Rights defenders spur debate over detained blind activist

By Bill Smith Oct 18, 2011, 11:55 GMT

Beijing - When Qi Jianxiang supported his mother, Wang Lihong, at her trial in August for 'creating a disturbance,' he wore a T-shirt with a message calling for the release of fellow human rights activist Chen Guangcheng.

Qi is one of a growing number of activists rallying support for Chen, 39, who has been held under house arrest since he finished a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence in September 2010.

Some supporters, like Qi, are defying Chinese authorities by publicly wearing T-shirts and badges bearing Chen's photograph and calling to free him from house arrest.

Others have joined recent online campaigns to post hundreds of photographs of supporters wearing dark glasses similar to those normally worn by Chen, who was left blind by a childhood illness.

The self-taught legal activist gained national prominence in 2005 when he supported dozens of local families in Linyi city, Shandong province, who accused family-planning officials of forcibly sterilizing thousands of women and obliging some pregnant women to undergo late-term abortions.

Internationally acclaimed activist Hu Jia is among those who have supported Chen by posing for photographs wearing dark glasses and a T-shirt this week.

Hu, who was released in June after three and a half years in prison, said police in Beijing threatened to detain him again if he tried to visit Chen.

International rights groups and some Western politicians, joined by the US Congressional Executive Commission on China last week, have also lobbied China to release Chen from house arrest.

A few Chinese activists tried to visit Chen last year, but greater attention followed the release in February of video footage smuggled out of Linyi to international rights groups.

In the video, Chen complained of 24-hour surveillance and threats by security officers.

A few days later, he and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were attacked and injured by police who then refused to let them out of their home for medical treatment, the US-based Christian rights group China Aid quoted sources as saying.

Police had beaten and tortured the couple several times since Chen's release from prison, Yuan said in an open letter in June.

After the video and Yuan's letter spread online, many activists worried that the couple might be in imminent danger.

Several dozen activists have since tried to enter Linyi's Dongshigu village, where Chen, Yuan and their 6-year-old daughter, Chen Kesi, are apparently held by dozens of plain-clothed security officers.

Activists Wang Xuezhen, Miao Jue and Liu Shasha have also lobbied local officials to allow Chen Kesi out of the village to attend school.

'We went to the school to ask [about Kesi],' Wang told dpa. 'They said there is no such child.'

'As far as we know, in Chen Guangcheng's house, there are not even paper and pens,' Wang said. 'They [the authorities] are afraid that some news will get out.'

During their trip last month, Wang, Liu and Miao were seized and beaten by some of the dozens of burly men guarding the village.

The three women were forced into white plastic sacks and hit while they were inside them, said Wang, who had light bruising under her right eye during an interview in early October.

'I suffered the lightest injuries,' Wang said. 'You know I am a Christian, so I told the local church what to do if something happened to me.'

'Maybe they overheard [the phone call to the church], so they didn't beat me too much,' she said.

Miao and Liu said they suffered more serious injuries and were dumped, minus most of their possessions, on remote roads. They were both beaten again and forced to leave the area when they returned to the village this month.

State media have made little mention of Chen since the official Xinhua news agency called him a 'blind mob organizer' during his appeal hearing in 2007.

But in a surprise move last week, two newspapers debated the legal and moral basis of Chen's house arrest and the campaign for his release.

The Global Times, part of the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily group, weakly criticized the local government's handling of Chen but warned activists not to make his case an 'ideological issue.'

The Shanghai-based Oriental Morning News challenged the Global Times' right to be 'the only voice about this incident' inside China and said the public needed to be told 'who is Chen Guangcheng.'

Wang told dpa Tuesday that she believed the pressure from Chen's supporters and micro-blog reports of the abuses by the authorities in Linyi had influenced the publication of the two stories.

'Our visits, especially what we suffered, ... stirred up the righteous anger of many netizens,' she said.