Representative Christopher Cox (Republican from California) issued a press release June 4 praising the United Nations (U.N.) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for determining that China has violated the rights of Dr. Yang Jianli, a Chinese citizen of China and U.S. resident, by detaining him in prison for more than a year without access to his family or a lawyer.

According to the release, the U.N. Working Group has found China's detention of Yang to be in violation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Cox, Chairman of the House Policy Committee and Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, has been working with Representative Barney Frank (Democrat from Massachusetts) to seek a resolution to Yang's situation.

June 4, 2003

Washington, D.C. (Wednesday, June 4, 2003) - Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA), Chairman of the House Policy Committee and Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and other House Leaders today announced that the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that China has violated Dr. Yang Jianli's rights as a citizen of China and a resident of the United States by detaining him in a Chinese prison for over a year with no access to family or a lawyer.

At a news conference today, Chairman Cox, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-MA) were joined by Jerome A. Cohen, Professor of Law at the NYU School of Law, Jared Genser, President of Freedom Now, and Christina Fu, Dr. Yang's wife, to announce the UN decision finding China to be in violation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

"The United Nations' condemnation of the PRC's detention of Dr. Yang brings international attention to this clear violation of human rights," Chairman Cox said. "Dr. Yang has been illegally held for over a year. The Communist government's refusal to give an official reason for the detainment is a violation of the PRC's own laws. We will continue to fight in Congress and around the world for the swift release of Dr. Yang Jianli."

The UN Working Group found that the PRC government has violated its own law through the prolonged detention of Dr. Yang, as well as by denying access to an attorney or visits by family members. While PRC procedural law requires that the family or employer of a person detained be notified within 24 hours of detention, the PRC government has yet to present Dr. Yang's family or employers with a formal detention notice, and to date no official charges have been filed against him. With no official notice of detention, Dr. Yang's family cannot arrange for legal representation. PRC law also permits detention of 37 days without a warrant in emergency situations, but Dr. Yang has been illegally detained in a China for more than a year.

Chairman Cox and Rep. Frank have worked for over one year to see this situation resolved. On April 11, H.R. 199 was introduced with the bipartisan support. The resolution currently has more than 40 cosponsors. Last week, Chairman Cox and Rep. Frank wrote a letter to President Bush, urging him to raise Dr. Yang's case with Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and PRC President, during their June 1 meeting in France.