Insights & More

Chen Guangcheng Arrives in the United States, Issues Thanks

By Angela Wang
Epoch Times Staff

NEW YORK—After being spirited away from the airport after his 6:30 p.m. arrival, Chen Guangcheng, his wife and their two children were taken to his New York University’s residence on Mercer Street in lower Manhattan at around 7:30 p.m. It was a joyous day for human rights activists, politicians, and supporters who had helped Chen Guangcheng fight for his freedom. Chen’s family members, however, still remain in China under the shadow of the Chinese regime’s security forces.

“At the most critical moment, the U.S. Embassy in China gave me an opportunity for emergency asylum and helped me get through the most dangerous time. The American government too, gave me a lot of help,” Chen said to the press after arriving at his residence as a crowd stood cheering behind a police cordon.

Chen Guangcheng gestures beside his wife Yuan Weijing before making remarks to the media, upon his arrival at New York University campus on May 19. (Andy Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

He thanked the U.S. officials for their effort to rescue him.

“Acts of retribution in Shandong have not been abated and my rights to practice law have been curbed—we hope to see a thorough investigation into this,” he said.

Chen Guangcheng’s dramatic April 22 escape from house arrest in his hometown of Linyi, Shandong Province, drew international attention and became a focal point of U.S.-China relations.

Chen was helped by several friends, before being picked up by staff from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on April 27. He first left the embassy on May 2, under pressure from Chinese authorities who threatened his family if he did not leave American custody immediately; at the same time, a deal had been brokered that would have allowed him to stay in China and study.

Read more: Chen Guangcheng Arrives in the United States, Issues Thanks [with Video] | Democracy & Human Rights | China | Epoch Times

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Chen’s Lawyer Jiang Tianyong Captured, Beaten, and Put Under House Arrest

By Matthew Robertson & Lea Zhou
Epoch Times Staff

While attempting to visit Chen Guangcheng in hospital, Jiang Tianyong, a civil rights lawyer who defended Chen in 2005, was seized and beaten by domestic security police.

He was interrogated by around 10 domestic security agents after being taken from the Chaoyang hospital where Chen is staying, at around 6:30 pm on May 4. Reached on his cell phone in the late evening on May 5, Jiang was at home recovering from the beating, and under house arrest.

He said that he was taken away by about 10 domestic security police from the Haidian District of Beijing. “They put me in a car and said they were sending me home… I later realized that the road they were taking me on was not the way home.”

They took him to a hotel in the Haidian area, shut him in a room, and gave him something to eat.

A security officer that Jiang identified as Du Yunhui then came at 10:00 pm to “chat.” But “actually he was abusing me incessantly.” Jiang questioned Du back at one point. “He jumped up and beat me. It was very fast and extremely hard, punching me in the face three times, first on my left ear. I thought then that the ear is gone. The second punch was to my right ear, the third to my chest.”

Jiang said he wanted to see the doctor and press charges against Du. Du then asked: “What evidence have you got that I hit you?” Jiang characterized the attitude as “shameless.”

The security officers decided to send him home at about 2 am. Jiang expressed a wish to be taken to the hospital, but they refused, and told him that from now on if he wanted to go anywhere he would have to apply for permission.

At the time of the interview, Jiang said there were at least four plainclothes security officers outside his residence, and that he is not allowed to leave. His wife comes and goes under the graces of the unidentified guards.

“This is a sensitive issue in relations between China and the US, and they don’t want me to participate,” he said. “They said it was the order of higher-ups.”

Jiang Tianyong, like Chen Guangcheng, has advocated for groups in China that have been unjustly treated by communist authorities. In particular he has represented other lawyers targeted for their civil rights work, including Chen, Hu Jia, and Gao Zhisheng. He has also defended Falun Gong practitioners, the spiritual discipline whose adherents are persecuted and whose defenders often become targets. In February 2011 Jiang was extra-legally sequestered for 60 days, and beaten and tortured, a result of the Chinese regime’s anti-Jasmine movement crackdown.

via Chen’s Lawyer Jiang Tianyong Captured, Beaten, and Put Under House Arrest | Regime | China | Epoch Times

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players? 

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Chinese Foreign Ministry Says Chen Can Apply for Passport

State Department hopeful, but no guarantees that “relevant organs” will accept request

By Matthew Robertson
Epoch Times Staff

UPDATED 6:59pm UTC The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that Chen Guangcheng can apply for a passport like “any other Chinese citizen,” in response to a question by a journalist on May 4 about Chen wanting to study in the United States.

BREAKING: Chen’s Lawyer Jiang Tianyong Captured, Beaten, and Put Under House Arrest

The statement was re-announced soon afterwards on May 4 by the United States Department of State, who added that “Mr. Chen has been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he can be accompanied by his wife and two children.”

According to a statement by New York University on the afternoon of May 4, Chen has an invitation to be a visiting scholar at NYU in New York or elsewhere.

The State Department said that “the Chinese Government has indicated that it will accept Mr. Chen’s applications for appropriate travel documents.”

It added that it expects the Chinese side to expedite the application, so the U.S. can quickly dispense visas. “This matter has been handled in the spirit of a cooperative U.S.-China partnership,” the statement said.

It is unclear whether this constitutes an agreement between Chinese authorities and the U.S. to allow Chen to travel. The initial statement was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the agency that is responsible for entry, exit, and passports is the Public Security Bureau. The Public Security Bureau is controlled by the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), the extralegal agency responsible for the persecution and abuse of Chen over the last seven years. The PLAC is headed by Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang.

Public security organs wield broad and vaguely defined powers to reject passports and interfere with the travel arrangements of Chinese citizens. It is unclear whether the understanding between the State Department and Chinese authorities precludes such meddling in this case.

The summarized contents of a telephone call posted online yesterday by one of Chen’s close friends, Guo Yushan, said that Chen had received an invitation to study there. NYU confirmed that Chen had received an invitation in an emailed statement by spokesman John Beckman.

Jerome Cohen, a professor of Chinese law at NYU, has for many years been an advocate and friend of Chen’s, and played an important role in the recent negotiations surrounding Chen’s fate.

Beckman would not address in a brief telephone discussion whether NYU’s invitation was extended to Chen in the context of any agreement or understanding with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the U.S. State Department.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

via Chinese Foreign Ministry Says Chen Can Apply for Passport | Democracy & Human Rights | China | Epoch Times

Related Articles: China Security Chief Behind Chen Troubles, Expert Says

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Analysts Find Blind Chinese Lawyer’s Escape Significant

Chen Guangcheng’s flight may end security head’s career

By Ming Chen & Jane Lin
Epoch Times Staff

Blind Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing has been called a miracle by Chinese netizens. It may end the career of a high level communist official.

Former Chongqing Public Security Chief Wang Lijun’s attempt to defect at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6 led to the fall of former political star Bo Xilai. Many China analysts believe that Chen’s audacious escape on April 22 will bring down Zhou Yongkang. Zhou is the head of China’s domestic security apparatus, the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), which controls all aspects of law enforcement in China. The PLAC has a 2012 budget of over 700 billion yuan (USD$100 billion) for what the regime calls “stability maintenance.”

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reported that Chen planned his escape for over two months. Previously, Chen tried to dig a tunnel to escape but was discovered. For a long time, he stayed in bed during the day, pretending to be sick, and the guards around his house eventually relaxed their vigilance. At night Chen practiced wall climbing. He was alert to every move made by the guards at night.

“When Chen finally escaped on the night of April 22, he climbed over the first wall in the ten seconds it took a guard to fetch water. He went through seven barriers, crossed a river, and stumbled and fell over one hundred times, injuring his leg and getting covered with mud. Chen contacted activist He Peirong who picked Chen up and drove him to Beijing,” Teng Biao, a well-known Beijing human rights lawyer said in a Tweet. According to Teng, it took the guards four days to realize that Chen was missing.

Renowned human rights lawyer Hu Jia met with Chen in Beijing on April 27. He told Sound of Hope (SOH) Radio Networks on April 28 that Chen was at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

“The minute we saw each other he gave me a good hug. Then we kept calling each other ‘brother, brother.’ We burst into tears because we were so excited,” Hu said.

ChinaAid, a Christian human rights organization, reported on April 28 that Chen is under United States protection, with American and Chinese officials discussing Chen’s status.

ChinaAid president Bob Fu said he believed that He Peirong, the activist who helped Chen escape, has been arrested at her home in Nanjing. “We were on the phone on the morning of April 27 when she said that Domestic Security police had arrived. Then we lost contact. Presumably she has been arrested.”

Earlier, He Peirong had sent a Twitter message saying, “I will not go into hiding and will stay in my home.” She also said that Chen had said he wanted to keep living in his home, and he wants freedom and justice.

The Epoch Times called He’s cell phone several times, but was unable to connect.

Bob Fu said Chen’s brother Chen Guangfu has been arrested and security guards were surrounding Chen Guangfu’s home. Chen’s nephew Chen Kegui is on the run, according to Fu.

Members of Chen’s family said that in 2006 many of Chen’s relatives were arrested and beaten, and some were detained for three to six months. Chen’s relatives asked not to be identified in this article.

In mid-September 2011, a group of Chinese organized a campaign called “Free Chen Guangcheng” and unsuccessfully attempted to visit Chen in his hometown in Dongshigu Village in Shandong Province. Many were beaten or arrested.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

Several China experts said that domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang should take responsibility for persecuting Chen and his family, and for allocating resources to block people from visiting Chen. Zhou is a member of the all-powerful ruling Politburo Standing Committee, and one of the country’s nine most powerful political leaders. Chen’s escape and flight to the U.S. Embassy is a huge embarrassment for the Communist Party and for Zhou as it exposes the abuse of justice under his leadership in the PLAC. It is an incident of extraordinary significance.

The Chinese Communist regime has persecuted many dissidents and religious followers under the banner of maintaining stability, and Zhou is in charge of all these, Bob Fu told New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television.

“The case against Chen’s family is an example of the widespread persecution of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who may have suffered even more than Chen did,” Fu said.

Some analysts said they felt that the timing of the Chen incident was opportune for Party leader Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to take down the troublesome and powerful Zhou Yongkang with the attention of the international community being focused on the Party’s intense power struggle right now.

Current-affairs commentator Shi Da pointed out that Chen revealed to the world that the domestic security apparatus turns police into gangsters who rampantly torture innocent people. “Hu and Wen can no longer cover this up, and they have to bring Zhou to the foreground,” Shi told SOH.

According to political commentator Li Tianxiao, Hu and Wen need the people’s support to take down Zhou. Li said Chen has many supporters in China and abroad, so this is a God-sent opportunity for Hu and Wen to take action against Zhou.

“Responding to Chen’s call for an investigation can serve as a good initiative for Hu and Wen to launch a thorough investigation of Zhou and the PLAC, thereby eventually removing Zhou for good,” Li said.

via Analysts Find Blind Chinese Lawyer’s Escape Significant | Society | China | Epoch Times

Related Articles:

• Blind Chinese Lawyer Chen Guangcheng Escapes Custody
• Letter: Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Chen Guangcheng and Wife Beaten

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Chinese Dissident: Law Change Will Ramp up ‘Gestapo-like’ Policing

By Rona Rui
Epoch Times Staff

Proposed amendments to China’s Criminal Procedure Code will only lead to more “Gestapo-like” police abuses, a prominent rights activist wrote in a recent public letter to the National People’s Congress.

Having only been released in June from a three-year sentence, Hu Jia knows first-hand how few basic rights any suspect, especially one who advocates for freedom of political expression, really has in China.

Nevertheless, his letter is being read online.

And it echoes the fears of other lawyers and scholars. Attorney Jiang Tianyong cites his two months of “disappearance” as a warning to Chinese society of what may be in store.

He Depu and his wife, members of the outlawed China Democracy Party, have said that “residential surveillance” can include kidnapping people from their own houses and moving them to other residences for extralegal beatings and torture.

Hu said in his letter that when dealing with political targets, police ignore the law and strip suspects of the supposed rights. They act primarily to strike terror into people’s hearts, he said, carrying out forced disappearance for prolonged periods, or torture and other abuses.

He said that the proposed legal change will simply make these abuses legitimate.

“It will be like giving a tiger wings, and will bring untold troubles,” he said.

Further, the three proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure all contain the perilous phrase “suspected of crimes against national security.” Hu said that this bundles non-crimes with state crimes, and gives a free hand to police for abusing suspects.

People cannot be visited if detained, or if killed the family is not allowed to see the body, he said. “To suspects who are not convicted and to their innocent family, it is a loss of basic humanity,” he wrote.

Hu Jia’s is a case in point. In 2006 he was secretly detained without any criminal charges and his family given little news of his whereabouts. In the forty days of his disappearance his mother’s weight dropped over 20 pounds, she was often in tears, and frequently suffered nightmares of her son’s death.

Pressure was also put on his family not to talk about his disappearance. And such tactics are frequently used against human rights lawyers, petitioners, and families of political prisoners.

Hu said that people have flooded the People’s Congress with letters expressing concern over possible legalized “secret arrests,” that anyone could be subject to.

Read the original Chinese article

via Chinese Dissident: Law Change Will Ramp up ‘Gestapo-like’ Policing | China News | Epoch Times

Related Article: Chinese Regime Considers Legalizing Illegal Detentions

Chinese Lawyer Receives Death Threats for Defending Land Grab Victims

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By Tang Yin
Sound of Hope Radio

A lawyer in China’s eastern Shandong Province has become a target of retaliation by local officials after taking a case against illegal farmland expropriation.

Shu Xiangxin, the head of Xuzhou Law Firm in Jinan City of Shandong Province, told Sound of Hope Radio in a recent interview how officials of a small county threatened him and his family with death and withheld his license after he rejected their bribes.

Shu said he filed a lawsuit in March against the Party secretary of Guan County on behalf of two villagers of Zhangyizhuang Village in Guan County. The county government had expropriated more than 200 mu (33 acres) of village farmland without any legal procedures. The villagers refused to surrender the land only to find that their crops were dug up and destroyed by excavators.

On March 27, the director of Guan County and the director of the Legislative Affairs Office visited Shu’s law firm offering him money in exchange of his terminating his contract with the villagers, but Shu rejected them.

Four days later, an online message, posted with Shu’s consent, accused the Guan County Party secretary of illegally expropriating farmland.
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The following day, the Guan County government sent four thugs to Shu’s law firm, but Shu was absent at the time. The thugs assaulted his two colleagues, which was captured by a video camera installed in the office.

The thugs then kept calling Shu and telling him that they had full details of his home address and his two sons.

“They brazenly threatened my kids’ safety,” Shu said.

On April 3, Shu uploaded the photos and video of the thugs threatening and assaulting his colleagues at his office.

The next day, over one hundred “50-cent Party” commentators–an army of people paid to write pro-government Internet comments–posted online messages insulting and intimating Shu, including threatening him and his family with death.

On Aril 7, Shu’s law firm website was shut down and his e-mail was inundated with junk mail.

On April 13, the Guan County Disciplinary Committee secretary and a local enterprise’s CEO paid Shu a visit and offered him a job as legal consultant, which Shu also turned down.

Afterwards, the Jinan City Bureau of Justice suddenly asked Shu to submit a report for an impending investigation against him.

On April 25, the Bureau of Justice postponed the annual review of Shu’s law firm and withheld his lawyer license.

Shu’s clients, however, were meanwhile able to successfully negotiate with Guan County officials to keep their farmland.

The case has created quite a public stir in the area, and many other villagers have since gone to Shu for legal help.

But the case also alarmed higher-up authorities in Shandong Province according to Shu. On June 8, officers from the Jinan Public Security Bureau took Shu away for interrogation while he was attending his niece’s wedding banquet. Police also took away all the files from his office, basically shutting him down.

“We could no longer take on any cases, so my colleagues all quit,” Shu said.

However, Guan County authorities continued to seize farmland in other places. During the night of Aug. 8, the county mayor sent crews to dig up more than 300 mu (49 acres) of farmland, with crops ready for harvest within just a month, in two villages. And on Aug. 14, many homes in one village were forcibly demolished.

Shu has meanwhile written a letter to local officials asking for a compromise with the authorities in the hope of getting his license back. He said he is still holding on to his law firm, although he is losing money, while waiting for a response from the authorities.

According to a report by China’s Ministry of Land and Resources, nearly 10,000 cases of illegal land confiscation by local government officials occurred in the first quarter of 2011 alone.

Prominent Chinese economist and commentator He Qinglian said in a Dec. 2010 blog that never in history have Chinese farmers been in such a vulnerable situation as local government can expropriate any resource from their farmland. “Local governments constantly mobilize police and gangsters to seize land from farmers who lack the power to defend their land, which has become officials’ golden goose,” He said.

Revenues from land sales in 2010 were 2.7 trillion yuan (approx. US$410 billion), accounting for 7.3 percent of China’s GDP, according to data published by theMinistry of Land and Resources.

via Chinese Lawyer Receives Death Threats for Defending Land Grab Victims | China News | Epoch Times

Daughter of Blind Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Deprived of Schooling

By Quincy Yu
Epoch Times Staff

On Sept. 1, when many first-graders in China were excited about their first day of school, the six-year-old daughter of blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng had to stay home because her parents are under house arrest.

Rights activist Liu Shasha said in a twitter message that she and several other activists went to Dongshigu Village in Linyi of Shandong Province, Chen’s hometown, on Aug. 26, and found that Chen and his family are still under house arrest.

Liu also said that the authorities hired some people to set up barriers around the village to prevent outsiders from entering. Liu published every move on her trip on twitter in case she got into any danger.

Liu said the director of Linyi Education Bureau met with them and said Chen’s daughter Kesi met school entrance requirements. He assured Liu that the county education bureau and the township government would make sure that the child gets to go to school.

Previously, authorities said that Chen did not register his daughter’s hukou residence permit. Liu told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that people believed Kesi had no residence registration, but a relative called and posted a scan of Kesi’s residence registration online showing that her registration was completed last year.

Chen gained worldwide prominence for exposing forced abortions and sterilizations that are part of the Chinese regime’s one-child policy. For this work he was sent to prison for over four years, and also suffered repeated torture. Upon his release on Sept. 9, 2010 he was put under house arrest and has been isolated from the rest of the world.

In June the U.S.-based China Aid Association published a letter by Chen’s wife Yuan Weijing describing prolonged beatings she and Chen endured and harassment the entire family has suffered at the hands of local officials.

Recently Chen has been subjected to violent beating again, Bob Fu, President of China Aid Association quoted a source as saying.

Ms. Pearl from Nanjing, one of a group of activists concerned about Chen, told RFA that the family’s situation has gotten worse since local authorities started the construction of a house near Chen’s residence. She said she and other activists would continue to monitor any developments.

via Daughter of Blind Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Deprived of Schooling | China News | Epoch Times

Letter: Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Chen Guangcheng and Wife Beaten

Epoch Times Staff

A letter sent by the wife of blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng to a friend describes prolonged beatings she and Chen endured and harassment the entire family has suffered at the hands of local officials.

Chen gained worldwide prominence by working to expose and end the forced abortions and sterilizations caused by the Chinese regime’s one-child policy. That work was rewarded by the authorities with 51 months in prison, where Chen is said to have suffered repeated torture. He was released on Sept. 9, 2010 but then placed under house arrest.

The letter describes how on Feb. 18 a large gang under the command of a local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official burst into Chen’s home. He and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were beaten and tortured by groups of men for two hours. When the gang left, their personal property was stolen. Since the beatings, they have been denied medical treatment, save for one injection given Yuan.

On subsequent invasions of the Chen home, CCP officials stole more property—including the young daughter’s toys and the cane the blind Chen uses to walk, covered the windows with metal, and destroyed their TV antenna. Chen’s mother, who works as a farmer, is now shadowed by three security agents wherever she goes.

Yuan’s letter closes with concerns for Chen’s health, which is deteriorating, and with hope that friends can take legal action on their behalf.

The abuses related in the letter are apparently reprisals for a video Chen made documenting the conditions of the house arrest he and his family had endured since his release from prison. That video was passed to the advocacy group ChinaAid by a sympathetic local official and published on ChinaAid’s website on Feb. 9.

Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid, is quoted on its website as saying the hour-long video shows Chen was “living in miserable conditions, cut off from all outside contact, and detained illegally in his home.”

Yuan’s letter was published on ChinaAid’s website on June 16.

Here is Yuan Weijing’s letter in translation:

On the afternoon of Feb. 18, 2011, 70-80 people broke through our front door led by Yinan Zhang, the deputy secretary of the Shuanghou Township, under the auspices of the Yinan National Security.

My husband Chen Guangcheng and me were once again viciously beaten and subjected to more than 2 hours of savage torture. Without any legal formalities our house was looted by dozens of people not in uniform. My husband and I were seriously injured, and not even allowed to seek medical treatment.

A dozen men wrapped me up with a quilt, and started viciously kicking at my ribs and stamping on me for more than half an hour. Eventually, I struggled and managed to get my head out of the quilt, I saw Guangcheng was surrounded by a dozen or more people. Some forcefully twisted his arms back, while others forcibly pressing his head down, and grabbing him by the collar to lift him up.

Having been weakened by protracted diarrhea, Guangcheng was unable to offer any resistance. This went on for more than two hours until he passed out.

My left eye socket and left ribs feel like they are fractured. My left eye is blackened and swollen, I cannot see for almost a week, and the white of the eye is bloodshot. So far, I still cannot straighten up my back, and it is still painful to breath.

While we were being tortured, the dozens of other people who broke into the house were searching and combing through my house using a variety of detectors. They took away our computers, cameras, video recorders, video tapes, various electric chargers, flashlights, and so on.

They were not uniformed and had no search warrant. When they were searching and looting, they did not speak a word, and there was no seizure authorization document. Before they left, Zhang said, this is the order from above, you should know. Then they threw us on the floor.

The beating left us in so much pain that we could not even roll over when lying on bed. Even so, Guangcheng did not receive any treatment. For myself, I was only allowed to have one intravenous injection by the village doctor on February 19. After that, I could not receive any treatment either.

On March 3, they sealed our windows completely with iron sheet; on March 6, they shut down our electricity supply; on the evening of March 7, the guard sneaked into my house at midnight and destroyed our TV antenna. The electricity was restored on March 8 in early morning.

On March 8, Zhang Jian led a group of over 40 people to break into our residence again. They snatched our computer, hand-written materials, DVD, several remote controls, and all the materials related to Guangcheng’s lawsuit accumulated in these several years.

When I demanded an explanation for their outright robbery, Zhang Jian beat me on my head with his fist.

On March 17, Zhang Jian came again with a group of over 40 people. His colleagues brought with them dozens of huge woven bags. They stuffed everything they thought to be worth taking into the woven bags, including all our books, the paper-cut flowers my daughter made that were pasted onto the wall, calendars, Guangcheng’s walking cane, all the papers, used patch boards, antenna and electric wires, etc.

On March 22, they installed two surveillance cameras, one at the gate and the other at the southwestern corner, which could capture all our activities inside our house.

My daughter has been forbidden to go out since Feb. 24. She has to stay at home all day, just like us. Her books and some toys were taken away as well. The child said: “I am so pitiful. All my belongings are robbed.”

Guangcheng’s mother is being monitored by three personal “cangues” [A cangue is literally a device that fits around the victim’s head and is used for humiliation and corporal punishment, similar to the pillory in the West, except that it is not fixed to a base. at every moment.] Even when she is doing farm work in the field, the personal cangues will follow her footsteps to keep close to her.

Starting from mid-March, my mother-in-law was not allowed to go out, even for grocery shopping. It was therefore very difficult for us to sustain basic living. In addition, Guangcheng’s health is deteriorating daily. In the past, he had fresh blood in his stools when he had diarrhea; now the blood in his stools is black and dark. All these things made me very worried.

When you receive this letter, please try to inform our friends Teng Biao, Zhai Minglei, Jiang Tianyong and Zhang Yongpan. The authorities are committing crimes against us, restricting our personal freedom and breaking into our residence to commit robbery and mayhem.

I hope these friends of our family will take legal action or other necessary moves as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, the authorities had told my mother-in-law twice that we would be transferred to a vacant courtyard at the front of the village.

Thanks a million,
Yuan Weijing

via Letter: Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Chen Guangcheng and Wife Beaten | China | Epoch Times