''PRODUCE TORTURED GAO ZHISHENG" MEP EDWARD McMILLAN-SCOTT CALLS

After the Chinese authorities unprecedentedly confirmed - then denied - that prominent Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has disappeared after years of imprisonment, torture and house arrest, Edward McMillan-Scott, a senior MEP and one of Gao's key supporters, called Thursday on the Beijing regime to produce Gao and to allow him to join his family in the United States.

During an emergency debate in the European Parliament on China's human rights crackdown over Christmas, during which the leading Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo - author of the groundbreaking Charter 08 [see Edward McMillan-Scott's website www.charter08.eu ] - was imprisoned for eleven years, the Member of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, who is the European Parliament's Vice President and as well responsible for human rights and democracy, warned:
"The European Parliament will not give up on reform in China - the world's biggest country, now the second largest economy, and also the world's biggest tyranny. China should follow Gao Zhisheng and Liu Xiaobo on a quick path to reform - becoming the largest country in an Asian common market. Without reform there will be chaos".

After McMillan-Scott's last visit to Beijing in May 2006, all the Chinese with whom he had contact were arrested and imprisoned. Among them were Hu Jia, a leading environmentalist who won the European Parliament's 2008 Sakharov Prize for freedom of expression, and his friend and mentor Gao Zhisheng - a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2008. Gao became prominent after his 2005 publication of three letters denouncing the Chinese regime as well as his investigation into the persecution of the massively-popular Buddha-school Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Gao Zhisheng [see Gao's last interview before he was re-arrested in September 2007 "Conscience of China speaks out" on McMillan-Scott's Youtube page] was arrested in August 2006, imprisoned for "subversion" and released into house arrest. After a period of severe torture during his reimprisonment he twice tried to commit suicide.

Gao's brother recently reported that one of the policemen guarding Gao had said that the self-taught lawyer had "disappeared" in September. Last year, Gao's wife and two children escaped to the USA with the help of the US charity China Aid.

Following the debate, Thursday's vote in the European Parliament saw the resolution on human rights violations in China adopted overwhelmingly by MEPs from the 27-nation European Union in a show of hands, with two Socialist amendments defeated.

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