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Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S., still worried about family and supporters in China

May 21, 2012

By Dave Andrusko

“Three weeks after Chen took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, his arrival defused political tension between China and the United States. But left uncertain were the future of human rights in China, whether Chen will ever be allowed to return there, and what will become of other relatives who say they remain in danger of harassment and imprisonment.” — The Washington Post’s Steven Mufson, Colum Lynch, and Keith B. Richburg

Pro-Life Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) meets pro-life human rights activist Chen Guangcheng when Mr. Chen arrived in the United States on Saturday.

The pro-life human rights activist Chen Guangcheng is now on American soil, preparing to study law and learn English at New York University. For its own reasons, the Chinese government allowed him to leave. With his wife and two children, Chen arrived in the United States Saturday, after a flight from Beijing.

Chen served more than four years in prison after revealing China’s brutal policy of forced abortion and forced sterilization, part and parcel of its “One Child” policy. He had been under house arrest for 19 months before he escaped April 22. Following a brief (and harrowing) stay at the United States Embassy in Beijing he was transferred to a hospital where he was treated for injuries and anxiously awaited a decision from the government whether he and his family would be allowed to leave.

But that Chen is in the United States is about the only thing that is for certain. That and his anxiety about family and supporters remaining in China.

“I really regret not being able to see my mother and brother again before I leave,” Chen told the Washington Post. (Apparently Chen did not know he was departing until Saturday morning.) “In the future, I’ll continue to urge the Chinese government to completely investigate” what happened to his relatives living in Linyi city, in Shandong. “I won’t give up if I don’t get a result.”

Yuan Weijing, Chen’s wife, told the Post,  “Of course, I have some worries about the investigation and the case of Chen Kegui,” [the son of Chen’s older brother], adding, “We’ll see what they do next.”

Chen is in prison on charges of intent to murder. “Chen Kegui used a kitchen knife to fight off three intruders in his home April 26 after the discovery of his uncle’s escape,” the  Post reported. “The three turned out to be government agents.”

Chen’s brother, Chen Guangfu, was shackled to a chair and beaten by local officials who demanded to know how his younger brother had escaped. “Meanwhile, Chen’s home village, Dongshigu, and at least three other villages remain under the control of plainclothes police and armed thugs, and villagers in one location,” according to the Post.

Chen has said he wants to return to China at some point. Whether the Chinese government allows Chen to return is also up in the air. Once he had left, a government controlled tabloid belittled his importance.

“In recent years many ‘dissidents’ have made a rumpus in Western public opinion, but most Chinese people shrug this off and are immune to it,” the Global Times said dismissively in an editorial published Monday.

Through all this, it is essential to remember why Chen has been persecuted unmercifully. Last week Bob Fu, a friend of Chen and founder & president, China Aid Association, told the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights of the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Chen Guangcheng, 41, is a blind self-taught human rights lawyer who began in the early 1990s to use legal means to protect his own fundamental rights as well as that of his fellow villagers, including the villagers’ land use rights, and the right of disabled persons to enjoy tax exemptions and fare exemptions on public transportion.  He had some success in winning cases of this kind.  In 2001, he graduated from Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and in 2002, he tried but failed to set up an association for the rights of the disabled in Beijing.  In 2003, the local government named him one of its Ten Outstanding Young Persons, and in July and August of that year, he and his wife visited the United States.

In 2005, Chen Guangcheng led a team of human rights lawyers in an investigation that exposed 130,000 cases of forced abortions and forced sterilizations (tubal ligations) in the Linyi district of Shandong province—for which he became the target of government attacks and oppression.  That same year, he was named “Person of the Year” by the Hong Kong-based magazine Asia Week, and in 2006, Time Magazine named him one of its 100 most influential figures in the world.  But in August 2006, because of his activism, the Chinese government sentenced Chen Guangcheng to four years and three months imprisonment.  In August 2007, while he was serving his prison term, Chen was given the Philippines’ Magsaysay Award.  Following his release from prison on September 9, 2010, Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were put under house arrest where they were beaten and abused and forbidden to seek medical treatment.

In the face of such harsh persecution, Chen Guangcheng has never given in:  he has kept up his battle against the forces of evil, even to today.

Your feedback is very important to improving National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha

 

Categories: China