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AFP - Getty Images
This image grab taken from a video which was released on Friday shows Chen Guangcheng, a blind Chinese lawyer, speaking following his escape from house arrest. Reuters reported that one person on a Chinese social-media site wrote that Chen "has escaped from the clutches of the devil."
BEIJING -- Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer who is also one of China’s best-known human-rights activists, has escaped after spending one-and-a-half years under house arrest.
Reuters reported that Chen, who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail.
Groups of local thugs watched him 24 hours a day and stopped anyone who tried to visit him, sometimes using violence, including scuffling with Hollywood actor Christian Bale.
He Peirong, an activist and longtime friend of Chen, said on Twitter that the lawyer fled on April 22.
Chen once tried to dig a tunnel in a bid to break out. However, his plan was discovered and the guards, allegedly appointed by the local government, paved cement over the ground outside his home to prevent any further attempts to flee.
Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight
He Peirong told Britain's Times newspaper that Chen had planned the escape for months. She said Chen climbed over a wall while a guard wasn’t paying attention, crossed a river, and then managed to meet a friend who picked him up and drove him to Beijing.
'100 percent safe'
Reuters cited Bob Fu, president of the Texas-based religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid, as saying that Chen was in Beijing and "100 percent safe."
Chen’s whereabouts remained unknown on Friday. Rumors swirled that he may be hiding inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, but officials said "no comment" when approached by media.
Boxun News, an overseas Chinese news website, uploaded a recorded video of a monologue by Chen early Friday, with a headline reading "Chen Guangcheng's three requests to Premier Wen Jiaobao."
The 15-minute video started with Chen’s brief statement: "Dear Premier Wen, it was very difficult but I made my escape. I am here to prove, all those allegations online and the accusations against Linyi (government)’s violence on me are true. And the fact is only worse."
His first request to the premier was a thorough investigation for his house arrest, and to severely punish the criminals in accordance with law. Chen claimed dozens of people had been sent to his house, violently beat up Chen, his wife and his mother on multiple occasions.
Chen named all the people who were allegedly involved, including the one who roughed up Christian Bale and CNN TV crew last winter.
Chinese hail 'Pandaman vs Batman'
Security cameras
Chen also gave details of how thugs were grouped to watch and patrol in and around his home, by roads leading to his home and the village, sometime even in neighboring villages. Security cameras were installed around his house and all connections between his home and the outside world were shut off.
Chen’s second request was to safeguard his family members' security: "I’m free now, but I worry about my wife, my child, and my mother. They’ve been persecuted for so long and I’m worried they will be victims of revenge." Chen says his wife has been beaten many times and was prevented from seeing a doctor.
Chen’s seven-year-old daughter was also constantly watched and sometimes even had her school bag searched. She wasn’t allowed to leave home after school. The electricity of Chen’s home was constantly cut off and his mother wasn’t allowed to go shopping. "I will keep on fighting if anything happens to my family," Chen warned.
Chen's last request will resonate with many Chinese citizens: to curb corruption. "When they were persecuting me last August in a Cultural Revolution style, they said, ‘we have spent even more than 60 million Yuan ($9.5 million) on you, but that doesn’t include the money used to bribe officials in Beijing!’…what a corruption."
'Abuse of tax money'
A huge amount of public money is used to crack down protests and human-rights movements, under the name of the "stability maintenance fund." In Chen’s case, he estimated millions have been spent just to keep him locked up. "The officials say they didn't get much and the largest share was taken by others. So, clearly, there is serious corruption and the abuse of tax money and power."
His escape was widely discussed on China's popular Twitter-like service Weibo, with users referring to him as "the blind man" or "Shawshank Redemption" to avoid censorship of his name.
"Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright," the line from the 1994 drama film "The Shawshank Redemption" has been forwarded many times on Weibo today.
"Every historial period has its own blind prophet. He speaks out the fear hidden in the hearts of those who can see," said a Weibo user by the name of "Zhang Wenwu."
Self-taught lawyer
Born in 1971, Chen became blind after suffering a fever when he young. He studied medicine and later turned into a self-taught lawyer, providing legal support for disabled people and other fellow villagers over their land dispute with local governments.
Since 2005, he campaigned against local family planning agencies on human rights violations including forced abortion, forced sterilization, beatings, fines and illegal arrests. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison in 2006 for the crime of "deliberate destruction of property and disrupting traffic."
He had been under house arrest along with his family since his release in 2010.
He Peirong, the friend and possible collaborator who published the news, has not been heard from since this morning. Her phone was picked up by a man who told journalists "you’ve got the wrong number."
It is not known if Chen’s family has been subjected to reprisals at the moment.
Chen ended his speech with a question: "Premier Wen, if you continue to neglect this, what will people think?"
(Horace Lu contributed to this report.)
Leave a Comment:
Apparently this man could see his way to escape better than his guards.....
Kind of a dumb comment, he obviously had help to get out.
I am glad to see that he managed to escape, but I fear that his family is paying the price. Something needs to be done to at least get his family out of their home village where he was being persecuted and to a safe location. With all of the international attention this is getting, how the Chinese government handles the situation is going to be very important in shaping world opinion of the leadership. Even totalitarian China is starting to feel the heat from the international community on their government's human rights record. They have an opportunity here to either demonstrate that things are changing for the better or to reinforce the current negative world view. This man has been persecuted mercilessly by brutal local officials and their hired thugs. He has done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment and protest he was involved in were peaceful in nature. The central government can show that things are changing by helping get the rest of his family to safety and by taking action against the out of control local officials that have been persecuting him and his family for so long. In the alternative they could start hunting for him in order to return him to house arrest, or worse put him back in prison, and do nothing to help his family. It is definitely decision time for the Chinese government. With China's economic growth starting to cool off, the last thing they need is for there to be a worldwide backlash against China and Chinese made goods as a result of what this man has gone through. Even a minor boycott of Chinese goods could have a serious negative impact on their economy at a time when they are definitely vulnerable. It is time to see if China is truly ready to take a step forward or if they are going to continue to extend their abysmal human rights record.
Looks like they didn't see that one coming.........................or should we say...........going?
Gotta see it to believe it!
I am confident he will see his way through this, and see his family safe and happy again.
Blind to any outside influence, he looked for a way out but couldn't see it happening. He kept looking on the bright side and one day saw an opportunity.
I hear they toutured him relentlessly, constantly rearranging the furniture, leaving the plunger in the toilet bowl, put him in a round room and told him there was a dollar in the corner, glued doorknobs to the walls...
This just ain't right.
hummmm, after reading many of the blogs above, and below me.....I can certainly understand why we're called "the ugly Americans" to many in the world at large. Too many of you folks haven't a clue as to how precious your lives, and freedom really is.
Rather pathetic, wouldn't you say? [rhetorical, of course]
Well, if the Chinese government intervened the family wouldn't have to be sent to safety they would already be safe. It's the government there that they need protecting from. Why didn't this activist take his family. He left his wife and little girl to face the monsters. Who does that??
I've wondered why we won't deal with Cuba but we will with China. China abuses us with fake drugs, poisonous drywall, and adulterated baby formula, abuses the Tibetans, abuses their own people. The only thing I can't blame them for is the loss of our jobs, which is the fault of American corporations -- their greed and their loyalty to their stockholders over the American people. We need to disconnect from China and severely penalize companies that send our jobs over there.
China has something we need $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
The reason is simple: politicians don't want to piss off Cuban immigrants.
Florida is an important swing state, and its Cuban diaspora is hugely influential. It's not that Cuba is much worse than China (though the regime is generally more brutal and oppressive, especially in terms of economic rights). Politicians are afraid to touch the embargo and relations freeze.
That's all it is. Politics.
The reason couldn't be easier...because China has potentially the largest market for any consumer goods and American corporations make tons of money from doing business with China. American companies maximize their profits by outsourcing jobs and factories to China. Their shareholders couldn't care less about whatever bullsh*t like human rights or unemployment in the US. GM sells many more cars in China than in the US. Buick escaped being cut thanks to Chinese market. Who cares about Tibetan or religious freedom? As long as there is money involved, it always wins. As for the so-called human rights issue, it's simply a political rhetoric used to fool the American public to make them believe they live in the perfect world! Ha what a joke~~
@Lei Chen---Spoken like just another ignorant Mainlander who probably has never left Zhejiang Province. You don't know what you don't know, brother. And you never will.
Janet, you are so right. We give favored nation status to China, yet ban travel and trade with Cuba. Go figure.
And I am not interested in knowing what you suggested that I do not know. Too bad, you just made two false assumptions: I have left China and am not residing in China at the moment; Besides, I am not even from any area even close to Zhejiang!
The longer I live in the US, the more I realize...human rights, freedom that or this, it's all bull-sh*t, money talks everywhere~!
Lei Chen---So the obvious response is, go back to China. But I bet you don't want to, do you? I bet you gain some serious face for getting to live in America. Chinese love to show off to the Chinese back home about that. Democracy and human rights have been the soil from which everything great in this world has flowered, including innovation. Would Apple or Steve Jobs have happened in China? Of course you know not. If that man or Bill Gates or 1,000's of other examples had lived the way most people still live in China---that is, in ignorance and fear of authority--their work never would have even been imagined, much less achieved. Stop spewing your nonsense and get an education that goes deeper than rote learning. Or maybe you could provide another twisted, illogical response that belies your harsh, insensitive upbringing in China.
@ Lei Chen
More and more every day.
the guy does have a point. do you think GM, GE, ford, toyota care about human right? their responsbility is for the investor.
@ In Shanghai, you certainly know CHINESE WELL! Yes I would like to go back to China, just not now, I need to get an American green-card or citizenship first, so that I can go home and show-off! I am just a typical, superficial, materialistic, cynic and selfish Chinese born in the late 1980s. Like other peers in my generation or the generation after us, we just couldn't care less about human rights or whatever. We are spoiled, and we just love personal material comfort. Non-tangible stuff like human rights or religious freedom...Tibet's freedom, we do not even want to think about them~~~hahaha
In terms of ignorance, I sincerely believe Americans are more ignorant than Chinese. There are so many Americans who still believe in creationism! And that China's still communist. And they live in the best country in the world. What a joke...They are being screwed by the America's very political system..and yet they are told it's the best system in the world, the beauty of that thing is: they still buy it! Meanwhile, American financial or economic elites are getting richer and richer by doing business with the "evil" human rights abuser: CHINA. LOL!
That's an easy one - China is keeping the US afloat and we just keep borrowing more. It costs a lot to keep the wars going and our defense budget is larger than every other nation combined.
Lei Chen
The beauty of the American system is that we have a right to protest it and bring its injustices to light with out fear of being made to disappear or being held in our homes with out trial and beaten. Can you voice opinions freely against your government with out fear of reprisal against you or your family?
@ saturnsrim The beauty of the American system is that while you are allowed to protest, it makes no difference.
That my Friend is because you choose not to make a difference. It makes a difference when you are heard because it brings change in a sometimes corrupt system. Every small victory brings about a better government and proves we have a voice. Has your people ever impeached your leaders or brought down a corrupt corporation? Can you sue a company for back wages or violating your civil rights and win? Do you have legal recourse for being arrested on unjust charges for speaking your mind about government policies? If You feel your government is better then why are you here?
Don't worry, If obama has his way we will soon be called western china and obama will be calling himself the imperial leader.
s002wjh -
But those invstors all have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" which cannot be denied them.
We don't deal with Cuba in order to protect our cane sugar grown in Mississippi, Louisiana, et.al. from competition.
Guess they didn't see that coming
he, he, good one.
Isn't China where all your Apple's things came from?
I don't/won't have any "apple things", this is why, along with the slave labor.
you have alot chinese stuff just ignore to know it. almost ALL electronic, are made in china. dell hp, asus, samsung etc. you gonna have one or the other
A great number of things are manufactured in China, yes.
He won't get far.
ha ha! you looose!
I would feel bad for the Chinese but then again they chose the communists so BAM you reap what you sow.
Americans get what they deserve for choosing capitalism----jobs outsourcing, unemployment, companies who can't care less about Americans for profits maximization by investing and doing business with China.
Lei, what about all of your fellow Chinese that are hidden away and starving? China cares only about the $$
It's like saying that American elites do not care only about the $$. LOL! If that were true, I guess there wouldn't "occupy wall street" or 10 % unemployment. Yea, we Chinese care only about $$, at least we have the courage to admit it, and we benefit from it. The US lost tens of thousands of lives and messed the economy by invading Iraq, and what did it gain from it? More hatred and anti-Americanism! LOL, it's so stupid. We Chinese just sat there and went to Iraq after the war, guess what, China is now one of the largest investors in Iraq. Hahaha...truth is, oil companies and weapon companies in the US did make tons of money from the war, only at the cost of American soldiers' lives.
China is a HUGE pile of horse@!$%#.
I hope you don't feel bad when your in the same communist boat. We are not far behind, another four years of obama and we should be there.
Eh, it wouldn't be right to say they "chose" the Communists. The Communists kind of took over, you know. And they haven't gotten a "choice" since then.
Not that there's a shred of Communism left in China's economy. They're every bit as capitalist as America, just with weaker institutions and controlled media and financial sectors. So there's been progress, at least!
I beg to differ. Read up on China's ghost cities and vast make-work programs such as driving steel prices through the floor by state-supported building of foundries way past the ability to profitably produce steel at all (hence the embargo). That's not capitalism, not by a long shot.
With exception to the US government occasionally bailing out a bunch of banks or a couple of automotive companies, the US lets industries' fate lay in their own proverbial hands...US steel, US textiles, US electronics, etc etc etc.
In some cases China has the right idea in managing parts of its economy (much like how Germany retains its manufacturing might), however in many many others areas, China has a very tall house of cards supported ever-more-precariously on the fruits from feverish US borrowing-activity and a Chinese middle class that hasn't yet demanded that its international purchasing power and savings shouldn't be eroded just so that a handful of old-guard industrial moguls can remain wealthy with cheap conscripted labor.
For all intents and purposes, China's growth is a hybrid of the US-industrial revolution resting inside the framework of a paranoid-schizophrenic Stalinist government.
The common people over there are NOT the ones who are corrupt. It is the government and police who are all lowlife thieves and crooks! People trust the mafia more than the cops over there.
American politicians are no better, most take bribes and line their own pockets instead of caring for thier people!
jsmith>>>>> move there and then compare. Let us know how it's going.
I "wasn't" in Moscow when they were still under the hammer. The people of the USSR were not so different than we. Just a lot more afraid. This is probably so with the Chinese people. I have a Chinese family living next door, they are very grateful to be here, claim to be AMERICANS and complain a lot less than we do. Folks are folks. Governments drive the wedges between us.
You have obviously never lived here in China, jsmithzzzz, and you have no idea what you are talking about, including the line about China's commoners not being corrupt. lol. And please avoid false equivalencies about U.S. politicians and Chinese ones. You can't imagine how big the differences are.
That point I agree with you In Shanghai, I doubt Americans can survive a day in China if they were to live in China the way they do in the US...they are just too naive and gullible...you gotta be smart and cunning to live in China~~~!
Lei Chen--on that one point, I will agree with you. It truly is a dog eat dog world in China. Though plenty of Americans live here without becoming "cunning," myself included.
@ In Shanghai, well in China, it is truly social Darwinism, dog-eat-dog, you gotta be careful, suspicious and on alert all the time. You just can never be too cautious! Otherwise you get scammed before you know it. It's IRONIC Americans still think China's communist...I honestly feel the US is much more socialist than China is...
Let us settle this
with - KUNG FOO
Bob, you couldn't have said it better. Look how our own government separates us. Republicans DDemocrats, liberals and Conservatives. Last I new we were all Americans, its time we the people band together as Americans and tell our so called government how its going to be.
Government power is the opposite of people power. Ostensibly the government works for its people (at least in a democracy), but that's a fragile equation. The more things are centralized, the more things that need rules, the more things that are controlled by a few unelected elites, the more things that need taxation to keep running, the worse things get.
Lei Chen
I hope you get deported. You anti American pisce of junk America will kick China's ass soon you. We saved your rear ends from Japan. And now we will save the world from you beloved China
Lei Chen
I would love 2 see you write about China the way you write about America. They would arrest your ungrateful scumbag rearend. I can't wait tell we kick Free the China people and you get mocked by your neithbors. Democrats and Repulicans fight alot but you don't disrespect our Coutry exspecially if your not a citien and you live here. Try and fine a job worth scumbag China and Alot of Americans I bet dislike you. Please leave
Chen's guide dog, Mr. Butters, was arrested by the People's Stormtroopers and charged with aiding in the escape. Mr. Butters was taken into K9 custody without incident in an alley behind the "All the Meat you can Eat" restaurant and pedicure emporium located in the Fung Shway district of Chinatown. Mr. Butters was heard to yell "There ain't no kennel that can hold me!" as he was loaded into the back of the Poochy Wagon. During his paw printing, officials told the People's Tattler that thanks to the gutless cowards that ratted him out, Mr. Butters was nabbed just before he was about to become Happy Lunch Special #4 with pork fried rice.
If I were a betting man, I wouldn't put any money down on the prospect of China remaining stable for the next decade. You can't keep a lid on a boiling pot forever, and when it explodes, it's going to make the Arab Spring look like a Sunday School picnic.
I heard Chen has a one legged sister...her name in Irene! LOL sorry.
in a way, he is selfish to put his family in danger, with his action and words.
He is a lawyer. Should explain it.
He is really not a certified lawyer...he has never been to law school formally. He wasn't even able to read until 1994.
I'm sure his family suffers considerably for his actions, but what this man does isn't an act of selfishness.
He could have easily kept his mouth shut and done as he was told. Hell, at least being blind, he has a better excuse than most Chinese.
The downfall of the old bull commies in the government is fast coming to an end.
Hopefully the chinese people will rise up and get rid of all of the old party murderers in their government.
Wow, this article is not biased at all!!. Checkout some older articles about Bush's secret prisons and kidnapping.
What does that have to do with Chinese democracy activists?
Does that fact that Bush did bad things diminish this man's efforts or excuse his imprisonment?
Leave China now; if they find him, he cannot go anywhere anymore. Leave now.
This article cracked me up.... blind man escapes house arrest.....sounds more like something that would happen here in the US...
Welcome to the USA's future.
what was the guards name? wooking wongway???
other names perhaps?? Weh Hee Go, Hee Dun Gon, Wee No Seeum, Wee Got Twouble
I hope the guy can get his ass out of China. There are any number of ways he can do that, including some that aren't known to very many. Someone's got to shine some sun on China. I try http://justlooklikefrog.wordpress.com
Am I the only one that see's the comedy in this story? I apologize for being brash and.... looking over the seriousness of this story.
But...
The man is blind.
to bad the majority of chinese officials dont believe in god
high officials always think they are god
this will be their undoing in life and in the next
so sad
prayers to chen
I'm sure US government will Rescue him, and bring him to US, and later his family can join him. Don't you just love US government? American citizens are starving, unemployed, and protesting; Yet the government turns around and get into other country's business. Stupid is as stupid does.
American citizens aren't starving, and our unemployment rate is below 10%. That's actually pretty good by international standards, even though we should be doing better. As for the protests, what does OWS have to do with anything relevant to foreign policy?
I for one am glad that our government is concentrating more on other countries. The less time they have to muck up our economy, the better.
Even a blind Chinese activist finds a nut once in awhile.
Well, let's notch up China's trade partner status another level and borrow a few more billion from them! How stupid can American businesses be - do all the expensive R&D work, develop a product, then send it, support technology, tooling and all, to China to be manufactured. You know, the same situation went on just before the fall of every major world government - Rome, England, Germany - started relying on imported labor and products when the "nationals" wouldn't work. Then down the tubes! Right now, the US is circling the opening at the bottom of the commode.
Even if he did have help, the idea of escape is hilarious, they watched him 24 hours a day, how could he possibly communicate to others outside of his home? Some people are just too hilarious.
Some help from CIA?