Wives testify during China VP visit

WASHINGTON - The wives of two Chinese human rights activists have testified at a congressional hearing about their husbands' years of imprisonment and torture.
  
The women appealed for U.S. advocacy on their husbands' behalf as China's vice president Xi Jinping visited President Barack Obama and other top officials in Washington.
  
Congressman Chris Smith said he hoped the man who's expected to become China's next leader would hear the women's appeal on behalf of their husbands and "tens of thousands" of other political and religious prisoners in China.
  
The Rev. Bob Fu, president of China Aid, testified about the ongoing persecution of the unregistered Shouwang Church in Beijing, whose members have no place to worship and are arrested each Sunday when they gather to worship outdoors.