- Kidnapped in Myanmar on May 28, 2004, illegally convicted on Oct. 12, 2005, of "forming and leading a terrorist organization" and presently in failing health after 9 years of detention, prison and tortures
- His crime was to organize in the US a China Federalist Party, advocating free speech in a multi party system in China
Washington, DC, Jun.30.─ ChinaAid, a non-profit Christian human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China, has redoubled its efforts in championing the case of Christian prisoner of conscience Peng Ming, making the rounds of the nation's capital with Peng's family to draw attention to his illegal conviction and failing health behind bars.
The recent effort was part of ChinaAid's ongoing mission to push for freedom of religion and promote the rule of law in China and to advocate on behalf of all the prisoners of conscience in China's prisons. ChinaAid has for many years been appealing for the release of such political prisoners as Gao Zhisheng, Chen Guangcheng, Alimujiang, Wang Bingzhang, Liu Xiaobo, Guo Quan, Yang Tianshui, Zhu Yufu, Liu Xianbin, Peng Ming, Chen Xi, Chen Wei, Yang Rongli, Ni Yulan, and others while providing humanitarian assistance to their families through various channels.
Peng was first the founder of the China Development Federation, and later, in the United States, he founded the China Federalist Party; he has long been committed to the efforts to end one-party dictatorship in China and to realize free and democratic universal suffrage. Like Wang Bingzhang, the prominent Christian and dissident Peng Ming was secretly lured by special agents of the Chinese Communist government to Myanmar, where he was kidnapped on May 28, 2004 and transferred to China. On October 12, 2005, a Chinese Communist court in Wuhan, Hubei province convicted Peng of "forming and leading a terrorist organization" and sentenced him to life imprisonment, with deprivation of his political rights for life. The conviction of Peng by the Chinese authorities was totally illegal and the sentence violated Article 6 of the Chinese Criminal Law regarding "territorial jurisdiction."
Peng's political views fall entirely within the exercise of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and furthermore, his activities all took place outside Chinese territory, with no resulting consequences occurring within China's borders. This conviction also violates Article 7 of the Chinese Criminal Law regarding "personal jurisdiction." This is because. Peng was designated by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as an international refugee who was resettled in the United States and is not a Chinese citizen. Therefore, the Chinese Communists have no right to sentence Peng to life imprisonment pursuant to Article 120 of the Chinese Criminal Law regarding "forming and leading a terrorist organization." Neither Peng's refugee status nor his viewpoints or actions fall within the scope of this article. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention passed a special resolution on this case, concluding concluded that Peng's detention and sentence are politically-motivated and constitutes arbitrary detention, and has demanded that the Chinese government correct this error in applying the law.
After he was sentenced, Peng was immediately thrown into Han Yang Prison in Hubei to serve his sentence. In 2011, he was transferred to Xian Ning, where he remains today. Peng's sentence of life imprisonment has not been changed to a fixed-term imprisonment, and to date, he has already been in prison for nine years since he was illegally arrested and sentenced. Although Peng, a Christian, remains committed to regular prayer, and also writes and exercises to stay healthy, he has developed severe heart disease and some other illnesses as a result of torture, and his health is getting worse and worse ...
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