Dr. YANG Jianli, President of Initiatives for China, traveled to Taiwan recently and noticed a growing number of supporters in Taiwan and on the Mainland calling for the release of blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng. “The momentum has increased in recent weeks,” Dr YANG stated. “Even on the Mainland, people are calling out party officials to account for their continued mistreatment of Chen and his family.”
Chen Guangcheng, video screenshot
Chen Guangcheng was born November 12, 1971, in Yinan, Shandong Province. He lost his sight in both eyes as an infant. Despite his handicap, Chen went to school in his village and received an education. Later, he managed to educate himself in legal matters, and as a young adult began to take cases contesting local implementation of the one-child policy. This activity did not escape the attention of local authorities, who began to harass and intimidate him.
In 2005, Chen Guangcheng was investigating incidents of forced family planning in the city of Linyi, documenting late-term abortions and forced sterilizations, and revealed his findings to the media. Harassment by police and government officials intensified. In early 2006, Chen Guangcheng was arrested in Beijing and taken back to Shandong. In March, he went missing. In June, he turned up in prison and was formally acknowledged as ‘criminally detained.’ In August, the People’s Court of Yinan County sentenced Chen Guangcheng to four years and three months of imprisonment for intentional destruction of public property and assembly to obstruct traffic. After Chen Guangcheng was sentenced, his wife Yuan Weijing was kept under house arrest in their village. On an average day, there could be 20 persons guarding her house. The guards beat Chinese and foreign reporters and other human rights defenders who tried to visit Yuan Weijing.
Chen Guangcheng was released from prison in September 2010 and returned home to Yinan in extremely poor health. Immediately upon his return, the entire Chen family was put under house arrest, a strict surveillance which left Chen, his wife, and child as virtual prisoners in their home. Chen and his wife were beaten savagely on several occasions for simply trying to leave the house or interact with neighbors. The child has not been allowed out to go to school, while almost all visitors who try to see the family are beaten, detained, questioned, or imprisoned.
The brutal mistreatment of the blind lawyer and his terrified family continues to this day. Initiatives for China has urgently contacted State Department officials in Washington DC on their behalf.
In addition, Initiatives for China has identified the party official who may be the most responsible for the suffering of the Chen family. That official is Li Qun of the Shandong Provincial Standing Committee, who prosecuted Chen Guangcheng’s activities in Linyi. Initiatives for China has asked the State Department to unequivocably and irrevocably deny any attempts by Li Qun to secure a visa to enter the United States.
Initiatives for China is heartened to hear the calls of the Chinese people – in Taiwan, on the Mainland, and elsewhere — for the Chens’ release. This growing movement is an encouraging sign, and we urge folks in the U.S., in Europe, and anywhere people care about democracy to get involved and join in the call for party leaders to account for their treatment of the Chen family and others like them. How ironic yet fitting it would be if the Chinese democracy movement once again came into its own, not by the intellectual energy of the students or academics, or by the activism inspired by a social media explosion, but by virtue of a humbly-born blind man, who educated himself in the law so that he could help his neighbors fight injustice. How fitting indeed. Shall we take up the challenge?
Chen Guangcheng will turn 40 years old on November 12, if he is still alive.1 Let us continue to call for his release. Let us define our solidarity with him in an easily recognizable way by adopting his trademark sunglasses. Below is a picture taken on October 14 at the Taiwan legislature.
And let us know this – the dark glasses of the blind man may yet lead us all to the light.
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