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.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS