Taiwanese human-rights activists have launched a campaign in support of Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), a Chinese human rights lawyer who was forced to close his law office for one year after he appealed to the Chinese government to stop persecuting Falun Gong.
The Association of Falun Dafa Practitioners, based in National Taiwan University, made the announcement yesterday during a forum it held on cross-strait human-rights issues.
"While China hasn't ceased in its persecution over the past six years, the change of strategy from glaring repression to a clandestine crackdown has misled many people into thinking that it has softened its violence against Falun Gong," said Elvi Chang (張東旭), a representative of the task force on human rights of Taiwan Falun Gong.
Gao's case aroused wide concern for Falun Gong in the international community, with more than 43 lawyers from 13 countries jointly signing a letter addressed to the Chinese government, in which they demanded the authorities repeal Gao's shutdown order, Chang said.
The task force on human rights of Taiwan Falun Gong took the lead in joining the efforts of the international community by initiating their own signature drive expressing sympathy for Gao.
Gao got the shutdown order from China's Ministry of Justice late last month, shortly after he sent a letter of appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶).
The shutdown order, issued by China's Ministry of Justice, said that Gao's firm was being closed because he failed to re-register with the authorities after moving into a new office.
Chang, however, said that the international community had deep suspicions over China's claim.
"The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a letter to US President George W. Bush that the firm was discriminated against because some of its clients included practitioners of Falun Gong as well as an unregistered Protestant pastor," he said.
"The international organization Amnesty International also claimed that the move to close the firm came shortly after the firm's director sent an open letter urging the Chinese government to end its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China," he added.
Chen Kuide (陳奎德), executive chairman of the Princeton China Initiative in the US, said that Gao's case was just the tip of the iceberg.
"The violation of human rights in China is an institutional problem. To prevent its autocratic regime from collapsing, it will continue oppressing human rights," he said.
John Wei (魏千峰), an attorney, said that Taiwan has little understanding of the current human-rights situation in China, which is regrettable.
"Despite the difficulty of overhauling China's political institutions in the near future, it is very important for other free societies to keep overseeing and urging China to improve its human rights. It should be an issue of concern for the people of Taiwan," Wei said.
In related news, Zhao Yan (趙岩), a researcher for the Beijing bureau of the New York Times who has been imprisoned in China for more than a year, was named journalist of the year on Wednesday by the international press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
Zhao, 43, was arrested in Shanghai on Sept. 17 last year, and accused of leaking state secrets. He is being held in Beijing and has not yet had a court hearing.
The accusation, which both Zhao and the Times deny, came 10 days after the publication of an article in the Times saying that former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民) had offered to give up his final leadership position. Jiang retired on Sept. 19. The newspaper has denied that Zhao provided that information.
When US President George W. Bush visited China last month, Zhao was included in a list of human-rights cases that were considered of particular concern to the US.
In its citation about the choice of Zhao for the award, Reporters Without Borders said, "As a journalist engaged in denouncing corruption in rural areas, Zhao Yan was the ideal victim for the secret services."
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