Chen Guangcheng

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Chen Guangcheng at the United States Embassy in Beijing, May 1, 2012.

Chen Guangcheng ( Chinese  陳光誠  /  陈光诚 , Pinyin Chén Guāngchéng ; born November 12, 1971 ) is a Chinese dissident and human rights activist who has been blind since childhood .

engagement

Chen Guangcheng, who autodidactically acquired legal expertise, was best known for his commitment against the one-child policy of the People's Republic of China. He provided legal advice to villagers in Shandong Province who wanted to oppose forced sterilization and forced abortion . The Time magazine led Chen in 2006 on its list of the 100 most influential people, under the category "Heroes and Pioneers". In 2007, Chen was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Prize for his commitment . His wife went to the Philippines to receive the award, but was prevented from traveling by police at Beijing Airport . Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are advocating the fate of Chen Guangcheng .

Detention and Trial

Since September 6, 2005, Chen Guangcheng has been under house arrest. He was arrested by the police in March 2006, along with his cousin Chen Guangyu and a neighbor, and officially reported as arrested in June 2006. On August 18, 2006, his case was tried in the Yinan People's Court . Both his wife and two lawyers were prevented from attending the trial. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. An appeal to the Linyi Court of Appeal in October of the same year resulted in the judgment being overturned due to procedural errors . At the second, also unfair, trial, again in Yinan, the same verdict was pronounced again. The Linyi Court of Appeal then finally upheld the verdict on January 12, 2007.

Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, reported that her husband was reportedly beaten by inmates in June 2007 because he refused to have his head shaved. He then went on a hunger strike to protest .

A team of ARD journalists were threatened by plainclothes police while visiting Ms. Chen Guangcheng in January 2008 and prevented from visiting Chen's prison.

Release and house arrest

In September 2010, Chen was released after serving more than four years in prison. He returned to his village of Dongshigu. Human rights groups reported that Chen was under close surveillance and was practically under house arrest. Surveillance cameras were installed at his home. After being detained, Chen was mentally in good shape, but physically weak. Since July 2008, he has suffered from chronic gastrointestinal inflammation for which he received inadequate medical treatment in prison.

In early 2011, Chen managed to transfer a video abroad where he and his wife documented the conditions of his house arrest and the constant surveillance by secret police, where it was published. In response, Chinese security personnel beat him to the hospital.

Escape to and from the United States

In April 2012, Chen Guangcheng managed to escape house arrest. His family was ill-treated while under house arrest. Assumptions that Chen fled to the US embassy were initially not confirmed by American diplomats. Chinese civil rights activist He Peirong said she helped bring Chen "to a relatively safe place." She was later arrested herself and her blogs deleted. In early May it became known that Chen was hiding in the US embassy in Beijing.

Because of his work against unwanted abortions in China, Chen Guangcheng was stylized by conservative parts of American politics around Chris Smith as an icon of their fight against abortion. In this context, they put pressure on US foreign policy to obtain US support for Chen.

Chen left the US embassy six days later, "of his own free will," according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua , to be taken to a medical facility in the capital. After the leadership in Beijing gave him the option of applying to study abroad, the US State Department announced that Chen had received a scholarship from an American university. This also entitles his wife and children to leave the country. As soon as Chen has received a passport from the Chinese authorities, the US embassy will issue him with travel documents "quickly".

After the authorities surprisingly allowed him to leave the country, he and his family were able to leave China on May 19, 2012 from Beijing and take a flight to New York . An escape helper, activist Guo Yushan, was arrested in mainland China in September 2014 during the ongoing protests in Hong Kong .

literature

  • Chen Guangcheng: The Barefoot Lawyer. A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China. Autobiography, Henry Holt (Verlag), New York City 2015, German edition: The barefoot lawyer. A report from the China prison. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 2015, ISBN 3498024159 .

Web links

Commons : Chen Guangcheng  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.time.com
  2. ↑ www.rmaf.org.ph ( Memento of December 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ hrw.org
  4. ↑ China: Court overturns judgment against civil rights activists. In: zeit.de. November 1, 2006, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  5. ↑ www.nytimes.com
  6. ↑ Reporting on the Olympic Games in Beijing, June 2008, PDF file, p. 6 , hrw.org
  7. ↑ Blind human rights activist released from prison. In: Spiegel Online. September 9, 2010, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Blind human rights activist released from prison in China in: NZZ Online from September 9, 2010
  9. ↑ AFP : Chinese police beat up blind dissident Chen
  10. ↑ Blind Chinese activist escapes from house arrest. In: Spiegel Online. April 27, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Sven Hansen: The blind runaway. In: taz.de. April 27, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Chen's activism focuses on China's one-child policy by James Rosen, May 4, 2012, viewed May 5, 2012
  13. ↑ After escaping from house arrest: civil rights activist Chen leaves the US embassy ( memento from May 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at tagesschau.de, May 2, 2012 (accessed on May 2, 2012).
  14. ↑ Dissident fears for his life in China. In: handelsblatt.com. May 2, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  15. ^ Reymer Klüver, Washington: USA: Civil rights activist Chen is allowed to leave China. In: sueddeutsche.de. May 15, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  16. ^ Blind civil rights activist Chen travels to the USA. In: Spiegel Online. May 19, 2012, accessed December 9, 2014 .
  17. ↑ Human rights activist Chen Guangcheng's escape agent arrested. In: Spiegel Online. January 7, 2015, accessed January 9, 2015 .
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Chen is the family name here, Guangcheng is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Chen, Guangcheng
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 陈光诚 (Chinese); Chén Guāngchéng (Pinyin)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese dissident
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1971