Today Is the 62nd Birthday of Renowned Human Rights Lawyer Mr. Gao Zhisheng; This Website Strongly Demands That the Chinese Communist Authorities Immediately Return Gao Zhisheng's Freedom and Strongly Calls on the Governments of All Democratic Countries and the International Community to Act for Mr. Gao Zhisheng's Freedom

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On April 20, 2025, Xing, this website learned: April 20, 2026, is the 62nd birthday of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Gao Zhisheng has spoken out for disadvantaged groups for many years and was persecuted and subjected to torture and abuse as a result. He was once sentenced to prison for the crime of inciting subversion of state power and was released in 2014. He was forcibly disappeared again in August 2017. Nearly nine years after being forcibly disappeared by the Chinese Communist authorities in August 2017, renowned human rights lawyer Mr. Gao Zhisheng remains completely unaccounted for, and his life or death is unknown.

In recent years, human rights defenders around the world have also repeatedly launched joint global actions to search for forcibly disappeared lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Today, the Rights Defense Network once again strongly calls on the governments of all democratic countries and the international community to act for Mr. Gao Zhisheng's freedom.

Lawyer Gao Zhisheng is a renowned human rights lawyer in mainland China, famous for his integrity and unyielding courage. Having endured brutal torture without yielding, lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been forcibly disappeared for nearly eight years. To this day, the Chinese Communist authorities have provided no legal procedures or explanation whatsoever, and people in China and abroad are deeply concerned about his circumstances and safety. We ask human rights figures around the world to continue acting together for lawyer Gao Zhisheng's freedom!

Biography of Gao Zhisheng: Born on April 20, 1964, in Jia County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province; renowned rights lawyer; once selected by China's Ministry of Justice as one of the “Top Ten Lawyers in China”; hailed as “China's conscience”; dissident; incarcerated prisoner of conscience in China.

Beginning in 1996, he started representing disadvantaged groups in rights-protection lawsuits and handled numerous civil rights cases; from the end of 2004, he repeatedly wrote to senior Chinese Communist authorities, demanding changes to the illegal methods used to treat groups including Falun Gong, and participated in investigations into allegations that the authorities were harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners while they were alive; in November 2005, he and his wife publicly announced their withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party; because he bravely defended cases deemed sensitive by the authorities (note: including people of the Falun Gong faith, Christians, and rural residents and private entrepreneurs at the grassroots level who had disputes with officials), he was repeatedly subjected to serious harassment and retaliatory attacks by the Chinese Communist authorities using criminal-gang methods;

In August 2006, his law license was revoked by the authorities, and he was secretly abducted and subjected to nearly four months of torture; on December 22, 2006, he was sentenced by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for “inciting subversion of state power”; on February 4, 2009, he suddenly lost contact with the outside world, and was not released and returned to Beijing until April 2010; afterward, because he accepted an interview with the Associated Press, he again lost contact with the outside world; it was not until December 16, 2011, that his family learned from a Xinhua News Agency report that he had been taken into custody by a Beijing court and made to serve the remaining two years and seven months of his sentence;

On August 7, 2014, he was released after completing his sentence, but after his release he remained under house arrest at his hometown in Yulin, northern Shaanxi. Because he had endured prolonged torture and inhumane treatment in solitary confinement while in prison, his teeth had fallen out and his health was poor. He requested dental treatment and medical care, but was consistently denied. In June 2016, because he had secretly written the book 2017: China, Rise Up, which was officially printed and sold in Taiwan, and because the book primarily concerned three major subjects—his long-term abduction, imprisonment, and torture by the Chinese Communist authorities; his view, from the perspective of faith, that the Chinese Communist Party would perish in 2017; and his outlook for China's constitutional democratization after 2017—the Chinese Communist authorities became extremely fearful and angry and tightened their surveillance of him further.

On August 13, 2017, with the help of Shanxi rights activists Li Fawang, Shao Zhongguo, and others, Gao Zhisheng fled his hometown in Shaanxi for Shanxi to hide and prepare to see a dentist, but on August 19 he was located and taken away in a police search. Since then, there has been no news of Gao Zhisheng, and the authorities in Beijing, Shaanxi, and Shanxi have all denied detaining him.

Nearly nine years since lawyer Gao Zhisheng was forcibly disappeared by the Chinese Communist authorities in August 2017, the Chinese Communist authorities have neither tried nor sentenced him, have provided no response or explanation whatsoever to his relatives' inquiries, and have completely ignored the attention and protests of the international community. The Chinese Communist authorities' infringement of lawyer Gao Zhisheng's human rights has reached a wanton and deranged level. The location where Gao Zhisheng is being secretly detained is currently unknown, and his life or death is unclear.

This website will continue to follow lawyer Gao Zhisheng's situation.