Transcripts of an interview with Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese Christian lawyer who has been missing since April 2010, have recently been released by the Associated Press. The summary story was reported in the Washington Post, among other outlets, earlier this week. The story begins:

The police stripped Gao Zhisheng bare and pummeled him with handguns in holsters. For two days and nights, they took turns beating him and did things he refused to describe. When all three officers tired, they bound his arms and legs with plastic bags and threw him to the floor until they caught their breath to resume the abuse.

"That degree of cruelty, there's no way to recount it," the civil rights lawyer said, his normally commanding voice quavering. "For 48 hours my life hung by a thread."

Gao has been described by the New York Times as "one of China's most high-profile human rights lawyers." He has been disbarred, arrested and tortured by the Chinese secret police for speaking out about human rights abuses ...

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