Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: January 14, 2022
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Today, the U.S. State Department issued a statement on the passing of Zhang Qing, wife of human rights defender Guo Feixiong. Zhang passed away earlier this week from cancer in a Maryland hospital. Communist Party officials prevented Guo from traveling to America to visit his sick wife. They now continue to ban him from coming to the United States to bury his wife and comfort his survived children. "We demand the Chinese regime to immediately allow her husband Mr. Guo Feixiong to travel to the US to comfort their two surviving children," ChinaAid President Bob Fu stated upon recieving news of Ms. Zhang's passing. The statement from State Department spokesperson Ned Price, is below We offer our condolences following the passing of Zhang Qing, wife of Chinese human rights activist and defender Guo Feixiong (also known as Yang Maodong). The People’s Republic of China (PRC) authorities have subjected Guo to years of mistreatment, imprisonment, routine harassment and surveillance, and denied foreign travel for his peaceful advocacy on behalf of the Chinese people. Guo was detained in January 2021 when he attempted to board a plane from Shanghai to the United States and is currently being held incommunicado. We call on the PRC to immediately grant Guo humanitarian relief and allow his travel to the United States to be reunited with his children and grieve the passing of his wife. As we and other countries have consistently done, we urge the PRC to live up to its international commitments on human rights and end its use of arbitrary detentions and politically motivated exit bans. The PRC must stop punishing individuals for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms. |