Members of the Committee, Chairman Smith, I thank you for your 30 years of persistent effort to try to end China’s cruel One Child Policy and massive gendercide, in addition to many other human right abuses. The case of Chen Guangcheng is inexpressively grievous, but today I will try to share the most recent details in the most accurate way possible. I pray one day he could be standing here telling his story himself before all of you.

Chen Guangcheng is a blind attorney who investigated incidents of forced abortions and forced sterilizations by Linyi Municipal Authorities. He revealed his findings and documentations of late-term abortions and forced sterilizations (130,000 in 2005 alone) to the media.

For this, he was arrested and imprisoned for four years and three months, finally released in September 2010.

Since his release from prison, Chen has been kept under illegal house arrest, denied medical treatment for serious intestinal problems and deprived of all contact with the outside world. Reporters and activists who have tried to visit him have been roughed up and turned away. Recently, many more activists, including workers sent by our All Girls Allowed partner Women’s Rights In China , tried to visit him because we heard he had possibly been killed. Until last week, we did not know if he was even alive. When we tried to visit him in the past few weeks, we were blocked and sent away. The 5 activists we sent were disabled but wanted to visit him on the International Day for the Blind. They were pushed around and their gifts were taken by force. Then their van was followed by the local mobs and chased over 100 km.

No one had heard about Chen’s condition for months. Last week, we finally received word concerning his situation from our partners at ChinaAid—a Midland, TX based NGO that focuses on defending the persecuted faithful in China. In July, a brutal four-hour beating by local authorities almost killed Chen and his wife. It was witnessed by their elementary school-age daughter.

The couple endured a similarly brutal beating in February after they had smuggled out a videotape documenting the shocking conditions of their illegal house arrest following Chen’s release from prison.

The July beating occurred after a storm knocked out equipment that authorities had installed in Chen’s house to cut off all their telecommunications contact with the outside world. With the equipment disabled, Chen was able to make phone calls on July 25, but the calls were intercepted by authorities. On July 28, Shuanghou town mayor Zhang Jian led a group of people to Chen’s home and beat and tortured the couple for four hours.

This is the sequence of events, provided by the source of ChinaAid

At 2 p.m.—the authorities cleared out everyone from Chen’s village

At 3 p.m.—the authorities conducted an exhaustive search of Chen’s home and found a phone card in a pile of ashes

At 4 p.m.—the authorities started the beating. Chen’s screams of pain were heard first, while his wife Yuan Weijing was heard shouting angrily along with their daughter Kesi's cries. After a while, Weijing’s screams of pain could also be heard. From then until 8 p.m., the only sounds were screams of pain.

Some time later, a village doctor was permitted to give Chen some cursory medical treatment.

During the four-hour beating, Chen’s elderly mother, who lives with them, was prevented from entering their home. When she was finally allowed to go in, neighbors heard her burst into tears, and her anguished cries—described as “gut-wrenching to hear”—continued for a long time.

According to the source, Zhang tortured Chen to try to get him to tell how he got the phone card to make the calls on July 25 and to reveal where he had hidden it. When Chen and his wife refused to give any details, their house was ransacked until the phone card was found in a pile of ashes.

Then the mayor’s men viciously beat up Chen and his wife in the presence of their daughter Kesi. The source of the information asked: “As family men themselves with parents and children, how could they inflict such inhuman pain on a little girl?”

Yes, activists in China have been beaten and sent away, but many have taken the battle to the internet. Chinese citizens are also speaking up online: particularly galled by the “communal punishment” of the whole Chen family. They pressured the government, particularly on the Chinese Twitter, called Sina Weibo. Users are posting photos of themselves in dark glasses to honor Chen. Authorities have blocked searches for Mr. Chen's name on Weibo and even deleted some posts by users, though most posts about him and his case can be easily found through other means of searching. The head of China’s Internet watchdog last week called for a strengthening of regulations over microblogs so they can “serve the works of the party and the people,” according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The authorities' apparent decision to allow Mr. Chen's daughter to attend school following weeks of growing online activism is breathing new life into the Internet campaign to free him despite this online censorship. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Mr. Chen's case is a rare example where rights activists and ordinary citizens alike are applying online pressure on the government.”

Yet we know that a similar return to school for the daughter of missing lawyer Gao Zhisheng “only added to the pressures that battered her and did not presage release for her courageous father.” Chen’s daughter is accompanied by security agents to and from her classes.

In America, we teach our children to honor police officers and to ask police officers for directions when they are lost. These officials help to keep us safe, to keep the peace.

In China, when a man and his wife are beaten senseless in front of their child by authorities who should be protecting their rights, how ought we respond? And what does our response say about our own nation’s values?

Recently a two-year-old child was run over by a van in Foshan, a city in China. The whole world watched video footage of 18 people who walked by the toddler as she lay in a pool of her own blood, waiting for help. I want to know how these people could walk by unaffected, not acting on her behalf, even though they knew what had happened and that the baby needed help. Are we any different? If we do not do what we can do as a nation, we are no different from these 18 passersby who left Yue Yue to die.

As you know, All Girls Allowed exists to restore life, value and dignity to women and girls in China and to reveal the injustice of China’s One-Child Policy. Our work is inspired by the love of Jesus to sacrifice to redeem humanity. Today, on behalf of All Girls Allowed and our partner organizations: Women’s Rights in China, ChinaAid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, we have 4 major asks of our nation’s leaders.

1.) We urge President Obama to urgently demand Chen Guangcheng and his family to be released from house arrest and to be allowed to leave China to another country. We appreciate that Secretary Clinton has mentioned him by name in the past. The gravity of the matter calls for an urgent act from our Commander in Chief.

2.) In addition, we continue to encourage the US Embassy to visit Chen Guangcheng and his family. A newly arrived

U.S. Embassy official in Beijing created a Weibo account recently. Within days of his first message last week, a simple greeting and introduction of himself, the post was overrun with nearly 2,000 comments, many of which expressed support for Mr. Chen and criticized the Chinese government’s handling of the case. So there is general support from the people on acting justly for Chen’s case.

3.) We urge US State Department to work with EU partners to also demand his immediate release.

4.) We urge President Obama to deny visa requests to visit America for all who were and are involved persecuting, torturing and harassing Chen and his family, including Mayor Zhang Jian, effective immediately.

As a nation, when we see evil and we know it is happening clearly before our eyes, will we have the courage to speak up? I say today that what we’ve been doing is not enough, nor acceptable. We are not asking for our nation to invade China or even to rescue this poor man from death, but we are asking that America would stand and proclaim its own beliefs, loudly, as a testimony of truth and light in this darkness. Continuing to allow this sort of brutality to go on but saying nothing is saying something loud and clear, and the silence has been deafening.

As I am concluding the testimony, I would like to leave with you all a command that was given to us and teach us what to do in this kind of situation:

³⁵"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’"

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25: 35–40)

I pray, in the name of our Lord and savior Jesus, we will take an action to our brother and hero Chen Guangcheng today to bring him to freedom!

A List of All Chen Guangcheng's Persecutors

Ma Kun, newly appointed Deputy Mayor of Linfen City, used to work on family planning in Fennan County

Zhen Zhijie, Fennan Police Department Committee for Discipline Inspection Chairman

Yang Xigang, Captain, Fennan Police State Security Department. Chief State Security personnel responsible for Chen Guangcheng

Liu Changjie, Deputy head of Fennan Police Department

Xi Yunbo, Deputy head of Fennan Police Department, 610 Office (Falungong) Chairman

Du Xiliang, Deputy head of Fennan Police Department

Xi Kelong, 110 (Emergency number) Captain, Fennan Police Department

Ma Chenglong, Fennan Police Department State Security Captain

Zhang Jian, Mayor, Shuanghou Town, Fennan City

Yu Mingjiang, Deputy CCP Commissar, Shuanghou Town

Zhang Changguo, Shuanghou Police Department head

Liu Ruichang, Shuanghou Police Department

Li Xianqiang, Shuanghou Justice Department Deputy Chief

Yan Yufeng, Shuanghou government

Han Fengyan, Shuanghou government

Yi Jikao, Shuanghou Family Planning Commission official

Zhang Shenghe, Shuanghou Family Planning Commission official, one of three people who physically assaulted Chen in his home on February 8th

Zhi Yunguang, Gao Zhen […], […] Shancheng, three guards/thugs

Zhao Wei, Li Xianli, two guards