After Continued Persecution of his Family and Himself, Human Rights Attorney, Mr. Gao Zhisheng Solemnly Declares He Does Not Acknowledge Government-Forced "Confession"

Editor's note: Mr. Gao Zhisheng is a prominent human rights attorney in China, who was openly critical of the government, and represented Falun Gong practitioners and other human rights cases in China. As a result the Chinese Communist regime has intensely persecuted Mr. Gao and his family over the past year.

At around noon on August 15th, 2006, I was at my older sister's home in Shandong Province when 30 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials violently arrested me after breaking through the door. At the same time, in Beijing, more than 40 villains stormed into my home without identifying themselves. They conducted a very messy search that lasted several hours, then took away almost all of our family possessions and left only 300 yuan in cash. They did all of this without any legal procedures and without speaking a single word. They conducted body searches on my wife and two children and put my family under an indefinite and illegal house arrest.

Eleven individuals then invaded and occupied my house for eleven days. They had the TV on around the clock and used our kitchen and bathroom. They took turns, always keeping between seven and eleven people in our living room. They played poker, watched TV, ate sunflower seeds, and shouted loudly. They exemplified the lowest rung of human morality, even assigning two people to stand at the bedroom door of my two-year-old son, Gao Tianyu. My wife and children were not allowed to turn off the light when they slept, nor close the doors. They were not allowed to close the door even when they used the bathroom. They closely monitored my wife and children's every move.

Eleven days later, these villains moved to the hallway and downstairs. They still closely watched my wife and children.

During the following four months, four large statured men always followed my wife everywhere she went. Four to six people were assigned to closely follow my daughter to her school and my son to his nursery school. These thugs even went as far to stand outside their classroom doors. My wife was even brutally beaten in public. She endured countless episodes of being cursed at and pushed. My daughter also was beaten and rudely insulted. My three nephews, who were working in Beijing, were detained for 21 days.

That same day (August 15th, 2006), in my hometown village located in Shaanxi Province, according to a Public Safety Ministry plan, the Shaanxi Province Police Department lead more than 40 local scoundrels to surround my family. They mistreated my extended family for four months. Also on August 15th, 2006, in Urumqi City, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, my parents-in-law and their daughter began noticing that several dozen villains were following them and blocking their way. Local police told my parents-in-law that they were not allowed to leave home and forcibly took away their personal IDs. My mother-in-law, who is in her sixties, escaped in the middle of the night and rushed to Beijing. After two whole days of traveling, she was prevented from entering our home by those villains who were already there. She had to sit outside of my house for the entire night. She finally met with her daughter when waiting along the path that my wife normally took to go vegetable shopping. Mother and daughter cried bitterly as they embraced each other. The villains chased them home, repeatedly checking their identities. Four to six thugs followed my mother-in-law everywhere during her visit in Beijing.

In Shandong Province, my nephew was detained on August 14th, 2006, and held until his father (my brother-in-law) died. Police even tried to prevent my nephew from attending his father's funeral, claiming that the Public Safety Ministry had ordered this heinous restriction.

I began an unlimited hunger strike when I was arrested. I had to give up the strike after 36 hours, because they told me that they had stopped allowing my wife and children food and water due to my strike. They cruelly tortured me physically and mentally, but I did not cooperate with them. They then threatened to deprive my wife and my entire family of their livelihood to force me to give in. They said, "We are not asking too much. First, admit you are guilty; second, stop your involvement in human rights activities." They called me "815" (for August 15th), saying, "815, you are very special. We have to break the normal rules and use any means that are effective without hesitation." "815, we have devised many ways to deal with you, including bringing your older brother here, forcing him to kneel in front of you until you have lowered your head. We will use all possible means and take as long as we need." Facing such inhuman tortures to my family members, I was forced to "agree" to admit that I was guilty, and "agree" to write a declaration that I would stop human rights activities. Finally, the police compiled--and I copied--the "regret letter" people saw later.

I hereby solemnly declare: 1. I completely do not acknowledge the shameful crime that the government forced me to admit to with inhuman and violent torture. 2. I do not acknowledge any of the words nor their meanings in the "regret letter." Although both sides were very clear at the beginning that it was fake, I still need to declare this openly now. 3. On December 13th, 2005, I submitted a written withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party. That was my true intent, and I reinstate it here. 4. I stand by the ideas and facts in my three open letters and all written documents I wrote before August 15th, 2006. 5. I will forever be against tyranny and any form of suppressing people's thoughts. I am forever an enemy of a dictatorship that is anti-humanity.

Signed,

Gao Zhisheng

April 20, 2007