On May 20th 2009 Chen Guangcheng served his 1000th day as a prisoner of conscience.
On 24th August 2006, Chen Guangcheng, the blind, barefoot lawyer was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison. Officially his crime was 'damaging public property and gathering people to block traffic'. This was referring to the crowds who turned up to support him in court.However, before his detention Chen had been helping local villagers in their attempt to sue the local authorities in Linyi City, Shandong province, for carrying out an illegal policy of forced abortion and sterilizations which reportedly affected throuands of local women, as part of China's one child policy.
An Amnesty International press statement at the time said;
"We condemn utterly the sentence imposed on Chen Guangcheng and consider him a prisoner of conscience. Chen has been imprisoned solely because of his peaceful defence of human rights and he should be released immediately. The charges against Chen were politically motivated and the trial was grossly unfair from start to finish".
On 20th May, Chen passed the 1000 day mark since being sentanced. This site is dedicated to encouraging as many people as possibly to support Chen by writing letters, signing up to Facebook groups, petitioning their MPs etc to highlight the case and call for the earliest possible release for Chen. Please help.
Background about Chen
Chen was born on 12th November 1971 in a remote village in Yinan County, Linyi City, Shandong, in Northern China. He became blind at a very early age following a severe period of illness.
As a result of his disability, he received no formal education, and eventually taught himself English and studied the Chinese legal system on his own. He has also studied acupuncture and massage, courses offered to the disabled at Nanjing University.
Chen built his reputation in his own village through speaking up for accurate personal taxation and environmental issues. But it is his Human Rights activities that have made the world take notice of Chen Guangcheng.
In 2005, Chen married Yuan Weijing, and they have 2 children. It was around this time he became aware of the severity of the one-child policy, and the forced abortions and sterilizations among couples with two children in Linyi.
China is the most populated country in the world with a population of 1.3 billion, and it is scheduled to continue to rise. As a result the authorities encourage the one-child policy especially in urban areas, with the aim of stabilising population growth.
Officially the government opposes forced abortions and sterilzations, but there are population targets to be met in towns and villages, meaning coercian is commonplace. It is this and to fight against the use of violence to persue population control that Chen has devoted his life to.