US-China panel urges Joe Biden to ‘shine light’ on political prisoners at Xi Jinping meeting at Apec
- Congressional commission calls on American leader to raise concerns about Beijing’s rights abuses and demand immediate end to transnational repression
- List of 40 political prisoners includes Uygurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong residents, Chinese human rights defenders, Christians and others
The commission, charged with monitoring human rights and the development of rule of law in China, also demanded in its letter an immediate end to Beijing’s transnational repression activities in the US.
The commission asked Biden to submit a list of political prisoners to Xi “and discuss with him the reasons political prisoners are a critical concern of the United States and for US-PRC relations”, according to the letter, which contained 40 names.
The CECC comprises US senators and members of the House of Representatives as well as senior administration officials.
The 40 political prisoners identified by the panel included Uygurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong residents, Chinese human rights defenders, Christians and adherents of other religious faiths. Many have been tortured or denied critical medical care in detention, the letter said.
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Wong was sentenced in April to three months in prison after he finished serving his sentences of about two years for three other cases last year.
Others mentioned by the commission included Uygur scholar Rahile Dawut, who was reportedly given a life sentence in China, as well as Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei who was deported to China after he was arrested in Laos in July. The commission also named Chinese journalists Zhang Zhan and Dong Yuyu, among others.
Three US citizens and lawful permanent residents were mentioned, including American pastor David Lin, who was detained in 2006 in China while waiting for approval to build a church there.
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The CECC also named Peng Lifa, a Chinese physicist and dissident, who last year hung banners on a bridge in Beijing demanding rights and political reforms.
Mentioning an individual’s name on a prisoner list increased their chance of being granted clemency threefold and officials, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based human rights group.
Officials sometimes took action in individual cases even when they failed to formally respond to such lists, it added.
“Now, as PRC officials hint at a willingness to resume dialogue with other countries on human rights, it is more important than ever to shine a light on the cases of individual detainees by submitting a list of political prisoners,” the commission’s letter said.
“Too often we hear that jailers taunt political prisoners by telling them that the world has forgotten them,” it added. “We can never allow their words to be true.”
