In the letter, co-signed by 33 other Congress members, Republican Congressman Trent Franks asked President Hu to immediately release the 35-year-old Chen Guangcheng, amid international concerns about his health after reports that he was beaten by fellow inmates, encouraged by prison guards.
Chen was sentenced to four years in prison last August, on charges of "disrupting traffic and damaging property," although Franks suggested he was prosecuted for exposing a program of forced late-term abortions and sterilization including in Lingyi city in China’s Shandong province. The authorities allegedly impose the measures on the local population as part of China’s policy of one child per family.
"The right to life is the most essential of all human rights, and prosecuting Chen for peacefully defending this right reflects the low value the Chinese government places on human dignity," he wrote. "The inability for citizens such as Chen to dissent indicates the lack of respect for other essential freedoms in China as well."
"HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES"
Franks said that "despite numerous congressional attempts," the "Communist regime refuses to address the flagrant human rights abuses committed against its people." He stressed that, "China should no longer be treated as an equal partner in world politics, in particular as they prepare to host the 2008 Olympics in Beijing next summer, unless they begin to demonstrate their respect for their international human rights obligations."
China Aid Association (CAA), a US-based religious rights group with close ties to house churches and activists, told BosNewsLife that Chen’s case "adds to a growing list of human rights and religious freedom advocates that the Chinese government has attempted to silence as they prepare for the Olympics" in 2008.
"Since this letter was sent, China imprisoned Mr. Gao Zhisheng, a prominent human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Gao was arrested on September 22, following a press conference in which he released a letter to the US Congress expressing his deep concerns over the worsening deterioration of human rights in China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics" CAA said." There are also reports that friends of Gao have been targeted by the secret police, tortured and threatened to remain silent," the group added.
MORE CONCERNS
CAA said that over the last 25 years, Congressman Franks has followed "with similar concern the serious human rights abuses perpetuated by this Communist regime upon innocent women, the unborn, disabled, and religious minorities."
Previously Franks also raised concerns over the imprisonment of Pastor Zhang Rongliang and the family of Chinese woman Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Uyghur human rights advocate, as well as China’s treatment of North Korean refugees. Many North Koreans, including Christians, have been send back by China to North Korea, where they face imprisonment, torture and possible death, rights groups and other sources confirmed.
China has denied human rights abuses, saying authorities act within the law of the land.
