The US Department of State is “very concerned” about reports that attacks on the family of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠) could be linked to his plans to visit Taiwan.
“We urge Chinese authorities to stop any harassment of the family and to treat family members fairly and with dignity,” US Department of State spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Thursday.
Chen recently said that he and his family planned to visit Taiwan next month to meet with the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and to learn about the nation’s judicial reforms.
Asked if the US had any comment on reports that Chen’s brother, Chen Guangfu (陳光福), had been attacked and beaten, Ventrell said the US was aware of the reports.
Ventrell was asked if the attacks could be linked to Chen Guangcheng’s plans to visit Taiwan.
“I saw those news reports about the linkage, but I don’t have information one way or another,” he said.
“We are very concerned about the treatment of his family members and we will consistently continue to raise them with the Chinese government,” he said.
Human rights organizations in the US have expressed concern that Chen Guangcheng’s family members are being harassed a as a way of pressuring him to be silent.
They also believe Chen Guangfu’s beating could be a tactic designed to stop Chen Guangcheng from visiting Taiwan.
“We are going to continue to make our position very clear on this issue,” Ventrell said.
He added that US Secretary of State John Kerry had written to Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) about the issue.
“We remain deeply concerned by reports that family members of Chen Guangcheng continue to be harassed, and by reports that Chen Guangfu was recently attacked and beaten,” Ventrell said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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