China Aid Association Picks 2010’s Top 10 Cases of Persecution of Churches and Christians in China
Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who had represented Falungong victims in persecution cases, was taken away by police from his home in Beijing on Feb. 4, 2009. For more than a year, his whereabouts were unknown. During his disappearance, he was tortured. On March 27, 2010, he suddenly reappeared, though still monitored by China’s secret police. But on April 20, he disappeared again, and to date, there still is no word of his fate. Gao was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2008 and 2010, and is highly respected internationally. In early 2009, with ChinaAid’s help, Gao’s wife and daughter were able to escape to the United States. ChinaAid founder and president Pastor Bob Fu, when he was in Oslo, Norway on Dec. 10 to attend the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, personally went to the Chinese Embassy to deliver a petition with 150,000 signatures calling for Gao’s release. That same day, ChinaAid organized simultaneous deliveries of the same petition to Chinese embassies and consulates in 14 countries and cities around the world.