Chinese Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng confirmed tortured

ChinaAid is reporting that at the annual American Bar Association conference, held in San Francisco on August 6, 2010, 17-year-old Grace (Ge Ge) smiled as she walked to the podium to accept the International Human Rights Lawyer of the Year Award on behalf of her missing father, Gao Zhisheng, reports Dan Wooding, founder of ASSIST Ministries.

“I am so very proud of my father,” she said. “This is the first time that this award [has been] granted to a Chinese person. If my father knew that I accepted this award for him, he would be very happy.”

The President of ABA expressed warm regards toward Gao Zhisheng, praising him for his breadth and depth of work for human rights in the Chinese legal system. Ge Ge then shared her admiration for her father and his devotion to his work.

“Deep in my heart,” she said, “my father is the type of person I admire very much. He can get over any difficulties, and he is not afraid of anything. I feel that my father is an outstanding father.”

Though proud of her father's accomplishments, Ge Ge admitted, “I have been really worrying about my dad's situation.” Ge Ge and her family continue to dread the reality that Gao continues to be held hostage by the Chinese government and may never return home.

ChinaAid told the ASSIST News Service that it "refuses to back down in the call for freedom for Gao Zhisheng, and all other human rights defenders like him."

Reliable sources in China recently confirmed that Gao Zhisheng was severely tortured last year in Xinjiang, following his family's escape to the United States. After briefly resurfacing this March, Gao Zhisheng was able to talk to his family and visit his brother and father-in-law, before being kidnapped again by the authorities from Beijing. No one has seen or heard from him since April 20, 2010.

“Gao's continued forced disappearance is a blatant disregard of the basic human rights of the Chinese people,” says Pastor Bob Fu, who visited Gao’s family in June.

“If there is no regard for even a well-respected, human rights attorney's dignity, what stops the Chinese Government from exploiting the dignity of its citizens? We will not stop until Gao’s rights are restored, as a law-abiding citizen of China. We will not rest until Gao Zhisheng is allowed to be reunited unconditionally with his family in the U.S.”   Christian Telegraph