request an Oval Office meeting with President Obama to share our 

stories. I know that my dream to be reunited with my father and 

my father’s dream for his country can come true with your support, 

persistence, and affirmation of the universal and fundamental values of our country: Freedom, democracy, and justice. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Peng follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much for your testimony. We have 

been joined by Congressman Mark Meadows. 

Mr. Meadows, and then we will go to Ms. Geng. 

Mr. MEADOWS. I would love to hear from you. I will make one 

brief statement because your testimony right now just spoke to 

that is that this is a story that needs to continue to be told. The 

chairman has dedicated his life to making sure that it is heard. I 

am privileged and honored to be part of the support to do just that. 

We will not stop until families have been reunited and that truly 

that this atrocity is taken from the face of not only your country, 

but many countries this world. 

There is William Wilberforce, who fought for many years to end 

slavery, and today we look out and we see a different kind of slavery that is happening. So let us continue on in the effort of the William Wilberforces of the world and I just applaud you for being 

here and I thank the chairman for his dedication. I yield. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Meadows, thank you very much for your comments and for your leadership as well. I would like to now go to 

Ms. Geng. 

STATEMENT OF MS. GRACE GE GENG, DAUGHTER OF GAO 

ZHISHENG 

Ms. GENG. Dear honorable friends, I am thankful for you giving 

me this opportunity at this hearing so I can speak up for my dad, 

human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. I am very grateful for the U.S. 

Congress for caring about my father’s case. I am Attorney Gao’s 

daughter, Grace. I was born in a happy, harmonious family, with 

Mom and Dad’s loving care, and relatives and friends around. I had 

been happy and never felt lonely. But at the age of 13, my life has 

turned upside down. On October 15, 2006, policemen kidnapped my 

father at my aunt’s home in Shandong Province, because of my father’s taking up and investigating the cases of the persecuted faith 

groups. On the very same day, a group of policemen forcibly broke 

into my house at Beijing. Since then, six to seven policemen have 

been stationed at my house every day. There has been house arrest 

for me, my mom, and young brother with surveillance 24 hours a 

day and 7 days a week, including watching over our sleep and even 

going to our bathroom. In order to monitor us tightly, they didn’t 

allow me and my 3-year-old kindergarten brother to go to school. 

Under my mom’s death protest by turning on the gas on the stove, 

the policemen finally agreed to our rights of education, but still 

under the severe surveillance of policemen. 

I had to ride in the police car to school every day. There were 

six or seven policemen accompanying me to school. They always 

abusively insulted my father in the police car. One day on the way 

to school, there were two people talking along the roadside and one 

policeman pointed to them and said, ‘‘Aren’t they Gao Zhisheng 

and Hu Jia chatting?’’ Another policeman followed-up immediately 

and said that ‘‘Yes, they are gay friends,’’ and then they all laughed 

weirdly. That’s how I started my day of school each day. Policemen 

went in and sat behind me in the classroom in each class, including 

music course. The severe surveillance was applied to my toileting, 

too. They went in the restroom with me and did not let me close 

the door. One of the most annoying things is that my teacher once 

10

said in front of the whole class: ‘‘None of you can bring cell phone 

to school, if Grace uses your cell phone, you will face serious political charges.’’ Also, my computer class in the school was cut off. My 

spirit and nerves almost collapsed, after my father was taken away 

from us. I had to endure the pressure in my day-to-day life, suffered discrimination from classmates and teachers, and was forced 

to experience the loneliness at young age. I lost all my sense of security. 

My 3-year-old brother also had to sit in the police car to classes. 

His kindergarten classroom is the only room with a surveillance 

camera in the whole nursery. 

In September 2008, the policemen did not allow me to go to 

school. This prompted our determination to leave China to escape 

this unbearable mistreatment, partly for education. Under friends’ 

help, my mother took me and my brother to flee China, and came 

to the United States. Coming to this land of free, I did not have 

a trace of excitement. I missed my father so much. Combined with 

the accumulated worries about my father, I couldn’t take it anymore and experienced a complete nervous breakdown. The first 

Christmas night in the United States, I was admitted into the hospital. 

I have been living in the United States for nearly 5 years now. 

I couldn’t hear my father’s voice nor received his letters or word 

about current situation. I miss him so much. The most recent news 

was on this past January that my uncle went to the prison to see 

him. My uncle was not allowed to release any information about 

my father by the Beijing Authority. It is almost another year since 

then. For various reasons and regulations, they did not allow my 

family members to see my father. My grandma, grandpa, three 

aunts, his brothers, sisters, and all other relatives, all my relatives’ 

names were so-called blacklisted. They were deprived the basic 

rights of even getting a passport. Eight years passed, the persecution on my father is not only still continuing, but also extends to 

all of his family members. Living in the freest country with the 

world it has been sour in my heart. The freedom has not yet been 

open to me or my family. 

My younger brother tearfully said to me once, ‘‘I really couldn’t 

remember Daddy’s face and figure; I am no longer familiar with his 

voice.’’

Today, gathering my courage, I come and speak up of my story 

and injustice suffered. I want to let you know that my father is still 

behind the bars, and my mom is in poor health, struggling to support the family. I need to go school to complete my education, and 

my brother is still small. How individuals or a family can constantly fight with a huge country that has made our family’s suffering so long. I hope the U.S. Government and the people can hear 

our hopeless voice and act right now. I know that only you can help 

me get back to my normal life, comfort my brother’s young heart 

and feelings, help my father to be released with peace and get my 

reunited. Thanks. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Geng follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Ms. Geng, thank you so much for your testimony. 

Ms. Ti-Anna Wang. 

STATEMENT OF MS. TI-ANNA WANG, DAUGHTER OF WANG 

BINGZHANG 

Ms. TI-ANNA WANG. Thank you honorable Members of Congress 

for giving me the opportunity to testify today. My name is Ti-Anna 

Wang, and as the world prepares to commemorate International 

Human Rights Day, I would like to tell you about my father, Wang 

Bingzhang, a political prisoner currently serving a life sentence in 

China. 

My father, Wang Bingzhang, is a New York-based, permanent 

U.S. resident and a prisoner of conscience currently serving the 

11th year of a life sentence for his pioneering work in pro-democracy activism. He is the founder of the overseas Chinese democracy 

movement and dedicated his life to promoting rule of law, freedom 

and human rights in China by starting the dissident magazine, 

China Spring, and several organizations opposing the Communist 

government. 

In 2002, my father was kidnapped in Vietnam and forced back 

into China where he was taken into custody by Chinese police. 

After being held incommunicado for 6 months, he was subjected to 

a sham trial and found guilty of ‘‘espionage’’ and ‘‘terrorism.’’ My 

father was sentenced to life in prison and has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement ever since. 

In a country without meaningful rule of law, my family has no 

means to legally appeal my father’s conviction, despite having secured exonerating evidence for the graver charges against him. The 

lawyers we have retained on his behalf are routinely intimidated 

by authorities, obstructed from visiting him, and threatened with 

disbarment. 

My father will be turning 67 in a few weeks. The past decade of 

confinement has taken an irreversible toll on his physical and mental health. While he languishes in prison, I have spent the past 

decade campaigning for his release by telling his story on public 

platforms and lobbying the American and Canadian Governments 

for assistance. As a result, the Chinese Government apparently decided that I too needed to be punished. Since I began speaking in 

public, the Chinese Government has refused to issue me a visa. It 

is now been 5 years since I have been able to visit my father. 

I am joined here today by four young women whose circumstances are disturbingly similar to my own. Each of us have 

had our young lives defined by our father’s wrongful imprisonment. 

So I speak on behalf of the five of us when I urge the United States 

to intervene more assertively on our behalves. 

First, I unabashedly ask the leaders of the U.S. Government, including President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State 

Kerry, and Ambassador Power to seize all diplomatic opportunities 

with China to seek the release of our fathers. I believe high-level 

diplomacy is our fathers’ best chance for freedom, and their releases must be discussed on occasions such as Vice President 

Biden’s recent trip to Beijing. I request the help of all Members of 

Congress in conveying this message to the administration and compelling them to act on our behalves. 

15

Second, I ask the Obama administration to meet with the five of 

us and listen to our first hand experiences as witnesses of China’s 

human rights abuse. I want our stories and efforts to be heard, acknowledged, and taken into serious consideration when the U.S. 

devises its foreign policy with China. And again, I ask Members of 

Congress to help us secure such a meeting with top U.S. leadership. 

I would like to end my statement by reminding everyone that it 

was the very values espoused by the U.S. Government and other 

democracies that inspired activists like our fathers. If we cannot 

ask this government and its leaders to advocate for their release, 

to whom else can we turn? 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Ti-Anna Wang follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you for your extraordinary testimony. 

Ms. Chen. 

STATEMENT OF MS. BRIDGETTE CHEN, DAUGHTER OF LIU 

XIAN BIN 

Ms. CHEN. Dear honorable friends, my name is Bridgette. Today, 

I want to simply introduce the current situation of my father, Liu 

Xian Bin, as a daughter and a witness. My father has been in prison three times which totals up to 14 years because of his political 

views. Like every other parent, my dad has always wanted to take 

care of me as I grew up, yet he was absent from my childhood until 

I was 11. When he was released from prison in 2008, it was so 

hard for him to believe that I had already grown up. However, he 

was once again taken away from my life by the policemen in June, 

2010. Therefore, I came to the U.S., and the distance between my 

dad and me was lengthened. Moreover, my mom was unable to 

leave China since the government would not grant her a passport. 

Because of this, my family was separated in three different places: 

My father is in an actual prison, and my mom is in an invisible 

prison. As a daughter, all I want is the reunion of my family, and 

the completion of my parents’ marriage. However this simple wish 

became unrealistic in China, and my dad was convicted of inciting 

subversion of state power just because he has told the truth and 

done what is righteous. 

Life in prison must have been really hard for my dad, but fortunately, we can still encourage each other by mailing. In the newest 

letter from my dad, he wrote,

‘‘My child, your complaint of your ugly handwriting has made 

me feel guilty, for if I was with you when you were little, I 

would have taught you a beautiful cursive. The absence of me 

has made this family incomplete, and it must has been difficult 

for both you and your mom when I am not by your side. So 

I can only express my love through these letters so that you 

would still feel my love for you even when I am not here with 

you. Never stop being virtuous and kindhearted, for even 

though kind people has always been treated unjustly in this 

chaotic world, they will be blessed and remembered eventually.’’

At the end of the letter, he writes,

‘‘Your happiness and confidence in the United States has comforted me. You know what, all a parent want is to see his children live happily, healthily, and peacefully.’’

Like my dad mentioned in this letter, kind people will be blessed 

eventually. I hope and believe, one day my dad, and those who 

have suffered for human rights and justice in the world as the 

China 18, will eventually receive the freedom they deserve, the 

freedom of both their bodies and souls. Therefore, I sincerely ask 

the U.S. Government, Mr. Biden, and President Obama to concern 

more of the families of prisoners of conscience and help us to free 

our fathers. And I ask for an Oval Office meeting with President 

Obama for a more direct and detailed conversation in order to reunite our families. And dear friends, please keep helping us to free 

19

all the prisoners of conscience and to keep truth and justice for 

every human being. Just like Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, everyone deserves the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

There was misery and fear in the past, but there is more hope 

ahead of us. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Chen follows:]


85791d.eps
20

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Chen, thank you very much. 

Ms. Wang. 

STATEMENT OF MS. DANIELLE WANG, DAUGHTER OF WANG 

ZHIWEN 

Ms. DANIELLE WANG. Thank you to the organizers for including 

my dad’s story in this event. In a way, Zhiwen Wang can stand in 

for millions of Falun Dafa practitioners in China living under persecution by the Chinese regime. All of the victims being honored 

here and their families have endured many hardships that should 

have never come about. Yet the fact that we are standing here 

today with all of you in the audience shows that there will always 

be people standing up for justice and the greater good in the world. 

The holiday season is coming up again. Here in the United 

States, many families are getting ready to gather for Christmas 

and New Year’s. In China, we would be starting to look forward to 

Chinese New Year. But this time of year is always bittersweet for 

me, because of the painful absence in my family since my father’s 

summary arrest and detention in July 1999. He was targeted for 

no more than his peaceful practice of Falun Dafa, and he has been 

gone for over 14 years. 

My Dad was born in 1949, the same year as the People’s Republic of China. He served his country throughout his long career, including as an engineer at the PRC Ministry of Railways. He began 

practicing Falun Gong in 1992. Over the next 5 years, he became 

a volunteer contact person for Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing, 

teaching the exercises, meditation practice, and principles of truth, 

compassion, and tolerance. 

In the early morning of July 20, 1999, according to eyewitness 

accounts from our neighbors, my father was seized from his bed by 

police and taken away in waiting police vans. He was subjected to 

physical abuse. The tortures includes his teeth being pulled out, all 

his collar bones were smashed. They put bamboo sticks and pierced 

all his fingers. He suffered numerous beatings. No sleep for 7 days. 

I have in my hand a wooden stick that I recently obtained from 

China. Fifteen years, that is the only thing I get from him. That 

was a polished wood stick that he polished with his hands in jail. 

It is really smooth, but that is the only thing so far I ever got from 

him. Being away from my dad, without his guidance is very hard. 

I hope that the decisions I have made in my life will make him 

feel really, really proud. 

On my wedding day, we placed a single rose in his chair to symbolize his absence and celebrate his place in my life. I still have 

that rose, it has been dried and discolored. I really hope that he 

can be always with me. 

Throughout the past decade and a half, I have been working to 

get my father released. Though I am only one person, with limited 

abilities, time, and resources, I have always felt obligated to dedicate 100 percent of my effort to raising awareness of my father’s 

unlawful arrest and detention for no more than his spiritual beliefs. 

I would like to bring my dad home one day, so here, I want to 

ask you as Congress to ask the Obama administration to meet with 

U.S. five daughters to hear our stories and bring him home. I also 

21

want to speak on the phone with my father. I want to channel twoway communication with my father. I want him to be released safely from jail and give him a life here in America. 

And finally, last, I want all of the Falun Gong practitioners in 

prison in China be released. I really hope that happens. It is really 

hard to go on and I never truly felt that happy ever, ever since my 

dad was arrested. And all the daughters here, they are so much 

younger than me. I just hope they don’t go through what I go 

through for 15 years. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Danielle Wang follows:]


85791e-1.eps
22


85791e-2.eps
23


85791e-3.eps
24

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Wang, thank you. And your testimonies need to 

be heard by the President of the United States, the Vice President, 

Members of the Congress, House, and Senate, members of the U.N. 

I find it appalling that on November 12, 2013, China was elected 

to serve as a member in good standing on the U.N. Human Rights 

Council. It seems to me that your testimonies—and we will send 

your testimonies to every member on the U.N. Human Rights 

Council, as well as to every head of delegation at the United Nations and Ban Ki Moon as well—they need to hear the extraordinary agony that you and so many like you suffer as a result of 

having your dads and other family members in other cases ripped 

away from you. I can assure you, we will do serious follow up to 

make sure that the five daughters and your testimonies are heard 

by a greater number of people. 

I respectfully ask that the press amplify not just for today, but 

in a serious and sustained way the plight of your dads and other 

people, because you are not exceptions. You are the pattern. You 

are the norm in China today. And I can assure you that our human 

rights subcommittee will continue doggedly to try to reach the 

hearts and minds of our own Government officials so that this is 

not a talking point on page five, if it is that at all, and that Xi 

Jinping and others in the leadership take seriously the damage 

they are doing to the people over which they rule. 

I do believe your fathers would be extraordinarily proud of you 

being here and for your tenacious defense of them for so many 

years. I mean what love, what compassion, what empathy. Five 

brave, compassionate young women from China, you do your countrymen and countrywomen a great service. Americans should see 

this is the pride of China sitting here and I am in awe, frankly, 

of each of you and I thank you for your testimonies. 

As a source of perhaps some hope, immediately behind you sits 

Chen Guangcheng and Yuan Weijin, his wife, who suffered 5 years 

of imprisonment and house arrest and as you all know, he made 

a herculean journey to the U.S. Embassy and thankfully by the 

grace of God, he now is a free man, but his nephew is not and we 

will hear from the father of his nephew in our next panel. But 

there is hope and I can assure you that if we do more and make 

this the priority, not a distant page five asterisk priority, which it 

is now in far too many policymakers’ minds, it will help effectuate 

the release of the innocent fathers who are suffering so bravely and 

so horribly in Chinese Laogai and prisons and detention centers. 

Just a very brief question, if all of you could speak directly to Xi 

Jinping, maybe in a minute or so and to President Obama. I did 

notice I think at least two of you, maybe more, suggested a White 

House meeting. I think that would be a tremendous idea. The 

President needs to hear you, look you in the eyes and hear what 

you have got to say. When we meet—and I do this as well, when 

you meet with high government officials, with all the trappings of 

office, what really happens on the ground, especially with ubiquitous secret police, that are in the employ of the Government of 

China, is that a whole different story is told as to what really occurs, day in and day out, especially in the prison camps and the 

Laogai throughout China. 

25

So what would you say to Xi Jinping? What would you say to 

President Obama? What would you say to Ban Ki Moon? Because 

certainly those three individuals and others, could have a huge effect on the plights of your fathers. 

Ms. Peng. 

Ms. PENG. Many people have asked me why have I, as a 17-yearold, sort of given up a part of my life, my childhood, to go to Taiwan, to go to DC to testify on behalf of my father, and what I hope 

to accomplish. The answer to that question is I was a second child 

in China, so I wasn’t granted official recognition. I had no right to 

an education. So when we fled political persecution, because of my 

father’s political activism and the fact that I was accepted by the 

United States and granted citizenship years ago, I feel immensely 

grateful to have been able to receive such a great American education and to learn about these issues of human rights, democracy, 

justice, and freedom. And therefore, I feel that it is my moral obligation, not just to my father, not just to the China 18, not just to 

the thousands of prisoners in China, but to these fundamental values that every single human being on this planet deserves. 

So therefore, I think by not speaking out, by not doing anything, 

by merely watching and looking as these atrocities continue to 

occur, that I will be sending the wrong message to China, to President Xi Jinping. The message that I don’t want to send is that it 

is okay, is that I will merely watch by and that is a form of tacit 

consent. So it is my belief that any little step I can do, any time 

I have the opportunity to share my story, to share my story of the 

American dream which was inspired by President Obama’s American dream as well, I really hope that he will continue to press for 

the release of my father and the fathers of the young ladies with 

us today and to make human rights the forefront of our agenda, 

which I believe is the fundamental foundation on which other conversations of economics can develop. 

Mr. SMITH. And that is a hope, making it a forefront of our agenda, that has not been achieved. 

Ms. PENG. Right. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Geng. 

Ms. GENG. Yes, I want to say to Xi Jinping to please release our 

fathers so they can come back with us. I hope that the governors 

in China can visit my father since the Chinese Government doesn’t 

allow my family to see my father and please give us more information about our father’s situation and his condition of health and 

that’s all. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Ti-Anna Wang? 

Ms. TI-ANNA WANG. To President Xi Jinping, I would like to ask 

him to please release our fathers so that our families can be reunited, that we can finally end this nightmarish chapter of our 

lives. To President Obama, I would like him to know that his personal intervention is our fathers’ best chance for freedom and I 

would like him to prioritize human rights in high-level diplomacy. 

And to Mr. Ban Ki Moon, I would like him to defend the universal 

values of human rights by advocating for our fathers’ release publicly. Thank you. 

Ms. CHEN. I would like to say to President Xi Jinping to please 

release our fathers and all the prisoners of conscience in order to 

26

fix the country, to make this country better and stronger. I would 

like to receive the basic rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness and I want my family’s reunion and my parents’ marriage 

completion. 

And also, I want to say to President Obama, who is the dad of 

two daughters, please understand our situation and let our voice 

be heard. And please help us to make this country and this world 

better. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Wang. 

Ms. DANIELLE WANG. I want to talk to Xi Jinping, you know, I 

want to explain to him that the principles of Falun Gong which are 

never wrong which are compassion, truthfulness, and endurance. I 

want my father to be released because I know he is a father, too. 

And his daughter actually studied in U.S. not too long ago. I think 

he understood a daughter really crying for her dad’s safety, nothing 

more than a girl wants her family. 

I want to talk to President Obama because he is the leader of 

this very strong country and I hope he can stand up for the basic 

human rights and get our dads safely home. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. I noticed Grace, in your testimony, you 

mentioned how that when your father was home after the forced 

disappearance, ‘‘he would try to show a lifted spirit and entertain 

me and my brother with humor.’’ That certainly underscores that 

even though he had suffered so much, his love and devotion to you 

and your brother was so strong, but he tried to divorce himself. He 

obviously didn’t just unload and tell you all the terrible things he 

had suffered. That has to make it even more painful, knowing that 

he was putting you first and now, of course, he has disappeared 

again. That, I am sure, has been the situation with all of you because you are such devoted daughters, so full of love and devotion, 

but I caught that as a very important aspect of your testimony. 

Also, I noticed, Ms. Lisa Peng, you said you suffered doubly, because you were a second order birth. Most Americans are woefully 

uninformed, and I would say most people in the world are, about 

how draconian, the one-child-per-couple policy is and that when a 

woman is able to, through hiding her pregnancy or perhaps even 

sometimes a payoff to family planning cadres, have a second child, 

that second child is grossly discriminated against. If you would 

briefly speak to that. 

Ms. PENG. I think some other people have mentioned, especially 

Grace, about the isolation that she suffered in China. Because I 

was a survivor of the one-child forced abortion policy, I of course 

was considered a non-entity, couldn’t go to school. And even when 

my mom would drive my brother to school and I was in the car, 

the government would have four secret police tailgate us and bump 

into us as we were driving to school. And our house was, of course, 

tapped, not in particular because of me, but mostly because of my 

father’s activism. So there was no future for me in China. And so 

the fact that I safely escaped and was accepted by the United 

States and respected in classrooms and my voice is heard in classrooms and I have opportunities, unimaginable opportunities to do 

whatever I want in the future and to give back to the community 

that has given me so much, that is really what makes me feel so 

grateful and hopeful every day. 

27

Mr. SMITH. I would like to yield to Mr. Pittenger and then to Mr. 

Meadows. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank each of you. 

I am a father of three daughters. I love my daughters. Your fathers 

love you. One of my daughters’ name is Grace. I want you to know 

how special you are to your dads. You have taken up his cause. 

You have taken up the cause of liberty, of freedom, of democracy, 

something that you will never be able to break from. You know the 

pain and the difficulty it is that your dad is going through and yet 

you are living for him, you are living for those like him in your 

country and throughout the world. So I really want to commend 

you for your life. You are living a very profound, just life, and your 

fathers are very deeply proud of you as I am proud of my daughters, not necessarily because of what they do. Fathers love their 

daughters no matter what. And your father’s abiding love is always 

there and I hope that you will sense and you will know that. 

And I pray that someday you will united with him. I want you 

to know that your work will not be in vain. As you live your lives 

and you should live your lives. Your father wants you to live your 

lives, but you will also be carrying this banner that it will not be 

in vain. You play a very important role and as you continue to live 

and to speak and to be a part of coming here to Congress and going 

to other places, you will have a major impact upon the whole world. 

So you are part of a very great cause. You have been chosen for 

a very important time. This is an important day, an important era 

that America needs to recognize that human rights, religious liberties, freedoms of conscience are superior. They are preeminent. 

They are far greater than any economic destiny or hopes that we 

would have. They supersede all. 

So I am grateful for your lives. I am grateful for your testimony. 

And having said all that, I would just like to ask we as Members 

of Congress, we are busy people. There are many issues in this 

country. This will always have a deep impression for us. But if you 

want to give us a reminder, if you want to give something to the 

American people, if you want to leave one word to the American 

people, if you want us to convey one thing, what is that one thing? 

When you go to bed every night, knowing that you are alone, knowing that your dad can’t hug and kiss you goodnight, knowing that 

thousands and millions of others can’t as well, what do you want 

us—what can we carry back to our Members of Congress, to our 

colleagues that will do the most to cause us to make sure that this 

is objective is achieved? Could you just speak a little bit to that? 

Ms. PENG. Rather than asking myself when will be my father be 

released, I instead try to think my father hasn’t been released yet. 

We haven’t been reunited yet. He hasn’t received medical care and 

he hasn’t received visitation rights yet. So for me the word ‘‘yet’’ 

really encapsulates my hope and my faith and my father’s hope 

and faith and our hope and faith that one day we will be reunited. 

But I think hope is necessary, but not sufficient because even 

though I have immense hope that my father will be released, even 

though he has immense hope, we have to act on that hope and we 

have to make that not just a dream, but a reality. 

So I think the importance of today’s hearing is to try to make 

that transition as soon as possible by calling for an Oval Office 

28

meeting by asking Vice President Biden to raise the names of these 

political dissidents. I think that—and high-level diplomacy—is how 

we can make that effective transition from dream to reality. So 

that is what I would say. Thank you. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you. 

Ms. GENG. I want all Americans to remember our fathers and 

stand up for our fathers. And that is all. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you. 

Ms. TI-ANNA WANG. To the American people, I would like them 

to know that it is the values of the United States that inspired my 

father to take the champion pro-democracy activism in the first 

place and I ask that he not be forsaken in his time of need. Thank 

you. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you. 

Ms. CHEN. The word I want to give to everybody in the United 

States is love. It is because of my father’s love to China, that is 

why he has done all the things, he has written all these articles, 

it is not because he hates China, it is because he loves China. And 

because of his love and because of my love to him, I came here as 

a witness. And because my mom has loved my dad and my mom 

has loved me, she didn’t divorce my dad. She chose to keep this 

marriage and keep this family stable. And because all the people’s 

love, they helped me to come out of China and study here and get 

all those happy lives right now. And because of everyone’s love 

here, we can have this opportunity to be speaking here to fight for 

what we chose, to fight for justice and rights. 

Everybody think of love while you are doing this. It is because 

of love. Thank you. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you. 

Ms. DANIELLE WANG. The phrase I choose here is the courage to 

speak the truth. I think because my dad was withstanding his belief and he is trying to keep truthful to himself in his heart, he is 

being imprisoned. And I also believe that America was founded on 

being truthful to beliefs. So I really think there is a deep connection there. And I am here to speak what is true to my heart. So 

I think it is really meaningful to Congress. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you. God bless you all. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Meadows. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank each one of you. As a father, a daughter 

has a special place in a father’s heart and I want each one of you 

to hear that and just know that even though miles and time may 

separate you, there is nothing, nothing that will ever separate you 

from your father’s love. I want to thank each one of you for your 

testimony and ask for your forgiveness. I was talking to my staff 

before I came here about the importance of making a difference in 

people’s lives. And as I came to this particular hearing, we have 

been in a number of hearings, Mr. Chairman, on human rights 

issues in China and for me I thought well maybe it would just be 

another hearing. It has profoundly touched me, your testimony. I 

want to thank each one of you and just say as a father, speaking 

on behalf of your fathers, I am proud of you. Very proud of you. 

I also want to let you know that there are many negotiations and 

many things we do here in Congress that have lasting impact. But 

my commitment to each one of you is that as discussions go on 

29

with those in official positions in China, that not a single one of 

those conversations or negotiations will happen with my staff or me 

without the faces of each one of you being at the forefront of our 

mind. And so I want to just say thank you. 

Many of you have called on the President and truly on the Vice 

President to be your advocates. They are dads, too. So I would join 

with you and say that we need to make sure that this is not something that gets overlooked. You have my commitment to do that. 

And my friend and colleague, Mr. Pittenger here, had asked if you 

would each share one word. And so my one word to you would be 

that we will be unflinching in our dedication to help you in this 

area, but the one word is that you will see your dad soon. And so 

soon is where we will be and I just want to thank each one of you 

for being here today and for giving your touching testimony. I will 

yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Meadows. And for the 

record, Mr. Meadows is the congressional delegate to the United 

States and I know in his contacts and lobbying of heads of delegation, he and I and others will literally carry your testimonies and 

put it in the hands of these individuals from the very top, from Ban 

Ki Moon, right on down. Your love and devotion to your dads, your 

courage, the pain and agony that you carry, as well as the rest of 

your family, just begs the question, we have to do more and why 

haven’t we? So I thank you so much. Your testimony is landmark. 

It will have an effect. And I guarantee all of us and not just those 

that are here, others who are equally dedicated to the cause of 

human rights will be unceasing as my colleagues said and I associate my remarks to my two very distinguished friends and I thank 

you, too. As a father of two daughters, one daughter-in-law who is 

just like our daughter, we love her just as much, you are amazing 

and I thank you. 

I would like to now ask for our second panel if they can make 

their way. Thank you, ladies. 

Our second panel will begin with Pastor Bob Fu who was a leader in the 1989 student democracy movement in Tiananmen Square 

and later became a house church pastor and founder, along with 

his wife. In 1996, authorities arrested them and imprisoned them 

for their work. After their release, they escaped to the U.S. and in 

2002 founded ChinaAid Association. ChinaAid monitors and reports on religious freedom in China and provides a forum for discussion among experts on religion, law, and human rights in 

China. Pastor Fu is frequently interviewed by media outlets around 

the world and has testified frequently as U.S. congressional hearings. He has also appeared before the European Parliament as well 

as the United Nations. Pastor Fu holds a double bachelor’s degree 

from People’s University and the Institute of Foreign Relations and 

has taught at the Beijing Communist Party School. 

In the United States, he has earned a master’s degree from 

Westminster Theological Seminary and is now working on his 

Ph.D. And I just say from a very personal point of view, when we 

were working very hard for the release of the great Chen 

Guangcheng, it was Bob Fu who on two of those occasions during 

hearings on Mr. Chen, actually got in touch with him in a hospital 

room in Beijing and put the microphone, the phone right next to 

30

this microphone here and we heard directly from Mr. Chen who 

testified in absentia halfway around the world via Bob Fu. 

We will then hear from Mr. Chen Guangfu, brother of Chen 

Guangcheng and father of Chen Kegui, nephew of Chinese activists 

Chen Guangcheng, who was arrested after defending himself and 

his family against local government officials who forced their way 

into Chen’s home on the night of April 27, 2010, in Shandong Province. Mr. Chen was charged with ‘‘intentionally inflicting harm.’’ 

All of these people burst into his home with fists and other things 

raining down upon Mr. Chen. Obviously, any of us would defend 

ourselves, but he was unfortunately convicted in December 2012 

and sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison. 

Mr. Chen has suffered beatings and a medical emergency and 

was rejected for consideration for medical parole. Chen Guangfu is 

the elder brother, as I said, and we will hear from him momentarily. 

We will then hear from Dr. Devra Marcus, a graduate of Stanford Medical School and a fellow of the American College of Physicians and for more than 40 years has been a Washington, DC, internist. In addition to her medical practice, Dr. Marcus has long 

worked to protect and serve Chinese Government targeted leaders 

and groups. She has traveled to Tumen, China to provide medical 

services for North Korean refugees and the Government of China 

seeks to deport to North Korea gulags. 

Dr. Marcus played an essential role in the case of Fang Zheng, 

the Chinese dissent, a Tiananmen demonstration amputee and ensure he received prosthetic limbs and prosthetic training and sent 

a message to China and elsewhere of American generosity and 

compassion. 

Dr. Marcus recently traveled to Hangju, China to examine and 

bring public attention to the case of imprisoned dissident Zhu Yufu 

and to protest the denial to him of adequate medical services. Dr. 

Marcus is from McLean, Virginia, and her name has long been a 

place for refuge for pro-democracy dissidents from all over of the 

world. 

Zhu Yufu is the founder of a major pro-democracy publication 

and China Democracy Party who was detained and sentenced to 7 

years in prison in 1999. After his release in 2006, Zhu was arrested 

in May 2007. He was sentenced, again, two more times. 

Pastor Fu, if you could proceed. 

STATEMENT OF PASTOR BOB FU, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, 

CHINAAID ASSOCIATION 

Mr. FU. Mr. Chairman and honorable Members of Congress, 

thank you very much for giving this opportunity for those five 

daughters whose fathers are still suffering in prison, for 15 years, 

11 years, 10 years, and on. 

This is the third time in this year that I sit here to testify before 

the U.S. Congress, the international community, and all the people 

concerned with China’s human rights condition about the rapid deterioration of human rights condition in China. Of course, nobody 

can really stay still and silent after hearing those cries and appeals 

of these daughters and fathers. 

31

We have been monitoring China’s human rights condition for the 

past 11 years, because we specifically focus on religious persecution, human rights violations, and the promotion of the rule of law 

in China. We got to know hundreds and thousands of sons, daughters, and family members of prisoners of conscience like Ti-Anna 

Wang, Lisa Peng, Grace Geng, Bridgette Chen, and Danielle Wang, 

and of course, Mr. Chen Kegui. 

China’s worsening human rights violations and its notorious 

human rights record are surely caused by this totalitarianism and 

wickedness of the Chinese Communist authorities, but are also a 

result of the loss of some God-given, self-evident fundamental 

ideals and principles by some countries like our country, the 

United States in recent years. Today, the reality that the Chinese 

Government dares to despite human rights dignity and blatantly 

violate universal values truly has a correlation with the appeasement policy of so-called ‘‘harmony diplomacy’’ adopted by some 

Western democratic societies toward totalitarianism. 

So I will just briefly use the three perspectives for my testimony 

today. I request the chairman to allow my written testimony into 

the record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. FU. On June 6th this year, ChinaAid Association and other 

30 international human rights organizations jointly launched the 

‘‘Free China 18 Campaign’’ calling on the release of 18 Chinese 

prisoners of conscience. They are Wang Bingzhang, Peng Ming, 

Gao Zhisheng, Liu Xiaobo, Guo Quan, Zhu Yufu, Liu Xianbin, Yang 

Tianshui, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Yang Rongli, Alimujiang Yimiti, 

Wang Zhiwen, Lobsang Tsering, Li Chang, Gulmira Imin, Chen 

Kegui, Dhondup Wangchen, and Guo Feixiong. They are only the 

representatives of tens of thousands of political prisoners of conscience in mainland China. The majority of them expressed their 

views or protested against tyranny with peaceful methods, and 

some were imprisoned because of their religious faith. They are 

ethnically diverse, including Han Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and 

other ethnicities. 

And I would not be able to list all the sufferings, the tortures, 

the deprivations of their basic human rights because of the time 

limit. 

Apparently and clearly the condition for human rights in China 

has continued to worsen in recent years and recent months. It has 

reached the worst scenario since the Tiananmen massacre on June 

4, 1989. Likewise, China is regressing in the rule of law and there 

is no sign of improvement in the short term. 

The Chinese Communist authorities also suppress house churches more harshly, and religious persecution is also worsening. 

Mr. Chairman, on this religious persecution front, I wanted to 

pay attention on several particular cases such as one of the largest 

independent house churches called Shouwang Church. It was forbidden to worship indoors; it was even forbidden to even enter into 

their own purchased buildings. They had no choice but to worship 

outdoors for 2 years. And believers go to different locations every 

week, and every week in the past 2 years, a number of believers 

from 10 to 120 were taken to different police stations every Sunday, and it continues. Some were beaten, some women were raped, 

32

some pastors, elders of the church had been under house arrest for 

more than 2 years without freedom. 

Another case, this happened recently to a government-sanctioned 

church group. Pastor Zhang Shaojie and 23 believers from Nanle 

County Christian Church, Puyang, Henan Province were taken into 

police custody secretly, and the majority of them have not received 

any legal papers so far. This happens to government-sanctioned 

church and church leaders just because believers of the church 

fight for their basic rights and social justice and offended some 

local government officials. Yet, the leaders, these 23, are still in 

custody. 

And of course, the Chinese Government has always spared no effort in its United Front work through religion and overseas propaganda packed with lies. Unfortunately, some U.S.-based NGOs or 

religious organizations take a different standing than standing 

united with those persecuted. As understandable as it may be, that 

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association needed to collaborate with 

the Chinese Communist Government in its disaster relief efforts, 

this organization, at the China U.S.A. Protestant Church Leaders 

Forum held in Shanghai and Beijing on November 19th and 20th 

of this year, just last month, according to the news released by the 

Chinese Government authorities, recognized leaders of the ThreeSelf Patriotic Committee, a puppet created by the government. The 

Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has collaboration with the 

Chinese Government-sanctioned church bodies, recognized solely 

the representatives of the Chinese Government established church, 

and said nothing, nothing about the religious persecution to their 

fellow brothers in the house church. 

The 2014 General Assembly of the Word Evangelical Alliance 

will be held October 27 to 31 in 2014 in Seoul, South Korea. According to the Chinese Government, the WEA has already sent an 

invitation by the senior leaders to the Chinese Christian Council 

and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, the government 

organization, but it is still unknown if it will or has invited the 

leaders of the house churches who are the representatives, actually 

the majority of the Chinese church. The majority of the Protestant 

church leaders as we recall in the history of humanity, the majority 

of the Protestant church leaders back then in the 1940s, praised 

Hitler and pledged allegiance to Nazi Germany, the state government. They did not oppose principles of Darwinian evolutionary 

theory introduced by the Nazis and the notion of so-called pure 

breed and superior breed derived from it. We know how churches 

in Germany became an ally, shamefully, of the Nazi regime, betrayed God, and left the mark of shame in human history. Likewise, we want to know: Where do we want to stand? Do we want 

to stand with the Nazi, the Chinese Government Communists who 

established the church, as did the Nazis, did the church in Germany in 1940s, or do we want to stand with the confessional 

church which stands against the dictatorships and warmongers. 

So I want to just make five specific recommendations to Congress. I hope the Obama administration will deliver a note to the 

Chinese Government asking for the immediate and unconditional 

release of these 18 prisoners of conscience. And I hope President 

Obama will meet with these five daughters and other representaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:09 Jun 03, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00036 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131205\85791 SHIRL
33

tives of the China 18 as soon as possible so that he can hear directly from these daughters. 

Secondly, I hope human rights issues can become an indispensable component in the meetings and the strategic dialogues between Chinese and American top leaders. 

Thirdly, I propose to broadcast live the annual Chinese-U.S. 

Human Rights Dialogue on the Internet, make the dialogue specific 

in goals and substantial in content. Make evaluations of the China 

binding. Don’t reduce the highest level human rights dialogue between the two countries to a useless show. 

Fourthly, I hope the House Committee on Foreign Affairs will 

make it mandatory that the officials of the U.S. Embassy and consulates in China, especially the visa officers, receive at least 14 

days of systematic training on the background of human rights and 

religious freedom in China. I propose this because at present, many 

people who can make significant contributions to freedom and rule 

of law in China, and as well as the communication between China 

and the U.S., have been denied visas unreasonably, including some 

even invited by the leaders of Congress, even though they meet the 

criteria for entry into the U.S. 

Finally, and fifthly, as I just flew back from the Taiwan Congress 

along with Ti-Anna Wang and Lisa Peng after we testified before 

the Taiwanese Congress, one bit progress was made, that is, in the 

Taiwan Congress—four Members of the Taiwan Congress, along 

with the 14 or more Members across party lines, issued a letter to 

the leaders of the Taiwanese Government, including President Ma 

Ying-jeou to urge them to clarify whether Dr. Wang Bingzhang is 

a spy from Taiwan. In the letter it says if Dr. Wang, who was sentenced to life in prison for being accused as a Taiwanese spy and 

with terrorism, if he is a spy, the Taiwanese authorities have a 

moral and governmental obligation to fight for his freedom. And if 

he is not, it makes more sense that the Taiwanese Government 

should seek clarification for the international community and for 

the Wang family, including the daughter, Ti-Anna Wang. 

So the deadline for the President Ma Ying-jeou to submit that 

clarification to Taiwanese Congress, and actually it was promised 

already by President Ma Ying-jeou’s representatives during the 

hearing, is December 10th before the Human Rights Day. 

Mr. SMITH. Pastor Fu, we will come back. We are out of time——

Mr. FU. I will finish one sentence, sorry. I ask Mr. Chairman to 

really do a follow up—formally request President Ma Ying-jeou and 

Taiwanese Congress and through the American Institute in Taiwan 

to do a follow up for that request because both Dr. Wang and Mr. 

Peng Ming are permanent residents of the U.S. as refugees. Thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Fu follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. We will. So thank you for that recommendation. We 

do have a series of votes and I apologize and we will have to take 

a very brief recess. But I do encourage, to the best of your abilities, 

if the press could stay to hear our two next witnesses who have 

really done enormous work on behalf of human rights. Chen 

Guangfu is here in the United States, but he is going back and he 

has bravely come forward on behalf of his son who is imprisoned 

and I would just hope if you could stay long enough to hear these 

two fine testimonies. We stand in very brief recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. We will resume our seating. We do have a few members that I know who are making their way over from the votes. 

We have been joined by Congressman Trent Franks from Arizona. 

Mr. Franks is the chairman of the Religious Freedom Caucus here 

in the House. He is also chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s 

Constitution Subcommittee and we welcome him to the hearing. 

Thank you for being here today. 

Our next witness will be Chen Guangfu. As previously introduced, he is the brother of Chen Guangcheng and is extraordinarily 

important as the father of Chen Kegui, who has been arrested. Mr. 

Chen is here and will be going back so I want to again underscore 

and salute his bravery in coming forward as he is doing. He is a 

dad who cares so deeply and loves so deeply his son. And like the 

panel before us where five daughters spoke out so eloquently on behalf of their dads here is Mr. Chen speaking on behalf of his son. 

Mr. Chen. 

STATEMENT OF MR. CHEN GUANGFU, BROTHER OF CHEN 

GUANGCHENG AND FATHER OF CHEN KEGUI 

[The following testimony was delivered through an interpreter.] 

Mr. CHEN. Honorable Congressman Mr. Smith, members of subcommittee on global human rights of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ladies and gentleman, I am Chen Guangfu, the older 

brother of Chen Guangcheng, the father of Chen Kegui. Speaking 

of the long-term persecution of our family, the name of Chen 

Guangcheng has to be mentioned because this is a continuation of 

the persecution of Chen Guangcheng. The current imprisonment of 

Chen Kegui is the punishment for Chen Guangcheng’s escape. 

After Chen Guangcheng risked his life to escape from his home, the 

officials of local authorities worked themselves into a frenzy of rage 

and fear. 

It was past midnight of April 27, 2012, when I was kidnapped 

with a black hood on my head by the police of Yinan County. Led 

by the captain, Xu Kewei, the police officers in plainclothes climbed 

over the wall and broke into my house without going through any 

legal procedure. They were in plainclothes. They did not go through 

any legal procedure. I was taken to the Unit of Economic Affairs 

Investigation, Yinan County, and put through nonstop 72-hour-long 

torture, during which I was tied to an interrogation chair with 

handcuffs and foot chains. They heaped abusive language on me, 

struck me hard on the face, trampled on my toes, whipped me, deprived me of food, drink, sleep, and denied me the use of the bathroom as well other inhuman treatment. 

45

About 20 minutes after my kidnapping, the head of Shuanghou 

Township, Zhang Jian, led two dozen personnel, armed with picks 

into my house, rummaging through every room without any legal 

justifications. They carried off cash, cell phones, ID cards, documents, and other items. They damaged the TV set, the sewing machine, and furniture. They pried open several locked drawers and 

took away everything in them. 

During the search, they beat up Chen Kegui’s mother, while 

Kegui was beaten with clubs the mob was carrying and left him injuries on the face, neck, arms, and legs. When Kegui’s mother was 

attempting to protect her son with her body, she was grabbed by 

the hair and savagely beaten. In fear of his life and in order to protect his son—stricken with a fever—whose body temperature 

reached 104 degrees, Kegui grabbed a knife in self-defense. At the 

sight of the knife, Zhang Jian yelled, ‘‘He has a knife in his hand, 

kill him.’’ In desperation, Kegui slashed at the attackers with the 

knife and injured Zhang Jian and two of his men in the chaotic 

darkness. Afterwards, Kegui dialed 110 for police, but police did 

not take any action. In fear of his life, Kegui left home and went 

into hiding. 

On April 29th, Kegui turned himself in at the Hong Hua Fu Police Department in Yancheng City. 

On the same day, Kegui’s mother was arrested, interrogated, and 

tortured before she was thrown into jail. In prison, she was forced 

to work a dozen hours every day in spite of her illness, laboring 

over needlepoint work, which was to be exported for foreign exchange. Because she couldn’t fill the data quota, she was penalized 

by standing in front of everybody. Sometimes she had to stand for 

6 hours straight during one night. On May 5th, she was released 

on bail. She went to the hospital for physical examination. The examination results showed infection, in addition to a kidney stone. 

She also has periarthritis due to the beating. The medical cost was 

up to 4800 Chinese yuan. 

On the 27th, Kegui’s wife, Liu Fang, received a short message 

from Kegui, ‘‘Please hire lawyer for me.’’ Afterwards, two attorneys, 

Ding Xijui and Si Weijang from Beijing, were retained, but they 

were never allowed access to the case even though they have been 

to Yinan five times. The reason given by the authorities was they 

have only made arrangements by hiring legal aid lawyers. 

On November 30, 2012, the case of Chen Kegui was put on trial, 

but Kegui’s family was not notified of the court trial. The witnesses 

on trial were all perpetrators who were involved in beating, looting, 

and robbing at my house. The testimony of Kegui’s mother was 

given under the threat that you have to sign whatever we ask you 

to sign. If you don’t sign, you will die here. You don’t have any 

human rights in here. 

Kegui was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison, which 

is in violation of substantive and procedural law. Apparently he is 

serving time in the prison located in Jining, Shandong province, 

the same place where Chen Guangcheng served his time before. 

Since early March 2013, on my way to sending my grandson to 

his school, I have been followed many times by men on motorcycles, 

military jackets and helmets. One afternoon after school hours, Hui 

Shitai, from the Family Planning Office, went to the school asking 

46

to send for my grandson. They even did not want to leave a small 

child alone. Beginning from April 18, 2013, they would throw rocks, 

bricks, and beer bottles at my house around 1 o’clock a.m. every 

night, damaging the tiles, doors, and windows. They also threw 

dead chickens and ducks because the bird flu was at its peak at 

the time. They also posted and passed along a large amount of 

pamphlets, hurling abuse and insults of Chen Guangcheng, calling 

Chen Guangfu a traitor and a troublemaker. They also threatened 

to break our legs and stone the whole family to death. The poplar 

tree that we planted was pulled out several times, and they did the 

same to vegetable fields, leaving them withered. 

All this persecution was aimed to stop Chen Guangcheng from 

going to Taiwan. During this time period of harassment, I called 

for police a dozen times, but it came to nothing. Sometimes they 

just refused to answer my phone call. Whenever I changed to another phone, immediately the phone call went through, but the police never took any action. 

On May 9th, an unidentified person who was driving a car without a plate assaulted me and damaged my motorbike. After I returned home, I tried to post the assault incident online, only to find 

that my account had been closed. 

If throwing dead chickens and dead ducks are some petty crooks’ 

doing, I believe it must have been big crooks behind the account 

cancellation. 

On April 24, Chen Kegui was positively diagnosed with appendicitis, but the prison administration repeatedly denied the family’s 

application for release on parole for medical treatment. The delay 

in treatment resulted in suppurative appendicitis from which he 

still hasn’t recovered, while at the same time he is ordered to work 

over 10 hours manual labor. 

In May 2012, the Central Government promised that the persecution of Chen Guangcheng and his family by local officials would 

be thoroughly investigated. However, this promise has not been fulfilled at this point. 

Finally, I sincerely hope that in accordance with human rights 

principles the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration extend 

their fundamental support to those Chinese citizens who suffer 

from political persecution. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Chen follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Guangfu, thank you very much for your testimony. 

I do have some questions but I will wait. Now I would invite Dr. 

Marcus to present her testimony. 

STATEMENT OF DEVRA MARCUS, M.D., PHYSICIAN AND 

ACTIVIST 

Dr. MARCUS. Thank you very much for inviting to this event 

which I have found inexpressibly moving. My own experiences were 

moving enough, but this has gone beyond anything that I had experienced before. 

First of all, I think the chairman articulated what I have learned 

extremely well and I have nothing to add to that. It was an incredible summary of the condensation of my own experiences in China. 

Secondly, I think that the daughters of the men who are imprisoned are a credit to the United States. It is China’s loss. These 

young women are just astonishing and actually are exemplars of 

what we would hope all of our children would epitomize; their dignity, honor, passion, and commitment to the values that make the 

United States unique are beyond anything I ever anticipated. I am 

so proud that we offer them the ability to explore life fully even 

though it has an inordinate amount of pain associate with it. At 

least they have the freedom to express their points of view. 

I might then segue just a bit to why I got interested in this because there is a sixth daughter whom I will speak for without her 

authority, but I think she would give it to me and that is Zhu Li 

who is the daughter of Zhu Yufu. This is the man whom I went 

to visit and I went because we have something that Bob Fu calls 

fondly, I think, the Horowitz Hilton. When Chinese come to Washington for one reason or another, we house a number of them and 

it has enriched our lives enormously. Among the people who came 

to stay with us were, in fact, two sisters and a brother of Zhu Yufu. 

Two of them now have sought political asylum and attained it 

along with their spouses and one child, I believe, each. I think that 

both of them have left a child behind in China. There was a third 

sister who has a son by a Japanese man and she has gone back 

to live in Japan now. 

We bonded with one another over knitting. It was quite remarkable. We sat at the kitchen table, neither of us spoke each other’s 

languages, but we spoke the language of knitting. And they are inordinately talented. I had huge admiration for them. In addition, 

I do brush painting and the brother, Zhu Qiaofu, is a brush painter, so we made friends over art, if you will, without language at 

all. That got me interested in Zhu Yufu. It also taught me the lesson of the price that is paid by families, including extended families for the nobility of thought of someone that they love. 

I happen to see a submission by a lawyer on behalf of Zhu Yufu 

to the U.N. indicating that he had cardiac problems of a rather potentially severe nature that might cause him either to die suddenly 

or in fact, to develop an illness that if it were not properly treated 

would cause him to die. I opined that if it were possible for me to 

do anything to make life easier for him which is to say to get him 

adequate medical attention, I would like to do it. And as it happened, it was thought by people who were very active in human 

rights in China that it might be useful for me to go. So I went. I 

54

went with Kody Kness who had spent time in China and speaks 

Mandarin. And we went on a date that we knew would be a day 

when Zhu Yufu’s wife would be visiting him in prison. We met her 

in the prison. We were admitted to the prison. We then had to negotiate with a guard in the prison who wanted to know why I was 

there. I said I was there because I had read that Zhu Yufu had potentially serious cardiac problems and I wanted to be assured that 

he was getting adequate medical attention. I had been told that he 

was seen once a month, that he had his blood pressure checked, he 

was given an antihypertensive and he was given an herbal medicine for heart failure, but nothing more than that and that his 

treatment was very perfunctory at best. 

There also was some concern that he was despairing, given the 

fact that he had spent a third, at least, of his adult life in prison. 

The man, when I reviewed with him what the U.N. report said, 

‘‘Well, we don’t believe in the U.N.’’ Then I said, ‘‘Well, what if he 

dies in prison?’’ His response was, ‘‘There is no if.’’ After a little 

more skirmishing, it became clear to me that we were not going to 

be allowed to get in. Finally, I said to him, ‘‘Would you tell him 

that I have come?’’ because I knew that it would be important to 

his morale if he knew that a westerner had come to visit him. The 

man said no and ushered us out. 

By that time he was pretty angry, but in control. But he subsequently detained us and confiscated Kody’s cell phone and held the 

phone for a couple of hours and, I am sure, scrubbed it. So we have 

no idea what happened to the phone. We clearly could not leave the 

prison at that point because there were two guards here. We were 

here, the door was there. And there was no way we were going to 

get out. We got interviewed. The interview was relatively benign. 

Finally, after about 2 hours, the cell phone was returned and we 

were allowed to leave. 

As a result of our efforts to get in, the Chinese Internet carried 

this fairly widely and the attention of a rather eminent human 

rights lawyer was attracted. He came from Nanjing the following 

day, agreed to take the case, and started the legal proceedings to 

do so. He has, to date, not been permitted to see Xhu Yufu and in 

fact, we understand, relatively recently, has been threatened with 

withdrawal of his license if he continues to pursue the case. 

In addition, and we have heard about reprisal, Xhu Yufu has 

been moved from his prison block to the psychiatric block, which 

is not viewed as good news. It is, in a way, an effort to gaslight 

him and also to neutralize him so that he will be sufficiently demeaned, that he will give up his desire perhaps to live, although 

that isn’t at all clear. 

What became clear to me with my relationships with his wife, 

Xhu Yufu’s wife and his daughter, is that they are more or less in 

despair as opposed to the young women who are here. If Zhu Li 

were here, she would be shocked that anybody would be advocating 

for her and for her family in this body because her expectation is 

always to be told no and to back off. When she was doing my interpreting when we were in the office of the prison, every time the 

guard said no, she backed off and I had to almost pull her forward 

because no is viewed as no, not as an invitation to the dance or an 

invitation to negotiating, but no. So the repression of her ability to 

55

think is what was very striking to me, also the fact that her mother is emotionally, I think, really running out of resilience. 

So I learned about the long-term profound and extensive, as you 

have learned here again, repression in a way, indirect torture of 

family members of people who have a very profound sense of morality. 

The Chinese do indeed have laws on their books that would allow 

for the release of Xhu Yufu. He fulfills all the requirements. However, they are not allowing him to make application for early release, despite that. So the fact is that although the laws are on the 

books, they are under the control of political authorities and judges 

do not exercise any authority other than that which I believe is essentially given to them by the State. So it is unclear at this point 

what will happen to him in terms of his ability to make use of 

those laws which if he were able to do so, would allow for him to 

have an early release. 

I thank you very much. I am deeply appreciative of being in the 

company of the people in whose company I am today. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Marcus follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Dr. Marcus, thank you for your testimony and thank 

you for your advocacy, your willingness to put yourself out, to bring 

your medical degree and background, 40 years as a medical doctor 

to at least try to examine Mr. Zhu which would have been, I think, 

an extremely important contribution to his health. You have adopted, more or less, this brave man as a prisoner of conscience and 

more people ought to do just that. Find one or two individuals, 

adopt them and advocate for them the way you are doing and doing 

it again today. So I certainly thank you for that. It makes a huge 

difference. 

And to the Horowitz Hilton, I know you leave the light on. That 

is a different hotel chain, of course, and that generosity just goes 

so far in letting people know that the hospitality and the warmth 

that you and your husband, Michael, show to dissidents and people 

who have braved so much, suffered so much, and yet they find a 

place of refuge in your home. That is truly remarkable. Thank you. 

I would like to ask Mr. Chen, if I could just say briefly, your 

brother, Chen Guangcheng, has relentlessly, and I mean relentlessly in every speech, every venue that I have seen him at, here, 

right where you sit when he testified last spring, has pressed doggedly for the release of your son and has asked the State Department over and over and over again to advocate for his release and 

to hold your entire family harmless. That has been his number one 

priority and the fact that you are here today at his request, I think, 

further underscores that his concern for your family back in China 

is unceasing. He does say this to the State Department, ‘‘What are 

you doing in-country?’’ Has the Ambassador, our U.S. Ambassador, 

tried to see Chen Kegui? What are they doing to advocate for his 

release? 

You mentioned in your testimony, and it was very telling, if I can 

find it again, how you spent 72 hours being beaten and tortured 

and that they also were beating family members until they got 

tired. They couldn’t punch any longer because they were tired. 

That just underscores the brutality and the cruelty that I think 

most Americans don’t appreciate and this goes on day-in and dayout directed against the best and the bravest and the brightest of 

the People’s Republic of China. So I just want you to know that we 

will continue to bring your case, that of your son, the entire family, 

following Chen Guangcheng’s tremendous leadership on that to try 

to get our Government to do far more than we have done. 

Guangcheng had asked a series of specific questions of the State 

Department and got back a totally inadequate answer. He laid it 

out here. He laid it out elsewhere, too, but from where you sit 

when he testified and got a nothing answer, which I found appalling, in terms of his own situation and the investigation that you 

referenced in your testimony as well. So thank you and I would 

like to yield to my good friend and colleague, Mr. Meadows for any 

comments or questions that he might have. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank each of you for your testimony and for 

being willing to serve and answer a call to truly make a difference, 

so I just want to say thank each one of you. I guess my question 

becomes, as I mentioned earlier, we have had a number of hearings 

where this is a reoccurring theme, where we have human rights 

abuses that continue to happen in China. My concern, specifically 

60

Mr. Chen with you being here today, is the repercussions that family members may face in China as a result of you being here. 

Do you think highlighting this issue is something that we need 

to continue to do and is it starting to make a difference? 

[The following testimony was delivered through an interpreter.] 

Mr. CHEN. I believe that we still should continue to expose those 

inhumane acts by the Chinese Government. There is an old saying 

in China which is ‘‘the heavens are watching over what we are 

doing here on earth.’’

The reason why I came here today is not just to appeal for my 

son because there are hundreds of thousands Chinese citizens who 

suffer from injustice and persecution under all kinds of excuses 

made by the Chinese authorities. Even worse, some of them have 

been deprived life. So I believe that the attention given by the outside world will make a great difference in such situations. 

I believe the sufferings our family has endured, thus far, is not 

that important compared to the larger goal of promoting the 

human rights movement in mainland China. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank you. And Dr. Marcus, when you went to 

visit, obviously you were forwarded at a number of different fronts 

in terms of continued access. Would you say that this would be indicative of a lower level person trying to implement directions from 

a higher authority or is it someone at a lower level just implementing their own sense of justice of lack thereof? I guess what I 

am getting at is do you think it is systemic throughout most of the 

top officials in the Chinese Government? 

Dr. MARCUS. I think that what was interesting to me was that 

we got waved in, so somebody knew that we were coming. I have 

no idea. So I think probably both things were occurring. I think 

that he had probably gotten instructions and I think he was more 

than happy to comply with those instructions. I think he wanted 

to get us out of there as fast as he could. And I was fairly persistent. So it didn’t work and it made him angry. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank you. Pastor Fu, good to see you again. 

Thank you for being a faithful voice for those that do not have a 

voice. 

Mr. FU. Thank you. 

Mr. MEADOWS. One of the things that I just heard that this is 

a plight that many, I guess it was hundreds of thousands, of other 

Chinese people are experiencing. Would you concur with that? I 

mean it is very easy to take just a few people and say well, this 

is only happening in a few isolated situations. It is very different 

if it is indeed hundreds of thousands of people and I saw a few people nodding in the background that it was hundreds of thousands. 

So would you characterize that as being accurate? 

Mr. FU. Absolutely. These 18 are just the tip of the iceberg, representative of hundreds of thousands. Just this year alone, we have 

seen several hundred, perhaps even thousands. We don’t know 

their names, but we know some of their names. In my written testimony, I listed more than 130 who were just detained, arrested. 

Some were already been tried and sentenced for simply making a 

poster and asking the government officials to be transparent with 

their property; they posted a picture online and were arrested. And 

that is this year in the past few months. And already more than 

61

120 Tibetans committed self-immolation, were killed because of the 

desperation. 

And already there are many, many others of the faith community, the Christian pastors, the Catholic bishops, the Uyghurs, and 

the Falun Gong practitioners. This year already reached the worst 

as I mentioned, since the massacre of Tiananmen Square in 1989. 

So this absolutely not just a local or just some short period of 

time persecution. It is systematic. It is Central Government orchestrated and it is still going on right now. 

Mr. MEADOWS. There is a danger from time to time when you address human rights violations of the nature perhaps that we are 

talking about today, that some of them may be more horrific, some 

perhaps less, but there is a danger when we do that, that the people of that particular country may see it as anger or animosity toward a people that are far away and yet would you say that the 

majority of the people that you know, that you have heard from—

I heard it earlier from some of the young ladies that testified, that 

there is truly a love for their country of China, that this is not a 

‘‘We hate China’’ mentality. That there is a love for their country, 

and what they want is justice within their own country, not to put 

away their native homelands to go somewhere else. Would you say 

that is across the board the predominant feeling? 

Mr. FU. Absolutely that is the predominant feeling. The way that 

these hundreds of thousands prisoners of conscience handle their 

advocacy, their campaign for freedom, for transparency demonstrates itself that they are the true patriots. They are the love 

of the motherland of China. They are not anti-China or anti-Chinese people at all. They are actually just the opposite. They want 

to hold those abusers, the corrupted officials accountable which 

should be echoed, approved by the Chinese Central Government 

leaders. Yet, they were jailed for loving their country and I think 

really those are not only heroes for freedom for China, but also 

they are the campaigning essence for the defining of the 21st century. 

If China is free in the 21st century and becomes a democratic 

country, you essentially remove a threat, not only a regional threat 

as Chinese Communists have demonstrated to Taiwan, to Japan, 

to many neighbors of China, but also to the world. I think they are 

doing something more than for their own country, but also for the 

world. 

Mr. MEADOWS. I will finish up with this one question and I will 

throw it out to any of you that would care to comment because it 

may be something that you can’t speak to and I guess it is more 

advice for me and some of my colleagues. How can we communicate 

most effectively a desire to address the human rights issues, but 

at the same time a love for the Chinese people and a respect for 

Chinese sovereignty at the same time? Because sometimes they get 

crossed. 

Dr. Marcus, any idea how to do that? 

Dr. MARCUS. It is a toughy. 

Mr. MEADOWS. It is a toughy, okay. Well, if you have any 

thoughts, we will leave it at that. If you have any thoughts on how 

we can best do that, if you will just provide some written guidelines. I can tell you that perhaps those that are covering this here 

62

today will hear the heart of a father and a Congressman who 

wants to deal with some of the issues that we have heard, and yet 

at the same time has a mutual respect and admiration for the Chinese people. I believe in sovereignty. It is one of those things that 

is foundational to our American way of democracy that may be foreign to many others and so with that, Mr. Chairman, I will yield 

back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much to my good friend and colleague. Let me just ask a few final questions and then anything 

you would like to add before we close. 

Dr. Marcus, and again, I appreciate your advocacy on behalf of 

Mr. Zhu. What is the status of his family? We have heard from Mr. 

Chen’s family, the five daughters, obviously. You might want to 

speak about how his family and perhaps friends that you may have 

met are faring under this tremendous pressure. 

Secondly, Pastor Fu, you pointed out that the appeasement policy 

of harmony diplomacy adopted by some western societies toward totalitarianism is enabling the dictatorship to do what it wants because they know that we are very weak and seemingly unconcerned. Will say some of the right words, but what is behind it? If 

you could speak to that and also whether or not religious freedom 

is improving, is it the same as it was perhaps a year ago or two, 

which was awful, or is it getting worse? 

I would also ask Mr. Chen, you pointed out in your testimony 

that, and I think this bears repeating, without Chen Guangcheng’s 

escape, Chen Kegui’s case wouldn’t exist. The continued imprisonment of Chen Kegui is punishment for Chen Guangcheng’s escape. 

You also point out that ‘‘In 2012, the Central Government promised 

that the persecution of Chen Guangcheng and his family,’’ you, and 

your loved ones, ‘‘by local officials would be investigated thoroughly 

and fundamental civil rights of Chen Guangcheng’s family will be 

protected. However, this promise has not been fulfilled at this 

point. Even worse, the government has continued to attack, retaliate, and persecute Chen Guangcheng’s family in his hometown in 

the form of imprisonment, surveillance, slandering, insulting, harassment, and beating.’’ Has Ambassador Locke, Gary Locke, our 

U.S. Ambassador to China, met with you, talked to you, visited you 

and your family? Has he raised the issue face-to-face with his 

interlocutors, with the Foreign Ministry leaders and others in 

China? 

Dr. Marcus, perhaps you can begin. 

Dr. MARCUS. Yes. As far as Zhu Yufu’s family is concerned, there 

are a total of six in the family. It is a very large Chinese family. 

Two of his siblings are lying low. They are staying away from the 

government’s eye. There is a brother and a sister. One sister has 

gone to Japan. She has a son there. Two have sought political asylum in the United States and have gotten it. His wife is working, 

has a menial job. She was a pharmacist, but she is no longer working in that capacity and I don’t know if she lost the job or not, but 

she is now working for somebody doing something fairly menial 

even though she is trained a pharmacist. His daughter has a degree in art history and is credentialed to teach art, but cannot get 

a job because she is the daughter of a criminal. So she has gone 

back to school and she is now training in museumology. Their son 

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has a degree in physics. He was imprisoned for a year because he 

barred the door to the police when they came after his father during one of the times his father was arrested. So he was imprisoned 

for a year, so he is now a criminal. So he can work, but not as a 

physicist. 

I would like to respond, I was a little flip to Mr. Meadows. It 

does occur to me that what I have heard when I have asked people 

about what seems to make a difference in China, why it is different 

is always the same answer, the Internet. And what I have also 

heard is that what the Chinese lack, the people lack is the truth 

because it is often spun by the government. The one thing that is 

very difficult to spin is direct social media and I had the opportunity of discussing this with a young woman who got an MBA at 

Stanford that I met in the Shanghai Airport. She said the major 

difference she has seen is because of the Internet. So I think the 

Internet is crucial. I think, if you will forgive me, I don’t want to 

offer an opinion other than that. This is what I have heard. So I 

would say to you if there is one focus that keeps one away from 

the issues that you are talking about, it would be the Internet. 

And may I, business matter, offer my written testimony for the 

record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, your full testimony and that of all 

of our witnesses today will be made a part of the record. 

Dr. MARCUS. And the only other thing I want to say is that we 

assume that the reason that Zhu Yufu has been changed to the 

psychiatry block is that it is in retaliation for the attention he has 

gotten. We don’t know that. Thank you. 

Mr. FU. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I answer your question I want to say a few words to answer Congressman Meadows’ 

previous question about sovereignty and raising human rights. You 

know, every time when the State Department of the U.S. issued an 

annual human rights report or USCIRF, issued the global religious 

persecution written report, the Chinese Government always issued 

a sort of angry denouncing statement by saying the standard is always set. This is the interference of the internal affairs. 

And the human rights and this fundamental freedom are not internal affairs. And to abuse a fellow human being and their dignity 

and depriving their basic freedoms is not internal affairs. And the 

fact that the Chinese Government now starts issuing human rights 

reports about the U.S. itself demonstrated that the issue of internal 

affairs is fair game, so they are interfering with the U.S. internal 

affairs to say the least. 

I think China is a signatory country for various international 

human rights covenants and the Chinese Constitution, for instance, 

Article 36 says for the citizens, basic freedom of religious belief 

should be guaranteed and China also signed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I think the fellow Members of Congress, 

when you expressed the disapproval of the human rights abuses in 

China, it is not interference of internal affairs, but actually you 

want to help China to improve its international standing. 

So then I think to answer the first question about the appeasement charge, the appeasement diplomacy, I think the danger actually is when the brutal dictators start treating this as internal affairs by arbitrarily putting its citizens into detention center, imVerDate 0ct 09 2002 16:09 Jun 03, 2014 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00067 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\131205\85791 SHIRL
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prisonment, without any due process, and when western 

democractic countries treat that as internal affairs, and when our 

own Secretary of State says that as human rights should not interfere with others so-called priority items, the security, the economic 

items, that sends a very——

Mr. SMITH. On that point, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, en route to Beijing, said that she would not allow human 

rights to interfere with global climate change and selling U.S. debt, 

is that you were referring to? 

Mr. FU. Yes, that is what I refer to. I think that the leaders of 

democratic countries, when we made that kind of remarks, it is not 

only hurtful to those human rights campaigners, like those fathers 

of the five daughters, but also it really emboldens the dictators and 

the persecutors, and they take that as a green light to continue and 

increasing the persecution. It sends the wrong signal to the persecutors, that the democratic countries will not care as long as the 

trade continues, as long as the economic relationship is strengthened. 

In terms of religious freedom issues, certainly they have been 

worsening. I remembered it took more than a year for the current 

administration to even nominate the Ambassador-at-Large for the 

International Religious Freedom Office in the State Department. 

And unfortunately, after the current Ambassador-at-Large, Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook resigned the office, the position is still 

not filled up until today. So I think President Clinton would not 

do that, and President Jimmy Carter would not do that. Certainly 

President Bush, the two Bushes would not do that. I think this is 

very unfortunate. This is certainly sending the wrong signal at this 

critical time when the Chinese human rights and religious freedom 

reached its worst in 20 some years. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chen. 

[The following testimony was delivered through an interpreter.] 

Mr. CHEN. Mr. Smith, regarding the question you just raised before with whether Ambassador Gary Locke raised the issue to local 

authorities, the answer is no. Regarding whether he has raised the 

issue of persecution of our family to local authorities, I am not 

aware of that. 

Mr. SMITH. We will reiterate our request that he do so. We will 

write him today and write the Secretary of State, John Kerry, as 

well, asking them and conveying to them, not only your testimony, 

but all the testimonies. In my opinion, based on what occurred during the Chen Guangcheng process, when he was in-country still 

and then when he came here, those promises have gone unfulfilled. 

And so we will follow up on that, I can assure you. 

Pastor Fu? 

Mr. FU. Yes, related to that, I have one final comment, actually. 

I remember last August, Mr. Chairman, yourself and Congressman 

Wolf and several other committee chairmen, as well as Speaker 

Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi issued a joint letter to the 

Chinese President, Hu Jintao, then President, and the Chinese 

Premier, Wen Jiabao, to ask them to follow through what they 

promised to Mr. Chen Guangcheng and you actually also wrote a 

letter, along with Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi, to President 

Obama or Secretary John Kerry this year, to ask them to meet 

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with Mr. Chen Guangcheng and other family members of those 

human rights campaigners in China such as Gao Zhisheng. 

I don’t know. So far as far as I know, there is no positive response and even I think the leader of Freedon Now, Attorney Jared 

Genser, made a direct appeal to both the White House and through 

Washington Post opinion piece just last month to make that point 

that the quiet, so-called under the table diplomacy has failed, and 

failed miserably. And so it is time for the leader of our country, the 

President himself, to speak up to show that he is personally engaging by meeting, listening, and hearing directly from these daughters and the family members. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Is there anything else any of you would 

like to say before we conclude? Again, I want to thank you for your 

testimony, for your leadership. It is extraordinary and since the 

five daughters are still here, thank them again profusely for the 

love and devotion they have shown toward their fathers, their families, and for being willing to come here and share that with us on 

this subcommittee. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 2:24 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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