A blind Chinese activist jailed for more than four years after exposing government abuses of the one-child policy has unexpectedly won an appeal, his lawyer and wife said yesterday.
A court in east China this week overturned a sentence delivered in August against Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠), a blind, self-taught lawyer, although the case has been returned to a lower court for retrial, said his lawyer, Li Jinsong (李勁松).
"It was found that there have been serious violations in the legal procedures," Li said, citing the verdict of the Yinan County court in Shandong Province.
Li described the overturning of the guilty verdict as the "best possible outcome" that could be expected. "The original decision was completely wrong," he said.
Chen's wife welcomed the news with cautious optimism, noting that the constant surveillance on her over the past year had still not eased.
"I am very, very happy, whatever the outcome is going to be ... I don't know whether it will be a fair and transparent retrial, but at least we have another chance," Yuan Weijing (袁偉靜) said in a phone interview.
Yuan said she was still closely guarded by several agents around the clock and was barred from traveling to see her oldest child, who is living with her mother.
Chen's relatives, lawyers and supporters have been harassed and sometimes beaten up over the past year when they tried to visit him.
Chen ran into trouble with authorities in Shandong's Linyi City last year after accusing them of forcing thousands of women to be sterilized and have abortions as late as eight months into their pregnancies.
In August, the Yinan County court sentenced 34-year-old Chen to four years and three months in jail on charges of "willfully damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic."
The charges came after villagers protesting police abuse of Chen clashed with authorities in February and March.
But rights groups say the charges were laid to silence and punish Chen for exposing violations of the one-child policy.
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
RSS