Chen Guangcheng Prevented From Meeting Family, Congressman

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 2, 2012   |   12:09PM   |   Washington, DC

As news continues to surface related to Chinese forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng leaving the U.S. Embassy and going to a local hospital for treatment following house arrest over a number of years, more concerning information is coming to light.

UPDATE:  Since publication of this story, Chen has been reunited with his family.

Chen has been imprisoned and subjected to home confinement for exposing brutal forced abortion campaigns in China under the one child policy. Late last week, Chen fled his hometown after escaping and supporters drove him to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing after they were unable to keep him safe in homes in the Asian nation’s capital. When Chinese authorities attempted to apprehend him, he fled to the U.S. Embassy for protection.

As LifeNews has reported, media reports from AP and elsewhere indicate China and the United States agreed to a deal that allows Chen to receive a medical checkup and be reunited with his family at the hospital. He would then be relocated to a safe place in China where he could study at a university.

However, those initial reports turned out to the misleading, as new information surfaced showing Chen was reportedly pressured to leave the U.S. Embassy and accept the deal the United States struck with China to release Chen from its temporary protection. Now, Chen reportedly wants to leave China with his family, as he is worried about their safety.

Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, a U.S.-based human rights group that has worked closely with Chen and his Chinese supporters, says it has viewed relevant information released by the Chinese government regarding Chen’s release and says it was coerced. He and others have pointed out that Chinese officials have threatened Chen’s family and made suggestion it would kill his wife if Chen did not leave the U.S. Embassy.

Now, Fu tells LifeNews that Zeng Jinyan, wife of Chen’s best friend Hu Jia, posted a tweet which indicates that the media failed to report the correct information about Chen. He says sources inside China said the U.S. and Chinese governments have reached some kind of “shameful” agreement regarding Chen.

Zen Jinyan said on Twitter:  Guangcheng called me and told me that he didn’t say, according to media, “I want to kiss you” to Secretary Clinton.  What he actually said was “I want to see you.”

Zen added:  “He said from this past Friday he couldn’t make any more phone calls (contact the outside), nor could he contact any friends.  He wanted to contact Congressman Chris Smith but there was no way he could reach Smith.  He said he and his family were willing to leave China.”

“Yuan Weijing (Chen’s wife) said that around noon (12:00 p.m. Beijing time) she met Chen Guangcheng somewhere outside the U.S. Embassy. The Shandong-Linyi local authorities have now set up cameras in Chen’s house and even have guards with sticks staying in their house.  If Guangcheng hadn’t agreed to leave the U.S. Embassy, his wife and children would be sent back to their home in Shandong province, Linyi city immediately,” Zen added. “Guangcheng said the Shandong officials are waiting for Yuan Weijing and their children in Beijing . ”

Zen continued:  “Guangcheng said:  ’Sister Jinyan, you’ve got to help me.  Yuan Weijing (Chen’s wife) called me and said she and our children wanted to see me.  However, when I arrived in hospital I didn’t see them.  They (my family) asked for a private meeting with me and I wanted to see them, but somehow we didn’t get to see each other.’  After consideration this is only what I can tell to the outside.  Please help Chen’s family.”

“Guangcheng didn’t want to leave the U.S. Embassy, but he had no choice.  If he hadn’t left, Yuan Weijing would have been sent back to Shandong immediately.  Yuan Weijing told me: ‘Jinyan, I am so scared…’”

Below is a screen shot of the original tweets by Zeng Jinyan in Chinese:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a daring rescue attempt, human rights campaigners helped Chen escape his home confinement and took him to an undisclosed location in Beijing — reportedly the U.S embassy — but the Obama administration has given no indication of whether it will provide Chen with political asylum or other diplomatic protection. Leading pro-life campaigners and human rights groups are concerned that if Chen is not protected, Chinese officials may illegally detain him and send him back to prison, home detention or may take his life.

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China’s state-run media has said absolutely nothing about the daring escape Chen Guangcheng made from his house arrest, where family planning and Communist Party officials had kept him detained at home for exposing forced abortions. Other media outlets have glossed over the forced abortion components of Chen’s imprisonment and house arrest.

As the world watched the plight of Chen Guangcheng and wonders whether President Barack Obama will have the United States offer him long-term diplomatic protection, documents Chen Guangcheng compiled place the focus squarely on why China subjected him to years of house arrest:  brutal forced abortions.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, has released a compendium of Chen Guangcheng’s field notes about forced abortion and sterilization in China and the stories the blind attorney compiled are shocking, even for those familiar with the forced abortion abuses that take place as a result of China’s one-child policy.

“In the astonishment surrounding Chen Guangcheng’s extraordinary escape from house arrest, let us not forget why he was arrested,” Littlejohn told LifeNews. “In 2006, Chen exposed the Chinese government’s systematic, massive use of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization to enforce its “One Child Policy.’”

WRWF obtained a copy of Chen’s field notes and has released the first English translation of them.

“A member of Chen’s team, human rights attorney Teng Biao, drafted this 2005 investigative report into coercive family planning in Linyi City, Shandong Province,” Littlejohn explained. “The report contains extensive witness statements from cases Chen and his team were investigating before Chen was jailed.”

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