.... while PAP IB clones are bashing America and her allies non stop in this forum
Daughters of activists jailed in China demand action by Obama on Apec trip
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 18 September, 2014, 9:07pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 18 September, 2014, 9:07pm
Agence France-Presse in Washington
Banners at the Chinese protest in Washington. Photo: AFP
Daughters of detained Chinese activists are demanding a meeting with US President Barack Obama, saying he must continue to push for their release when he meets China's leaders.
At a gathering in Washington with congressional allies, the women insisted the United States could, and must, do more to get their dads out of jail.
"I believe that high-level diplomacy is our fathers' only chance for freedom," said Ti-Anna Wang, daughter of Wang Bingzhang, founder of the China Spring movement, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2003.
Their release, Wang said, must be discussed when Obama travels to Beijing in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Joining Wang were the daughters of rights advocates Gao Zhisheng , Zhang Shaojie, Chang Boyang and Liu Xianbin, plus friends of detained Tibetan activists Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and Lobsang Tsering.
Gao, a lawyer who defended some of China's most vulnerable people, such as underground Christians and aggrieved miners, spent years in windowless solitary confinement before he was released in August, only to be put under virtual house arrest.
"My dad's tragic hardship has not ended," said Grace Geng Ge, who said he suffered from poor health and had intrusive two-hour visits twice a day from members of the security forces.
Also speaking on Wednesday was Chen Guangcheng , the blind anti-corruption lawyer who reached the US in 2012 after escaping house arrest.
"Freedom for China actually is in the real long-term interest of America. I hope American statesmen can really realise that," he said.
Congressman Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China, said "private and deferential diplomacy" had failed to produce results.
"We urge the administration to take up a new approach," said Smith, a Republican, as he introduced the daughters.
