But it is really his prior activism which inspired Chinese dissidents and campaigners around the world. Mr Chen first rose to prominence in June when he filed a class action lawsuit accusing officials in the city of Linyi in Shandong province of forcing women to late-term abortions, imposing compulsory sterilisation and midnight raids and beatings, according to a Human Rights Watch profile.
His outspoken and passionate campaign earned him a label as China's "barefoot lawyer". According to those who spoke to him , he believed that by exposing abuses by local bureaucrats he could persuade high-level officials to put an end to them.
But just months later, in August , officials put Mr Chen and his entire family under house arrest for six months. A high profile interview with Time magazine about the forced abortion cases is thought to have further angered authorities. He was formally arrested in June for disrupting traffic and damaging property.
After a brief trial, where he did not have access to his defence lawyers, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He denied the allegations and many believe the charges were brought simply to silence him. Chen Guangcheng's health has deteriorated rapidly since his release from prison, however he is continuously denied access to medical treatment.
He is reportedly passing blood in his stools, which since early May, has turned from red to black. Over the previous year, the home of Chen Guangcheng has been raided and ransacked on several occasions. A number of items were confiscated including a computer, a video camera, an audio tape recorder, a radio, books, paper, and Chen Guangcheng's blind cane.
The couple's six-year old daughter, who is also under house arrest is being denied the opportunity to attend school. It has become increasingly difficult for Chen Guangcheng and his wife, Yuan Weijing to provide her with home-schooling because basic essentials such as writing instruments and paper have been confiscated during the various raids on the family home.
It is further reported that the couple's young son, who is currently in the care of family relatives, has only been permitted one visit to his parents' home during the Chinese new year. Following the visit, the child was strip-searched after he left the premises. Front Line strongly condemns the ongoing house arrest of human rights defender Chen Guangcheng and his family.
Front Line is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Chen Guangcheng and his wife following reports that they have been subjected to beatings during the past year and have been denied access to urgent medical attention. Furthermore, Front Line is deeply concerned amid revelations that the family is quickly running out of food and may be forced to starve at the hands of the Chinese authorities. Front Line believes that the situation of Chen Guangcheng and his family is directly linked to his legitimate work in the promotion and protection of human rights in China.
In a letter smuggled out of their home and which only surfaced on 15 June , Ms Yuan Weijing describes in detail the savage beating that she and her husband, human rights defender Mr Chen Guangcheng, received following the online circulation of a video documenting their ongoing house arrest in February Chen Guangcheng is a blind, self-taught human rights lawyer who served four years imprisonment as a result of his work exposing human rights abuses in Linyi City, Shangdong Province.
Chen Guangcheng was released from prison on 9 September , and since then he and his wife have been subjected to strict house arrest. The letter, which was received by the US-based China Aid organisation on 15 June , describes how on 18 February , over 70 unidentified people stormed their home and beat and tortured the couple for over two hours. She writes that she was wrapped in a blanket and kicked by more than ten men for half an hour, leaving her unable to see in her left eye for five days, and with what she thinks is a cracked rib.
At the time of her writing the letter, she was still unable to stand up straight as a result of the attack. Yuan Weijing also describes how Chen Guangcheng was beaten unconscious following two hours of physical assault. The following day, Yuan Weijing was permitted to receive a once-off intravenous injection from the village doctor.
Other than that, the couple were not allowed to receive any medical attention. Before the unidentified men left on 18 February, they confiscated a computer, a video camera, an audio tape recorder, chargers and flashlights.
Yuan Weijing writes that on 3 March metal sheeting was placed over the windows in their home. On 8 March she alleges that Zhang Jian once again led over 40 men into their home and confiscated more equipment. When she confronted Zhang Jian demanding to know why they were being robbed, Yuan Weijing writes that she was punched in the head by Zhang Jian. She reports that their home was stormed again on 17 March when up to 50 men took a large amount of their remaining possessions away, including Chen Guangcheng's blind cane and pictures of their children on the wall.
Since 24 February , the couple's five-year-old daughter has not been permitted to step outside the house. Yuan Weijing also writes that Chen Guangcheng's mother is physically monitored by three men everyday and since mid-March, she has not been allowed out of the home even to buy vegetables.
She says that as a result their daily lives have become a struggle to survive and that Chen Guangcheng's health has deteriorated greatly. Yuan Weijing finishes her letter by appealing to four well-known human rights lawyers to take legal proceedings on their behalf. Two of the lawyers mentioned, Teng Biao and Jiang Tianyong, were themselves disappeared for two months earlier this year, and have not re-engaged publicly either online or with the media since their reappearance.
Various attempts by the media, foreign diplomats and fellow human rights defenders to visit Chen Guangcheng and his family have all been unsuccessful and sometimes met with violence, allegedly by hired thugs who surround his house and cut off the entrances to his village.
These are the core obsessions that drive our newsroom—defining topics of seismic importance to the global economy. Our emails are made to shine in your inbox, with something fresh every morning, afternoon, and weekend. Among the long list of speakers attending the third night of the Republican convention, a name unfamiliar to most Americans quickly stood out.
For some in the Chinese diaspora, his appearance—and the outspoken support of other Chinese exiles for Trump—was an uncomfortable reminder of the willingness of some Chinese dissidents to dismiss rights battles in their adopted home in their quest to find strong allies against the Communist Party.
That dissonance has become more noticeable in recent years, after renewed Black Lives Matter protests in the US against systemic oppression and police brutality, a movement that many Republicans, including Trump, have demeaned.
Supporting Trump, and other conservative figures, can appear sharply at odds with human rights beliefs the activists defended back in China. You may change your billing preferences at any time in the Customer Center or call Customer Service.
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