Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue Number: A198-W98
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A198-W98
Release Date: April 17, 2006
发布日：2006年4月17日
Topic: Entrusted by GAO QinSheng, the Mother of Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao, HUANG Ciping Helps to Deliver Gao's Letter to President Bush Prior to Chinese President HU Jintao's US Visit
标题：黄慈萍女士受托将师涛的母亲高琴声女士给美国总统布什的信转至白宫
Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
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Entrusted by GAO QinSheng, the Mother of Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao, HUANG Ciping Helps to Deliver Gao's Letter to President Bush Prior to Chinese President HU Jintao's US Visit
Editor's Note:
As Chinese President Hu Jintao is on his way to the US, we are calling on international society, especially the Americans, for your attention to Chinese human rights abuses. Recently Gao QinSheng, the mother of the jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao, personally entrusted Huang Ciping to deliver her letter to President Bush urging for her son's release. The following is her letter.
__ __ __
George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
To the Honorable President Bush:
My name is Gao Qinsheng. I am a Chinese citizen and the mother of Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist that Yahoo! harmed. I know that you are not just the president of a great country, but also the loving father of two daughters. Thus, I would like to talk to you about my son's situation.
Shi Tao is my eldest son. Since his father died early from illness, I had to, at a young age, take responsibility for raising the entire household. Shi Tao is a respectful and obedient son, and to his two younger brothers, he is a role model deserving of deep affection. From a young age, Shi Tao had a passion for literature, and was already somewhat famous by the time he was in his university's poetry club. He has published collections of poetry as well as hundreds of literature review pieces and informal essays.
My son has a very compassionate heart and is very considerate to others. Early on in his college days, he donated blood on many occasions despite having a stomach illness. After joining the workforce, he would help anyone in times of hardship, whether that person was a distant relative, a next-door neighbor, colleague, or friend. So when some impoverished victims came to him to ask him to make a statement in the media, he, as a media worker, would never decline their requests, and would enthusiastically receive them, even helping the victims to file lawsuits.
Shi Tao has worked in the media for over ten years, going from being a journalist to being a director of a newspaper's editorial department, to director of a news center to deputy editor-in-chief, and he constantly created and brought innovation to his work. He faced life straight on and persisted in following justice, faithfully fulfilling his duties, and tried his best to report the news truthfully, objectively, and fairly.
In April 2004, Shi Tao sent a letter to an overseas Chinese-language Internet site. The contents included information that governments in China sent warnings to newspaper offices, saying that some overseas democracy advocates might return to China on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, thus threatening stability. The contents of this letter were used by a local Chinese court in charging Shi Tao with "divulging information to foreign hostile elements." In April 2005, Shi Tao was sentenced to ten years in jail by the Hunan Province, Changsha City Mid-level People's court for "Illegally Providing State Secrets to Those Overseas," and was stripped of political rights for two years.
A key piece of evidence in this court verdict was material on Shi Tao provided by Yahoo!'s holding company in Hong Kong. Yahoo! is a multinational corporation registered in America. Its actions have violated the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and its two human rights conventions, have betrayed basic human conscience and business ethics, have deprived its clients of their privacy rights, and have endangered the personal safety of its consumers. Because Yahoo! forgot its integrity when faced with profits and abetted a criminal, our family has fallen into enormous suffering.
Honorable President Bush, I believe that you can understand what state of mind a parent would be in when his or her own flesh and blood are harmed without reason. I watched helplessly as my own treasured son was humiliated, and my heart bleeds as I come to grips with the fact that my son will spend his youth in jail. I watched as Shi Tao's beloved wife was forced to divorce him in order to keep her job as a journalist, and was left inconsolable. The scene that they hugged each other tightly before the forever separation totally shattered my heart.
I asked five different lawyers to represent my son, but none of them amounted to anything, and our numerous appeals in court also came to no avail. In order to make it easier for me to visit Shi Tao in jail, I moved far away from my home, and am now living in the unfamiliar Changsha City in Hunan Province. Our family has lost the family fortune and has paid a heavy price in all of this.
When we were in a completely helpless situation, Reporters Without Borders took the initiative to stand up and harshly criticize Yahoo!, and soon afterwards media from many nations, international human rights organizations, overseas Chinese people and other foreign friends stood up to condemn Yahoo! and to state their support for Shi Tao, giving us moral support. This was especially the case when not long ago, American members of Congress submitted Yahoo! to a harsh line of questioning at a hearing and spoke out for those victimized Chinese Yahoo! consumers. This made me extremely grateful.
To this day, Yahoo! has not made a formal apology to Shi Tao, nor did they express a willingness to compensate or provide assistance to the victims.
Honorable President Bush: America is a great democratic nation. It shouldn't tolerate Internet companies like Yahoo! willfully violating the human rights of other nations' citizens. I hope that you will take this case very seriously, and urge Yahoo! to take responsibility for the victims of the case, thus displaying Americans' integrity and sincerity.
Here, I request that when you meet with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, speak on behalf of my innocent son, and urge the Chinese government to release Shi Tao soon.
Sincerely,
Gao Qinsheng, a Chinese citizen
(The Wei Jingsheng Foundation is responsible for this version of the English translation.)
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中文版
Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue Number: A198-W98
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A198-W98
Release Date: April 17, 2006
发布日：2006年4月17日
Topic: Entrusted by GAO QinSheng, the Mother of Jailed Chinese Journalist Shi Tao, HUANG Ciping Helps to Deliver Gao's Letter to President Bush Prior to Chinese President HU Jintao's US Visit
标题：黄慈萍女士受托将师涛的母亲高琴声女士给美国总统布什的信转至白宫
Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2006/report2006-04/GaoQS060417BushA198-W98.htm
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师涛的母亲高琴声女士给美国总统布什的信
（编者按：黄慈萍女士受高琴声女士之委托已将此信转至白宫。）
尊敬的布什总统：
我是中国公民高琴声，是那位因贵国雅虎公司而受害的中国记者师涛的母亲。我知道，布什先生您不但是一个大国的总统，也是两个女儿慈爱的父亲，因此，我想和你谈谈有关我的儿子师涛的情况。
师涛是我的长子, 因其父病逝早，他在很年轻的时候就承担起家庭责任。对于母亲，师涛是一个很孝顺的儿子,对于两个弟弟，他是一个值得深爱的偶像。师涛从小酷爱文学,在大学诗社里就已经小有名气。他出版过诗集, 还发表过几百篇文学评论和随笔。
我这个儿子的心地特别善良，对人很有爱心。早在大学期间，他就不顾自己有胃病，多次义务献血。参加工作后，不管是远亲近邻还是同事朋友，只要有困难，他总会伸出援手。当一些贫困的受害者慕名前来寻求媒体声援时，身为新闻工作者的他总是毫不推辞地热情接待，甚至帮助受害者打官司。
师涛从事新闻工作十几年，从记者、编辑部主任、新闻中心主任做到常务副总编，一直都在不断地创新。他直面人生坚持正义, 忠实地履行着自己的职责，尽可能真实、客观、公正地报道新闻。
2004年4月，师涛发给海外中文网站一封邮件，其中的内容有：地方政府警示报社，海外民运人士将在天安门事件15周年期间回国，可能对稳定构成威胁。这封信的内容被中国地方法院指控为"向境外敌对分子通风报信"。2005年4月，师涛被湖南省长沙市中级人民法院以"为境外非法提供国家秘密罪"的罪名判处有期徒刑十年，剥夺政治权利两年。
这个判决书所使用的一个重要证据，就是雅虎香港控股有限公司出具的关于用户资料的证明材料，这是导致师涛陷入冤狱的一个关键。雅虎是一个在美国注册的跨国公司，他们的这种做法，违反了联合国人权宣言及其两个人权公约，背叛了基本的人类良知和商业伦理，剥夺了用户的隐私权，危害了用户的人身安全。由于雅虎公司见利忘义、为虎作伥，使我们家陷入巨大的痛苦之中。
尊敬的布什总统阁下，我相信你能理解，当自己的亲生骨肉无辜被害，我们做父母是什么心情？ 我眼睁睁的看着自己心爱的儿子受辱，看着他将在10年的牢狱中耗尽青春年华，我的心在滴血。看着儿子深爱的娇妻为了生存保住记者工作，被迫与师涛离婚，他们两人抱在一起生离死别的场景，也令我悲痛欲绝。
我先后请了五位律师为儿子辩护，结果都等于零，多次申诉也无济于事。为了探监方便,我千里迢迢背井离乡，寄居在人生地不熟的湖南长沙。我们全家已经倾家荡产，为此付出了沉重的代价。
在我们处于完全无助的境地下，国际"无疆界记者"组织最先站出来指责雅虎，紧接着多国媒体及国际人权组织、海外侨胞和外国朋友们纷纷谴责雅虎，声援师涛，给予我们道义上的支持。尤其是前不久美国国会众议员们在听证会上严厉质询了雅虎网络公司，为我们这些中国受害的用户讲了公道话，令我非常感激。
然而，雅虎公司至今也没有向师涛赔礼道歉，也没有对受害者表示赔偿或者提供帮助的愿望。
尊敬的布什总统阁下，美国是一个伟大的民主国家，它不应该容忍象雅虎这样的网络公司任意侵害他国人民的人权。我希望总统先生重视此案，敦促雅虎公司对受害者承担责任，从而展示出美国人的公正和诚信，
在此，我还恳求布什总统您在和中国领导人胡锦涛先生会面时，为我无罪的儿子说话，敦促中国政府早日释放师涛。
中国公民 高琴声
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