A Chinese human rights advocate who helped expose forced abortions in the communist country praised President Donald Trump on Wednesday for showing “the courage” to stand up for international human rights.
In a speech at the Republican National Convention, Chen Guangcheng shared how he was tortured and jailed for exposing the atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), CNS News reports.
“Standing up to tyranny is not easy,” Guangcheng said. “I know. When I spoke out against China’s ‘one child’ policy and other injustices, I was prosecuted, beaten, sent to prison and put under house arrest by the Chinese Communist Party.”
He said he and his family found refuge in the United States in 2012 after years of persecution by the communist government.
“I am forever grateful to the American people for welcoming me and my family to the United States where we are now free,” he said. “The CCP is an enemy of humanity. It is terrorizing its own people and it is threatening the well-being of the world.”
Guangcheng said Trump has “shown the courage” to fight against the human rights atrocities in China, and he urged other countries to join the U.S. to stand up against the abuses.
“President Trump has led on this and we need the other countries to join him in this fight. A fight for our future,” he said. “Standing up to fight unfairness isn’t easy. I know. So does President Trump. But he has shown the courage to wage that fight.”
Trump took a strong stand for the rights of women and children when he defunded the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars because of its connections to forced abortions in China.
Earlier this summer, the Trump administration also sanctioned several Chinese government officials in the wake of an Associated Press report documenting numerous human rights abuses, including forced abortions and sterilizations. In August, Radio Free Asia reported even more horrific details, interviewing a former Xinjiang obstetrician who said hospitals were ordered to abort unborn babies and kill newborns if their parents did not follow the communists’ family planning rules.
Reggie Littlejohn, of Women’s Rights without Frontiers, helped Guangcheng expose the forced abortions and other atrocities in China and advocated for his release from China. A decade later, she said it is amazing to see him speak at the Republican National Convention.
“Guangcheng is thoroughly despised by the Chinese Communist Party, because he shamed them before the world by exposing their late-term forced abortion practices,” Littlejohn said. “Having Guangcheng speak at the RNC sends a bold message to China: The U.S. will no longer put up with China’s egregious human rights atrocities, but will hold accountable those responsible.”
For many years, pro-life advocates have been exposing China’s massive human rights abuses through its oppressive population control measures. Under its one child policy, the communist country forced women to abort their unborn babies through all nine months of pregnancy and penalized families with huge fines and jail time if they had a second child.
About five years ago, China loosened its one child policy, but pro-life advocates warned that forced abortion and sterilization practices continue.
Hundreds of thousands of Uighur women are being subjected to state pregnancy testing, forcibly sterilized and forced to abort their unborn babies, according to the AP. Additionally, at least 1 million Uighurs have been placed in “re-education” camps since in 2017, PBS News reports. According to the AP, one of the main reasons for their detention is having too many children.
The U.S. leaders have been taking actions to end China’s oppression of women and minorities.
According to Fox News: “Members of Congress have scrutinized relationships between China and companies like Nike or Apple amid concerns of forced labor. Last month, the State Department sent a letter warning business leaders about the potential for international commerce to help brands benefiting from slave labor.”
These warnings followed multiple sanctions by the Trump administration in July. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the United States will use “the full breadth of its financial powers to hold human rights abusers accountable in Xinjiang and across the world.”
