Qing Zhang writes open letter to George W Bush regarding human rights in China
On the 9th of January, Qing Zhang, wife of renowned Chinese human rights lawyer Feixiong Quo, sent an open letter to US President George Bush. The letter exposed the tortures suffered by Feixiong Guo during his 14 months of imprisonment, as well as advising of Guo’s hunger strike, which began on the 13th of December 2007.
Zhang hoped President Bush will be able to effectively improve the human rights situation in China ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
On the 14th of September, 2006, Guo was arrested for the third time by local authorities, for his attempts to rescue lawyer Zhisheng Gao. Since then, Guo had not been released, and was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on the 14th of November 2006.
Qing Zhang revealed in her letter, during the lengthy 14 month imprisonment, Guo has maintained his innocence and protested through his refusal to make mandatory confessions. In order to obtain evidence of crime, the Chinese Communist Regime employed torture methods to extort his confession.
According to Zhang, during the time of his imprisonment, the various tortures inflicted on Guo included: continuous interrogation for thirteen consecutive days and nights without permission to sleep; restriction by fetters for more than one hundred days; being chained down to a wooden board for forty-two days; forced to wear the black head-wrap designed for prisoners on death row, before being taken to unknown locations for brutal beatings; being forced to sit on the ‘tiger bench’ torture device for up to four hours; electric shocks to his genitals with high voltage batons.
On the 13th of December 2007, Guo was sent to the Meizhou City Prison of Guangdong Province to serve the rest of his sentence. Zhang revealed that Guo suffered further beatings and maltreatment at that location, and thus decided to carry out hunger strike protest for one hundred days.
In his hunger strike declaration, Feixiong Guo requested that the Chinese Communist regime release all political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, Christians, and other prisoners of religion or belief. He also called for the Chinese Communists to allow Chinese people forced to go overseas in exile, to return to China and reunite with their families. Furthermore, he requested that the Chinese government abolish the re-education through forced labour system, and improve the human rights situation in China.
To conclude the letter, Qing Zhang called on President Bush to help bring an end to the Chinese Communist Regime’s political persecutions on dissidents like Guo. She also called for help from the international community.
The above news was brought to you by Cheng Rong, Chris Thomas and Jenny Chang for Breaking News on Sound of Hope Radio Network.
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