Representative Christopher H. Smith, Chair
Senator Jeff Merkley, Cochair
China’s Pervasive Use of Torture
Capitol Visitor Center, Room HVC 210 Washington, DC 20515
| Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Transcript (PDF) (Text)
On April 14, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) will convene a hearing to examine China’s systemic use of torture and maltreatment in the criminal justice system. Torture experts have concluded that the lack of a definition of torture in China’s legal code is highly problematic. There are also well-documented cases of the frequent use of “tiger chairs” during interrogation and other forms of torture to coerce confessions from criminal defendants and political prisoners alike; reports of deaths in custody and the lack of adequate medical treatment in detention; and the abuse and mistreatment in detention of individuals from China’s ethnic minorities, including Tibetans and Uyghurs.
Witnesses at the CECC hearing will discuss these issues and make policy recommendations to the U.S. Government.
The hearing will be webcast here.
Opening Statements
Representative Christopher Smith, Chairman
Senator Marco Rubio, Cochairman
Witnesses
Sophie Richardson, China Director, Human Rights Watch
Margaret K. Lewis, Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law
Golog Jigme, Tibetan Buddhist monk, human rights advocate, and survivor of torture in Chinese detention centers
Yin Liping, Falun Gong practitioner and survivor of torture, forced labor, and sexual violence in the Masanjia Labor Camp
Statement Submitted for the Record
Geng He, Wife of Lawyer Gao Zhisheng