By Albert Ho and Emily Lau

Ho and Lau lead the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (www.chrlcg-hk.org).

HONG KONG -- Famous Beijing human-rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng surprised the world by suddenly reappearing in late March after having “disappeared” for more than a year.

But his whereabouts are a mystery again. Gao’s friends report that he disappeared once more on April 20. He has become one of the most famous vanishing dissidents in recent Chinese history. (In China, “disappeared” often means arrested.)

Reports suggest that Gao vanished again after briefly returning to his Beijing home from the Buddhist tourist spot of Wutaishan (Shanxi province) in early April. He visited his father-in-law in Urumqi, Xinjiang, in mid-April. Now his friends are unable to contact him.

When Gao reappeared on March 28, many people, including a staff member of our group who reached him on his mobile phone, had the same questions in mind: Why was Gao allowed to re-surface then? If he was free, why wasn’t he allowed to meet his family members? Why was he allowed to be interviewed by the Associated Press on April 7, and why did he say he’d stop criticizing the Chinese government in the hope of reuniting with his family? Most of all, why did the Ministry of Foreign Affairs concoct various accounts about Gao before he suddenly reappeared, including claims that “he was where he should be” and that “he lost his way”?

Contradictory statements by Chinese officials failed to clarify Gao’s situation. They simply show how hypocritical and cold-hearted the Chinese government is when confronted by questions on human-rights defenders. One simply finds no reason or logic in the Foreign Ministry statements.

Gao’s case frequently appears on the agendas for human-rights dialogues between China and Western countries and when foreign leaders visit China. Why would China, a nation so proud of its surging economy and of hosting the Olympics and a World Expo, fear a lawyer and make him disappear so many times?

No doubt, Gao qualifies as a legend and a controversial figure among human-rights defenders and among critics of the human-rights movement in China. A former coalminer turned self-taught lawyer, Gao was named among the country’s top-10 lawyers in 2001 by a magazine run by the Ministry of Justice. He could have remained a successful lawyer, earning more than a million yuan a year, if he didn’t participate in human-rights activism.

Gao’s life changed dramatically after he wrote three open letters to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabo in early 2005, demanding an end to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Subsequently, he lost his legal-practice license. His law firm was closed, and in late 2006 he received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for five years, on a charge of “inciting subversion of state power”.

Then Gao remained under tight surveillance and reportedly endured torture several times, including on September 21, 2007. He gave details of the torture in an article released on the Internet four days after he disappeared on February 4, 2009.

Fed up by long-time harassment, his wife and their two children fled from China in January 2009. They arrived in the United States and received asylum status.

Gao’s case gives a tragic example of what it means to be a human-rights lawyer in China. Like many dissidents, he has been punished for outspokenness and courage in handling untouchable issues.

We question how someone like Gao, who merely wrote some open letters and took part in actions to oppose human-rights violations, can be accused of “inciting subversion of state power”. How many people, if any, were “incited” by Gao’s speeches, writings or actions to “subvert” a regime that has held power for more than 60 years?