Blind Chinese human rights activist and lawyer Chen Guangcheng
criticized China for its human rights abuses and asked that the United
States holds the foreign country responsible for its actions.
During an April 9 testimony before a U.S. House subcommittee, Chen told
legislators that “we cannot continue to tolerate the Chinese Communist
authorities continuing to go back on their words and deceiving the
international community at will.”
Through a translator, the activist described the persecution he
suffered at the hands of the Chinese government for litigating against
its widespread human rights abuses.
Blinded by a serious illness when he was young, Chen is a self-educated
human rights attorney who spoke out against China's one-child policy
and the coerced abortions and sterilizations that are often used to
enforce it. His work attracted the anger of Chinese authorities.
Chen spent more than four years in prison and was subsequently placed
under house arrest in September 2010. Both he and his family were held
without formal charges, endured violent assaults and were refused
medical treatment.
In April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest and fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He has since moved to the United States.
Since Chen’s escape and immigration to the U.S., several of Chen’s
family members have been imprisoned and held under house arrest under
false charges and authorities have tried to manipulate his family into
cooperating with the Chinese government under threats of harsher
sentencing and continued imprisonment.
During his testimony, Chen asked that the U.S. government “formally
obtain from the relevant departments of the administrative authorities –
and publish – the written and oral diplomatic agreements between China
and the United States with regard to this incident of mine, including my
letter to Premier Wen Jiabao that I wrote while I was in the U.S.
embassy.”
He also asked “the U.S. government to solemnly demand that the Chinese
Communist leaders do as they promised,” in prosecuting Chinese officials
who violated their own laws in imprisoning him.
The activist also implored U.S. officials to hold China to its commitment to protect his family.
Rep. Chris Smith (R- N.J.) chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights spoke on Chen’s case and
other Chinese human rights abuses.
Smith commended Chen for his “brilliant mind, indomitable spirit and
unimaginable courage,” for his work to end forced abortion “deemed a
crime against humanity at the Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes Tribunal,” and
for his attempts to help many to see that the rule of just and
compassionate law wasn’t just for the privileged few, but for everyone.”
“It took a blind man to really see the injustice of a population
control program that makes most brothers and sisters illegal and to hear
the desperate cries of Chinese women,” Smith said.
“It took a blind man, the great Chen Guangcheng, to open the eyes of a
blind world to these human rights violations systematically inflicted on
Chinese women.”
Smith also introduced the work of “another brave extraordinary hero,”
Gao Zhisheng, whose testimony was later given by his wife, Geng He.
“Mr. Gao is the quintessential example of a human rights defender,”
Smith said, introducing Gao’s work against religious persecution in
China. For his work, Gao was charged with “inciting subversion” and
placed under house arrest.
Gao has also sent letters to the United States Congress calling
“China’s birth control policy the largest genocide in the history of
mankind,” and decrying other human rights abuses. For this, Gao has been
detained and tortured for over 16 months.