U.S. Congress investigates China's use of torture among prisoners
The Congressional Executive Committee on China (CECC) convened a hearing last week to investigate the use of torture in China's prisons, and the revelations were graphic.
Witnesses came forward and described torture methods they had either personally experienced or seen. One of the cases examined was that of Gao Zhisheng, a lawyer who was apprehended for representing persecuted Christians.
Gao's wife Geng He said that while her husband was detained from 2006 until 2014, he suffered from beatings and electric shocks that lasted for hours.
Women prisoners also suffered from sexual assault both from the guards and the male inmates. Yin Liping, who was detained for refusing to renounce her Falun Gong beliefs, recounted how she was tortured and abused. She was given daily doses of different kinds of drugs that affected her eyesight and internal organs.
In November, Chinese officials spoke before a United Nations committee and denied using torture against their prisoners.
"The Chinese government prohibits torture and prosecutes any personnel or state organs for torture activities," Li Wensheng from China's ministry of public security said, Reuters reported.
However, the recent CECC hearing emphasized that torture was used in China in order to force prisoners to confess to crimes or to make them renounce their faith.
"A country with China's global leadership aspirations should not engage in horrific practices so thoroughly condemned by the international community," Committee Chairman Christopher Smith said, according to Epoch Times.
Kusho Golog Jigme la, former political prisoners, testified for the first time before the U.S. Congress. He told officials not to overlook the situation within Tibet.
"China should be held accountable for denying us these basic freedoms, and subjecting us to arbitrary detention and torture when we try to exercise these basic rights," the Central Tibetan Administration reported.
