Attorney for China Activist Against Forced Abortions Loses Nobel Prize to Obama
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 9, 2009
Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) — An attorney who is one of several human rights activists in China working with Chen Guangcheng against forced abortions is one of the nominees who lost the Nobel Peace Prize award to pro-abortion President Barack Obama. The committee awarded the prize to Obama after his serving just 11 days in office.
Hu Jia, an activist on other issues, is an attorney for Chen and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government in part because of the forced abortions and sterilizations that occur in its one-child family planning campaign.
He is one of the nominees the Nobel Peace Prize considered along with Obama and legitimate human rights activists.
Hu had helped Chen and his attorneys over the years until he himself was sentenced last year by the Chinese government to a three-and-a-half year prison term for supposedly "inciting subversion of state power."
Chen is the blind attorney who exposed a campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations in Linyi, China to the western media and was eventually imprisoned on bogus charges.
Hu Jia talked in 2007 about Chen’s activities and how local Communist Party leaders were rewarded for stopping him.
"All the officials in Shandong think Chen has damaged the reputation of the province by talking to the media," Hu said. "The local police are also very worried about unrest by people who were forced to have abortions and sterilizations, so they have tried to make an example out of him."
In August 2007, Chinese authorities prevented Chen’s wife from going to the Philippines to accept a prestigious award on his behalf.
When Chinese officials confiscated her passport and cell phone as she attempted to go through security at the airport in Beijing, Yuan attempted to call Hu to let him know of her troubles but the call was cut off and his attempts to call her back failed.
She was able to make contact again later in the day to say her luggage had been removed and that she had been "kidnapped" but provided no other details.
“The biggest loser here is not Yuan Weijing and not the Magsaysay Foundation but the Chinese government,” Hu told AP at the time. “This just really shows how bad the human rights situation is here.”
His attorneys were repeatedly beaten in the months after his arrest and Hu helped them and represented them to the media.
He told the Associated Press in January 2007 that the attorneys for Chen were on their way to see Chen at the time of the assault.
Li Fangping and Li Jingsong were traveling on a bus from Beijing to Linyi, an eastern Chinese city.
"Their bus was stopped by two cars on Tuesday and about eight unidentified men boarded the vehicle and attacked the lawyers with iron rods," Hu told the Associated Press.
Hu spoke with Li Jingsong after the attack and told AP "Li Fangping’s face was covered in blood."
Hu also talked with the media after the wife of another attorney helping Chen, Gao Zhish, was beaten by Chinese officials who don’t want their forced abortion campaign to be subverted.
Geng He, whose husband Gao Zhisheng is a leading human rights attorney helping Chen, was shopping in Beijing in November 2006 when she asked police who routinely follow her to quit harassing her.
The verbal confrontation led to a fight in which police apparently hit Geng in the face, according to a Reuters report.
"My mouth and my teeth are all bleeding, and a nail on my right hand was ripped," Geng said in a phone message she left Hu.
In June 2006, Hu attempted to videotape another incident where Chen’s attorneys were beaten but he was forced to flee when local officials went after him.
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