Grace Gao | |
---|---|
Born | 1993 |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Grace Geng |
Known for | Human rights activism |
Parent(s) | Gao Zhisheng and Geng He (耿和)[1] |
Grace Gao, also known as Grace Geng,[2] is a Chinese-American human rights activist. She is daughter of imprisoned Chinese human rights lawyer and dissident Gao Zhisheng.[3] She and her family have been spied on, beaten and intimidated by the Chinese authorities.[3] She lectures internationally to promote her father's book A China More Just and to bring attention to his case (currently, he has been disappeared by the Chinese authorities[4]), and speak out against human rights abuses in China.[3][5][6]
And so, I find myself in a position of picking up the mantle and becoming a human rights defender like my father.
Gao was escorted to school everyday by police officers who followed her wherever she went.[3] Grace self-harmed because of her distress at her experiences[7] and, at 17 years old, she was suicidal, attempting to take her life on several occasions.[2] She found it difficult to understand her father's choices.[2]
After Gao was prohibited by the government from attending school,[3] her mother decided to smuggle her and her brother (Peter, b. 2005) out of China.[3] On 9 January 2009 they fled to Thailand via motorcycle and bus (hiding in the luggage hold),[8] then went to the United States where they received political asylum.[8][9] In New York, Grace underwent six months of hospital treatment for mental health issues, but still found it hard to trust people.[2] She learned to understand her father[8] and support him.[2]
Grace learned English after she came to the United States, graduated from high school at 20,[8] and went on to study economics at a Californian university.[2]
Following Gao's father's resignation from the Chinese Communist Party in 2005[10] and his accusations that the government was running extrajudicial "brainwashing base" for dealing with Falun Gong practitioners,[11] Gao's family were put under 24-hour police surveillance.[8] Over a number of years, her father received death threats and, according to Amnesty International,[12] in 2006 escaped an assassination attempt. On 15 August 2006 Gao Zhisheng disappeared while visiting his sister's family and was officially arrested on 21 September 2006. His family were beaten.[3] This was the start of a number of extended forced disappearances and arrests Gao Zhisheng experienced over subsequent years.[2][13] He was tortured whilst in custody and is still under house arrest.[2] Grace was bullied at school because of her father's work[2] and other students were warned not to talk to her.[8] The security agents who escorted her to school would check her bag each morning for 'dangerous or forbidden items', messing up the contents of her school bag.[7] The officers would beat her.[6]
In 2016, she visited Hong Kong to launch her father's memoir[2] and met with UN officials in Geneva.[6] Grace attended the Oslo Freedom Forum in May 2017 where she lectured on "A China More Just"[3][14] and in the October met with UK officials to discuss her father's case.[15] In 2018, in an open letter to Angela Merkel, she called on the German Chancellor to speak out on behalf of her father during a state visit to China.[16]
Geng He (耿和), wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟)