Asa Hutchinson: “I want to publicly thank, on behalf of Senator Wellstone and myself, our staffs: On Senator Wellstone's staff, Charlotte…”

“I want to publicly thank, on behalf of Senator Wellstone and myself, our staffs: On Senator Wellstone's staff, Charlotte Oldham Moore and John Bradshaw, for their very persistent and hard work on this issue; on my staff, Samuel Chang, for his hard work and continued interest in the human rights issues in China. As I said, one of my heroes, and I think one that has been mentioned repeatedly, one that will be with us at the press conference tomorrow, is Wei Jingsheng, who spent about 20 years in solitary confinement in China back in the 1970s, arrested for his involvement at the Democracy Wall effort. At that time he was sentenced to spend 14 rac{1}{2} years in solitary confinement, went out and was involved in Tiananmen Square. He was truly a friend and truly a hero. I thought, when I visited with him in my office, while I was going on annual vacations, while I was rearing three boys and seeing them grow up and going out and playing basketball with them and coaching their soccer games, this man, who is about my age, was languishing in a Chinese prison.”