The dissident who was at the center of a standoff between China and the US on Wednesday accused Beijing of failing to live up to its promises as US lawmakers rallied behind him.
Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), a blind activist who was jailed after exposing abuses in China’s one-child policy, has lived in New York since May 20 after a dramatic escape from house arrest to the US embassy in Beijing.
Visiting Congress in his highest-level contact yet with the US government, Chen voiced concern for his nephew, who was arrested soon after the dissident fled Shandong Province for Beijing.
Photo: EPA
“The Chinese central government explicitly promised me that it would thoroughly investigate the extended oppression and abuse that I endured in Shandong Province,” Chen, flanked by lawmakers, told reporters. “The government further promised to provide for the security of my family. However, it has been more than three months and I have not received any news on the progress of this investigation or even whether it has commenced.”
Chen complained that no Chinese official has contacted him since he arrived in the US. China had said that it was allowing Chen to go abroad with his family to study, but some experts presumed that China’s main motivation was to get rid of Chen and doubted he would be able to return.
Authorities have charged his nephew, Chen Kegui (陳克貴), with attempted murder. The dissident said that his nephew was defending himself with a kitchen knife after thugs linked to the local government broke into his home.
Speaking before a meeting with US lawmakers, Chen Guangcheng said that the human rights situation was deteriorating in China, but that change was inevitable as citizens make their voices heard.
“I sincerely hope that the United States and all other nations that embrace the fundamental values of constitutionalism, democracy, freedom and the rule of law will support and assist with a smooth transition in China,” Chen Guangcheng said.
Chen Guangcheng enjoyed a rare bipartisan welcome in the polarized Congress, meeting jointly with House Speaker John Boehner, the top elected Republican, and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House leader of US President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party.
Boehner said that the US should speak out over human rights abuses in China, including its “reprehensible” one-child policy.
“When it comes to guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of all of her citizens, the Chinese government has a responsibility to do better and the United States government has a responsibility to hold them to account,” Boehner said.
Chen Guangcheng later met separately with Senator John Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who called the dissident’s story an “inspiration” and said the pair spoke about Chen Guangcheng’s nephew.
“Chen Kegui must be treated fairly and humanely, and granted access to whatever defense counsel he chooses,” Kerry said in a statement.
Chen Guangcheng fled to the US embassy days before US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton paid a previously scheduled visit to Beijing.
Clinton and her aides brokered the deal for Chen Guangcheng’s departure and she spoke to him by telephone, but she did not meet him, as part of an apparent understanding with China to keep US statements at a low level.
A US Department of State official said that US diplomats have maintained contact with Chen Guangcheng and met with him privately as recently as last week, but did not plan to see him during his trip to Washington.
Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2006 after accusing authorities in Shandong Province’s Linyi County of forcing up to 7,000 women to undergo late-term abortions or sterilizations.
He was released in September 2010, but said that he was afterwards put under a harsh house arrest, with thugs beating him severely in an unsuccessful attempt to silence him.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was