Testimony of Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
May 15, 2012
House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights
Honorable members of the Sub-Committee, ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful for this opportunity to testify here today, during a sensitive time in engaging the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to free Chen Guangcheng and his family.
I have been asked to brief the Sub-Committee on the treatment of two prominent activists who are supporters of Chen: He Peirong, also known as Pearl, who was instrumental in Chen’s escape, and Jiang Tianyong, a key member of Chen’s legal team.
He Peirong (Pearl)
He Peirong, also known as Pearl, has played a key role in organizing support for Chen within China. When I testified about her on May 3, she had been detained for almost a week and I was very concerned that she might be tortured to learn the names of others in her network. The very day after the hearing, at which her case was strongly raised by Rep. Chris Smith, Pearl was released and was interviewed by the BBC.
Some say that quiet, back door diplomacy is the way to deal with the detention of Chinese human rights defenders. But we have found that high profile visibility is far more effective.
Pearl herself seems to have endorsed this approach in her BBC interview. According to this interview, she was confined to a hotel room. The police were “polite,” but persistent in their effort to obtain information, which Pearl did not divulge. About her own safety, she said, “I was very concerned, but once the thing went public, I was no longer worried.”
I skyped with Pearl the day after her release, and again on this past Saturday. Pearl is grateful that she was treated so well in detention in Nanjing. This has not always been the case. I understand from a reliable source that she has encountered violence three times in Shandong:
• On Jan 10th, 2011, She drove to Chen’s village, where pain clothes guards smashed her car outside of Chen’s house.
• On May 30 2011, she went to Yinan county for Chen’s case and plainclothes guards kidnapped, robbed and beat her. They struck her face 30 to 40 times. She was subjected to a painful position for four hours while being driven in a car, and she was dumped on a road by thugs.
• On June 6 2011, she went to Yinan county for Chen’s case again. In the local official’s office she was kidnapped and robbed again. The pain clothes guards drove her for over four hours and dumped her in the middle of wheat field in Jiangsu. Two men kicked her into a field. They tried to stuff her socks into her mouth, tied her up in the field and touched her breast twice. A video at a highway toll station showed that the police in Yinan County were involved.
Despite the violence she has suffered, Pearl wants to remain in China for the protection of her friends. Pearl has asked me to make this statement for her at this hearing:
“I would like to thank everyone who fights for our freedom: activists, Congressmen and Congresswomen, as well as the U.S. Government, the State Department, Secretary Clinton, and the United States. I hope I will visit this great country one day, but now I just want to stay with my friends in China. What I want is for all my friends to be safe.”
House Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights
Honorable members of the Sub-Committee, ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful for this opportunity to testify here today, during a sensitive time in engaging the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to free Chen Guangcheng and his family.
I have been asked to brief the Sub-Committee on the treatment of two prominent activists who are supporters of Chen: He Peirong, also known as Pearl, who was instrumental in Chen’s escape, and Jiang Tianyong, a key member of Chen’s legal team.
He Peirong (Pearl)
He Peirong, also known as Pearl, has played a key role in organizing support for Chen within China. When I testified about her on May 3, she had been detained for almost a week and I was very concerned that she might be tortured to learn the names of others in her network. The very day after the hearing, at which her case was strongly raised by Rep. Chris Smith, Pearl was released and was interviewed by the BBC.
Some say that quiet, back door diplomacy is the way to deal with the detention of Chinese human rights defenders. But we have found that high profile visibility is far more effective.
Pearl herself seems to have endorsed this approach in her BBC interview. According to this interview, she was confined to a hotel room. The police were “polite,” but persistent in their effort to obtain information, which Pearl did not divulge. About her own safety, she said, “I was very concerned, but once the thing went public, I was no longer worried.”
I skyped with Pearl the day after her release, and again on this past Saturday. Pearl is grateful that she was treated so well in detention in Nanjing. This has not always been the case. I understand from a reliable source that she has encountered violence three times in Shandong:
• On Jan 10th, 2011, She drove to Chen’s village, where pain clothes guards smashed her car outside of Chen’s house.
• On May 30 2011, she went to Yinan county for Chen’s case and plainclothes guards kidnapped, robbed and beat her. They struck her face 30 to 40 times. She was subjected to a painful position for four hours while being driven in a car, and she was dumped on a road by thugs.
• On June 6 2011, she went to Yinan county for Chen’s case again. In the local official’s office she was kidnapped and robbed again. The pain clothes guards drove her for over four hours and dumped her in the middle of wheat field in Jiangsu. Two men kicked her into a field. They tried to stuff her socks into her mouth, tied her up in the field and touched her breast twice. A video at a highway toll station showed that the police in Yinan County were involved.
Despite the violence she has suffered, Pearl wants to remain in China for the protection of her friends. Pearl has asked me to make this statement for her at this hearing:
“I would like to thank everyone who fights for our freedom: activists, Congressmen and Congresswomen, as well as the U.S. Government, the State Department, Secretary Clinton, and the United States. I hope I will visit this great country one day, but now I just want to stay with my friends in China. What I want is for all my friends to be safe.”
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