[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 14, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H6651-H6652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
END THE PERSECUTION OF CHEN GUANGCHENG
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, last week one of China's most
heroic defenders of human rights, Chen Guangcheng, was transported from
prison to his family's house. This was good news, but only a step in
the right direction. We must not gloss over the fact that Chen, who in
2006 revealed to the world the massive violence and brutality of the
one child per couple policy enforcement campaign in Linyi, Shandong
province, remains under house arrest, imprisoned in his own home, which
is surrounded by surveillance cameras and police. Foreign reporters
attempting to enter his village have been beaten and driven away, and
Chen is reportedly in need of urgent medical attention, having been
regularly beaten in prison, where he lost a great deal of weight.
Just today a Radio Free Asia reporter spoke with Chen and his wife
over a cell phone. Chen's wife said, and I quote, ``He has a sort of
haunted look. And for the first few days after his release he couldn't
speak at all.'' Think about it. This is a very, very tough and
articulate man, yet for the first few days after his release he
couldn't speak at all. Such was the brutality of Chen's imprisonment.
So it is all the more inspiring to read Chen's words. The Chinese
Government may have broken his body in the laogai, but they have
absolutely not broken his spirit. Chen got on the phone and called on
``international organizations and people of conscience'' to react to
his continued arrest in a united manner. That's the house arrest. And,
``If they can help me today,'' he said, ``their actions will help
another person tomorrow.''
A few words about Chen, Mr. Speaker. He is a self-taught lawyer,
having been denied the benefits of higher education due to his
blindness, and was known in Linyi for advising his neighbors on how to
resist the government's injustices. In 2005 and 2006 he took the brave
step that changed his life. He began interviewing people and gathering
evidence about the massive violence and brutality of the one child per
couple policy and its enforcement campaign that shook Linyi in 2005.
What he uncovered was shocking: 130,000 forced abortions and
sterilizations in Linyi County in that year alone, in addition to mass
detentions and beatings.
In order to stop Chen's investigation, officials placed him under
house arrest. But he managed to slip away and travel to Beijing, where
he met with journalists from Time magazine and conferred with legal
scholars about filing a large class action suit against officials
responsible for the campaign. Officials soon abducted him back to
Shandong, returned him to house arrest, and then convicted him on
trumped up charges of property destruction. Chen served the full term
of his 4-year, 3-month sentence, despite health problems indicating the
appropriateness of medical parole.
Mr. Speaker, the Chinese Government's relentless pursuit of Chen
corresponds to the continued violence of the one child per couple
policy, which Chen bravely exposed. Sadly, what he documented in 2005
and 2006 is still going on today all over China. This year alone we
have reliable reports of large-scale forced abortion and sterilization
campaigns in Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi
provinces. The campaign in Guangdong province was widely reported, the
story having been broken by The Times of London in April of this year.
In Guangdong's Puning County, officials rounded up women and men, as
well as the relatives of any resisters, detained them in cramped
conditions, and working 20-hour shifts for 20 days, forcibly sterilized
their quota of almost 10,000 people.
Mr. Speaker, Chen Guangcheng documented the fact that Chinese women
are immensely traumatized by these campaigns and by the entire one
child per couple policy. It's been estimated by the World Health
Organization that some 500 women per day commit suicide--not per week,
not per month, but per day commit suicide--in China, largely
attributable to this horrific and barbaric policy called one child per
couple. It is invasive. There is a crude surveillance of women's
reproductive cycles, including monitoring their cycle per month. The
strict birth limits drive sex selection abortion and the tragedy of
what we call gendercide--the missing girls in China, which may be as
many as 100 million girls since 1979, when this barbaric policy was
first pushed on China by the West and by the United Nations.
It's been estimated that upwards of 40 million men will not be able
to find wives by 2020 because they had been forcibly aborted as part of
the China policy.
Finally, I appeal to our government, I appeal to our President,
please speak out on behalf of Chen Guangcheng for his release so that
this terrible nightmare he has had to endure will end.
[Sept. 14, 2010]
Radio Free Asia: Blind Activist Calls For Help
A Chinese lawyer is under constant surveillance following his release
from prison.
Hong Kong.--Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of
Shandong are holding a Chinese legal activist under house
arrest though his jail term ended on Monday, prompting him to
call on concerned citizens to support him in protest.
Chen Guangcheng, 38, had exposed abuses by local family
planning officials, leading to a jail term of four years and
three months for ``damaging public property and obstructing
traffic'' handed down by a Linyi municipal court in August
2006.
Chen served the full term of four years and three months in
spite of repeated requests for medical parole.
``Now that I have come out of jail, the authorities are
putting a lot of effort into keeping me under close
surveillance,'' said Chen, calling on the international
community to protest his treatment by the Chinese government.
``I am hoping that international organizations and people
of conscience will react to this in a united manner,'' he
said.
``If they can help me today, their actions will help
another person tomorrow,'' Chen said, calling on rights
activists and ordinary people to come to his house and
photograph the security personnel with their mobile phones.
``If they take away A's cell phone, then B can take a
photo. If they go for B's cell phone, then C can record it,''
he said.
Layers of security
Chen's wife Yuan Weijing said there are four different
layers of security personnel watching the family home.
``Between the national highway and our home, there are four
layers of surveillance,'' she said. ``Yesterday I wanted to
go out to buy some food but they wouldn't allow it.''
``I told them we have to eat, and that maybe they should
buy food for us, but they said that wouldn't do either.''
``The moment I went outside, about 20 people got to their
feet and started to surround me,'' Yuan said.
She said friends and relatives who tried to bring food to
the family were being refused entrance as well, and only
Chen's 76-year-old mother was being allowed out to buy food
for the entire family.
[[Page H6652]]
Yuan, whose repeated requests for medical parole for Chen
were ignored by prison authorities, said she is still very
concerned about her husband's health.
``I am most worried about the continuing diarrhea and the
persistent cough,'' Yuan said. ``For the first few days after
his release he couldn't speak at all.''
She said Chen had lost a lot of weight in jail. ``He has a
lot of grey hair and he has a sort of haunted look,'' she
said.
Chen suffered beatings while in Shandong's Linyi municipal
prison in June 2007 for ``being disobedient'' after launching
an appeal against his conviction to a higher court.
``Give his freedom back''
Chen, a self-taught lawyer, was detained repeatedly,
beaten, and kept under surveillance after he helped local
people take legal action against the Linyi municipal
government in cases of alleged forced abortion.
Beijing-based civil rights lawyer Li Subin said Chen should
have his freedom back now that his jail term has ended.
``Instead, the state-run prison has followed him back home,
where he is still imprisoned under house arrest,'' Li said.
``We have been working towards democracy and the rule of law
for 30 years in this country, and we can still see cruelty
like this today.''
``But if everyone takes this issue seriously, I don't see
how the gangster behavior of the local government and the
banditry of the local judiciary can carry on for too long.''
Meanwhile, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a senior member of the
U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, in a statement
called on the Chinese government to release Chen from house
arrest.
``The prison release of Chen Guangcheng, one of China's
most heroic human rights defenders, is good news but only a
step in the right direction,'' said Smith.
``The fact that Chen remains under house arrest, imprisoned
in his own home, and is reportedly in need of urgent medical
attention, must not be ignored. I appeal to the Chinese
government to let Chen move about freely and ensure that he
has access to the care he needs.''
Chen Guangcheng's work exposed a culture of secrecy and
impunity among Chinese officials about the enforcement of
China's population control policy.
Local officials have admitted to taking draconian measures
when they have difficulty meeting population targets imposed
by Beijing.
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