CHINAaid

Breaking News: Chen Guangcheng's family is told to pack, leaving China for US today (updated version)

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Sat, 19 May 2012 05:19:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Beijing — May 19, 2012) ChinaAid just learned that blind activist Chen Guangcheng's was told to pack and get ready to get leave China today.

Bob Fu talked with Chen an hour ago. Chen said Chinese official informed him that he would leave today, though he had not yet received his passport. Chen was not told which city in the US he was going.

ChinaAid and Chen family deeply appreciate the international community's tireless efforts to gain his freedom, including Church’s passionate prayers, both the efforts of the US Embassy and the US Congress, who held two timely hearings on his behalf.

Chen also wanted to express his gratitude to the Chinese government who fulfilled one of its promises to allow his family to leave.

EDT 3am Update: Chen Guangcheng, his wife Yuan Weijing and their two young children (son and daughter ) are in the waiting room of Beijing International Airport. They have not got their flight tickets.

ChinaAid continues to urge vigilance and increased international attention to the situation faced by Chen Guangcheng's extended family members, including his nephew Chen Kegui and his elder brother Chen Guangfu as well as his sister-in-law Ren Zongju. They are all facing possible severe punishment as a result of Chen's escape from his house last month.

"We are happy for Chen and his family. This is a great day for freedom fighters," said Pastor Bob Fu who has been campaigning for Chen's freedom internationally, " this further proves that constructive dialogues with international pressure can surely produce concrete positive result. We pray for his family’s safe journey. "

FP: Jesus Loves China, Too

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:25:00 +0000

Why I'm working to save my homeland, one soul at a time.

Foreign Policy BY BOB FU | MAY 14, 2012

Like most Chinese, I was educated as an atheist. All textbooks, philosophy classes, and conferences taught us that the Christian faith is an "opiate of the people's spirit" that Westerners use to numb and neutralize the creativity of the Chinese mind.

But as a student of English literature at Liaocheng University in Shandong province in 1987, my American teachers after class would sometimes pull out what we Chinese students called a "Little Red Book." It was a pocket Bible. And from it they shared what they called "the Good News."

They were a peculiar group of people -- laughing loudly with big smiles, always looking us in the eye when speaking to us. One day I went to the apartment of a teacher who had been in China for more than three years, and I saw him playing the guitar, crying as he sang. He told me he was homesick for his family in California, and I was touched by his openness -- such a contrast to the stern, cold teachers I had had before. The kindness and love he and his fellow Christian teachers showed was not to change China, but to offer life-giving truth in an authentic manner. Today's would-be missionaries to China could learn a lot from them.

Americans like to see things get done instantly: fast food, Twitter, and even "shock and awe" military campaigns. In the 1990s, one ministry organization put an ad in a major Christian magazine calling for donations with the slogan "one dollar, one soul," the idea being one dollar will purchase one Bible in China, which will help convert one Chinese soul. This instant-noodle approach to the life-and-death decision to accept Christ as one's only Savior and Lord is counterproductive. Chinese souls cannot be harvested like stalks of corn in a field, or iPads on an assembly line.

Missionaries should study China and it's people, culture, and history, which is almost 20 times longer than U.S. history. Especially after 60 years of communism and wave after wave of class struggle, Chinese are desperate for trust. Many of my classmates were more willing to share their personal secrets with our American teachers than with fellow Chinese students because they found the teachers trustworthy and caring. The American teachers I know said it took years living and interacting with the Chinese before their mission bore spiritual fruit.

Americans have much more experience with Christian theology than the Chinese. Many times I find Americans eager to sell China a certain brand of theology, rather than to live out and present the true Gospel of grace and truth. When I enrolled at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1997, I found I needed to fill out a form declaring my Protestant denomination -- with 200 choices! That was one of my first experiences of culture shock. Americans representing a certain denomination visit China for a few months on what they call a "short-term mission," trying to spread their church's version of the faith. They often leave behind an Americanized Chinese Christianity -- with believers who can pray only in English.

In the early 1990s, I met with a famous American evangelist in a five-star hotel in Beijing. The first question he asked was, "How many Chinese Christians have the spiritual gift of speaking in other tongues?" While I don't disapprove of this practice (and have even had this experience), it seemed that this secondary issue was his main concern.

After I left China in 1996, I learned that tens of thousands of copies of that minister's book, translated into Chinese as How to Speak in Tongues, had been distributed in China by underground printing networks. Now the tongues issue has become one of the most divisive issues among Chinese churches (those who can speak in tongues look down on those who don't, while those who don't speak in tongues think that those who do are possessed by demons). This man's "ministry" deeply hurt the cause of the Gospel in China.

Contrast this with the two Americans who showed up at the doorstep of my in-laws in a remote village in Shandong, near where legal activist Chen Guangcheng used to live. They rode bikes together with the villagers on the dusty roads. They prayed for my wife's family members and other villagers. Those American teachers even learned how to share an outhouse with pigs! As a result, both of my in-laws came to Christ after my American teachers left.

In the spring of 1989, I was deeply involved in China's student democracy movement both at my own university and in Tiananmen Square. In the aftermath of the crackdown on our college campus, amid the forced self-criticisms and students turning in one another to save their own skin, my eyes were opened to the futility of the human experience. Man, I discovered painfully, has no power to change his own nature. No amount of slogans, science, democratic reforms, or self-determination can pull us out of our pit of immoral self-centeredness. The Chinese have a saying, "Man's original character is about as easy to change as the position of the mountains and rivers." I found myself a slave to its reality.

It was at that moment, in that strange, empty autumn of 1989, that I experienced a revolution in my own life. After reading Pastor Hsi: Confucian Scholar and Christian, a book about how a Chinese intellectual in Shaanxi came to accept the Christian faith while struggling with an opium addiction, I finally came to embrace the Gospel of Christ.

In the days and months that followed I received a tremendous amount of help from my American teachers on how to grow as a Christian. The Chinese mind needs logical, intellectually compelling truth that speaks to our culture. The Gospel answers the questions of my culture like nothing else. Missionaries to China should help Chinese ask difficult questions of the purpose of life and how man is going to find it in a materialistic, trustless society.

ChinaAid, the organization I run, attempts to advance religious freedom and rule of law in China, softening the soil for the Gospel. We provide money and training for legal activists and sponsor the only nationwide house-church magazine, of which 80,000 copies are distributed nationwide.

We aid non-Christians as well; through our network of supporters, we helped Chen -- who by God's common grace advanced the rule of law and protection of life in China-- take his case to the American people.

Those unable to work and help directly in China should reach out to the 150,000 top Chinese students and scholars on U.S. campuses. Demonstrate a healthy marriage, build real trust in a friendship, and invite them to investigate the life and teachings of Christ for themselves. This will influence them significantly, and they in turn will influence their compatriots once God has transformed their lives. Many of these students will serve key roles in Chinese society.

In the Bible, the book of Romans says, "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good and always serve each other in love." With this kind of message, Christianity will blossom. This is the only way freedom -- both individually and nationally -- will spread in China.

Bob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid, has been active in the case of dissident Chen Guangcheng.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/14/jesus_loves_china_too

NPR: Activist Bob Fu Helped Chen Call Congress

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:34:00 +0000

NPR May 16, 2012

Listen to the Story:

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng called into a U.S. congressional hearing to describe violent attacks on his family and "trumped up" homicide charges against his nephew. He was able to call in to the hearing through the help of his friend, fellow activist Bob Fu.

Transcript

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng called into a U.S. congressional hearing from his hospital room in Beijing yesterday to describe violent attacks on his brother and sister-in-law and what he called trumped up homicide charges against his nephew. Chen testified with the help of his friend, Bob Fu, a Christian pastor and fellow activist who took Chen's call on his cellphone and interpreted Chen's remarks for the congressional committee. Bob Fu fled China himself in the 1990s, relocated to Texas and founded a human rights group called ChinaAid.

If you have questions about the Chen case, give us a call: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION. Bob Fu joins us here in Studio 3A. Welcome to TALK OF THE NATION.

BOB FU: Thank you, Neal, for having me.

CONAN: And Mr. Chen and his immediate family, as I understand it, are safe. When does he expect China to grant him permission to leave for the United States?

FU: I called him this morning, and he said that for the first time the passport issue has substantial progress. This morning, China time, basically security officers from Shandong Province came to him and make him fill the forms for a passport application and obviously asked him to wait within 15 days. He was promised to have his family's passports. The U.S. said their visa have been approved already for a week. So it could, you know, happen in five days to 15 days.

CONAN: Well, that's good news. He's in the hospital. Is he well?

FU: He's in a de facto sort of confinement or detention with his wife. And of course they don't have freedom of movement. Neither of them are - is allowed to be walking out of the hospital, and only his children are allowed to have a few, one hour a day what's called sunshine time. And - but he's able to make phone calls or receive phone calls. So that's major progress. And he and his wife had not suffered any further beatings or tortures like they had experienced in the past 17 months.

CONAN: But that is his immediate family. As he told the congressional committee yesterday, some other members of his family back in Shandong Province are not so lucky.

FU: That's right, Neal. It's really, really deteriorating, actually. You know, his nephew, Chen Kegui, a 20-plus years old, young man, was charged with intentional homicide May the 9th for purely taking up a self-defense measure when he and his father and mother were beaten so severely, I mean, for three hours of beating and - with bleeding, and he had to do self-defense. Otherwise he would have been killed.

CONAN: We - it's hard for us to understand sometimes however many nexuses of power there are in China, yes, there is the Chinese Communist Party. We think of it as a monolith, but provincial officials have huge amounts of freedom, if you want to use that word, to have their own policies.

FU: Well, I think it's more of the united front on this, under the banner of stability. You know, when you come to the so-called social stability, when this self-taught blind lawyer became a so-called unstable element by speaking out against those human rights abuses and massive, you know, abuse of women and children by documenting - I mean he documented over 120,000 cases of the victims of the forced abortion and forced sterilization that triggered the persecution, I think the central government certainly know, at least gave green light for the local or provincial government to deal with this kind of brutality.

CONAN: Well, he made a famous - now famous video that he posted to YouTube, though, which he appealed to the prime minister, saying, you're a reformer. Is this your policy? Are these people going off script and doing this on their own?

FU: That's right. I think that's the so-called human rights defender's or human rights lawyer's mentality. And they think, I mean, they always believe the Chinese have enough good laws. It's just a matter of how to implement these laws. They always think - of course, the central government also, like reformers, wants to build a just society and with social harmony. But it was the locals who abused that and ruined that. And yes, I mean, there are some reformers' inside, but how much have the Chinese premier done in the past eight years as a premier to build - further the reform? I think that question, you know, needs to be answered.

CONAN: Let's see if we'd get some callers in on the conversation. We're speaking with Bob Fu, president and founder of ChinaAid, a Christian human rights organization based in Midland, Texas. He helped his friend Chen Guangcheng testify yesterday before Congress. 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. Crystal(ph) is on the line calling us from Portland.

CRYSTAL: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Neal. Hello, Mr. Fu.

FU: Hi, Crystal.

CRYSTAL: I was wondering if - since you had conversations with Chen Guangcheng and you maybe had similar experiences, if he shared with you how it is he managed to get out of house arrest. And the part I'm most perplexed about is, well, if he went first to the U.S. Embassy, how - what is it that they said to him that got him confident enough to go to the hospital?

CONAN: Well, a couple of different question, we should say. He was being held under house arrest. That's not an official designation in China. There is no such thing, as I understand it. But his house was surrounded by thugs - I think it's probably a good word - and yet he managed to escape alone at night over a wall. Again, he's blind. What do we know?

FU: Yes. It takes extraordinary daring, you know, walking out by a blind man and - actually for 19 hours. And he was basically walking through the small road on the fields because, as you said, there were over - nearly 100 people, 24 hours a day, watching and monitoring his - from bedroom - almost to the bedroom to the - all the major road on the - to the village. And so that's - he told me it's really - God helped him for that escape. And for the - I also contribute to his childhood, you know, practice of climbing the trees and climbing the walls.

And also for blind people, they seem to have a very extraordinary sense of hearing, and they can detect, you know, different people and even river, you know, crossing. But he was wounded, you know, as we all know, and was stumbled for over 200 times and - with the leg, you know, really wounded.

CRYSTAL: And yet he went first to the embassy and not to hospital. So what is it that the U.S. Embassy said that had him confident enough that he wouldn't...

FU: Well...

CRYSTAL: ...that he wouldn't be caught again and allow him to go hospital?

FU: You know, there are some, of course, missteps or, you know, something could have been done better by the U.S. negotiators to help, at least keep him better informed. And, for instance, when - before he walked out of the U.S. Embassy, there was a phone call arranged between Chen and his wife, who is under the control of the Chinese security, actually by the Shandong provincial securities. And his wife was - in fact, was eventually a hostage, you know, and his wife could not say anything but to persuade him, walk out of the embassy. And I think the embassy should have at least negotiate a deal with China to invite his wife to come into the embassy to let them, in a safer environment, to make a better decision in the first place. I think...

CONAN: About whether to leave the embassy or not.

FU: Yes, yes, instead of, you know, just to let him walk. Of course, at the time, you know, he was assured with some assurance that he would be safe to study as a normal Chinese citizen. But from the first night, he was not treated as a normal Chinese citizen anymore. And like, you know, we have seen now from May 2nd, they are, you know, eventually moving their house arrest to a hospital. And - but, you know, they're treated much better, of course, than they were in their own homes.

CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Crystal.

CRYSTAL: Thank you for your work, Mr. Fu.

FU: Thank you, Crystal.

CONAN: And this raises a question. He wanted to stay in China, in no small part, because in China, he could continue to be effective, he hoped, digging up these cases exposing human rights violations.

FU: That's right. I think he has a pure heart. You know, in the beginning, he felt with - a safety guarantee and whether those - a guarantee to hold those abusive officials accountable as he called to the Chinese premier in the video. And I think the Chinese government did make that kind of a commitment to the U.S. officials. But there's not sufficient mechanism to implement this agreement. And, in fact, I think he found himself - yeah, after - right after walking out of the embassy, he lost the safety guarantee.

And, you know, even the first night and, you know, found only himself and his two children are put in a hospital room and lonely and surrounded by guards. And so far, not a single friend is allowed to visit, and some were beaten up just tried to be close to the hospital. And he, himself, could not now have any communication with his other family members either. I think - and his wife, he realized after he walked out, was tied on a chair and for 51 hours. And after Chen was escaped and was threatened with violence and she was basically used as a hostage to make him walk out.

CONAN: We're talking with Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid, a Christian human rights organization based in Midland, Texas, here in Washington, D.C., to work on the case of his friend. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And Hassan(ph) is on the line, Hassan with us from Toledo.

HASSAN: Yes, hello. My question was - if Mr. Chen does - if he is granted asylum, what would he do here? Like, I guess living and job. What would be the course of action for him - I guess, he doesn't speak English. I just don't know how easy the transition would be for him and his family.

CONAN: I understand he's been invited to become an instructor or study at New York University.

HASSAN: Really?

FU: Yes. The NYU law school sent him an invitation as a visiting scholar, and he will be offered with scholarship, of course, and with some other, you know, special assistance. And he was invited to the State Department visiting exchange scholar's program in 2003. So he was here in the U.S. for a short while. And, yeah, language, of course, needs to improve.

HASSAN: Right. Very (unintelligible) informed. That my answers my question. Thank you.

CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Hassan. This is a story that I know you're interested in part because it is your story too.

FU: It is, in a sense. I've returned with my home province. A fellow and my wife and came from the same city as him. And so I, myself, experienced something similar, but not as, you know, as being tortured as, I mean, as he has experienced. But both my wife and I were also imprisoned in 1996 when we were in Beijing and for simply leading a Bible study group at our own home and a secret Bible school in the suburb of Beijing. And we were basically every day ordered to sit straight, with arms also straight and eyes straightforward and for 10 to 15 hours. And if you move a little a bit, you will be beaten up by other prisoners.

And I could imagine, you know, when Chen surrounded, you know, by 100 thugs and government security officers too. And when he - in front of their 6-year-old daughter - and their 80-year-old mother was beaten up in her birthday. And when his wife was beaten up and - with rib, you know, bone was broken. And when he was beaten up and lost consciousness, and that was not allowed even to have medical treatment, what kind of, you know, situation is like that? So I just feel we need to help this guy, you know, as a - whatever way we can.

CONAN: We are anticipating an enormous and important change of the senior leadership in China later this year if things go as planned, if things have not always gone as planned this year. But any case, do you see a real prospect for reform, for real democratic reform?

FU: Well, I'm still cautious-optimistic as a diplomatic language. But I do feel, you know, because the Chinese people are the hope. I think I wouldn't put a lot of hope on the party because the party has become real, just economic and power interest group. I mean, there is no even body in the party leadership, you know, believe in communism anymore.

CONAN: That I know is - I suspect is true. But if that's the case, then all of this progress, all of the prosperity, which is real - yes, there are these terrible human rights problems. No rule of law China. But the prosperity for many, many people is real. But is that built on sand? Is it likely to crumble?

FU: Yes. I mean, the prosperity, on what price? I mean, you have the, really, the rapid downgrading of the environmental situation. All of the seven rivers - major rivers in China are not really drinkable anymore and heavily polluted. And you have the tremendous gender gap because of this one-child policy, you know, 20 millon more men than women. And you have, of course, this - the gap between the rich and poor is huge. I mean, much bigger than the U.S., and only a very small minority control 90 percent of the Chinese wealth. And, of course, you have the other, you know, factors are non-sustainable. Really, this economic model is declared dead. I mean...

CONAN: Now, Bob Fu, thank you so much for coming in today. We thank you for your time.

FU: Thank you, Neal.

CONAN: Now, Bob Fu, the founder and president of ChinaAid, a Christian human rights organization based in Midland, Texas, with us here in Studio 3A. Tomorrow, we'll look at the consequences around the world of a possible default in Greece. Join us for that. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

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http://www.npr.org/2012/05/16/152840033/activist-bob-fu-helped-chen-call-congress

ChinaAid News Flash: Chinese Officials Start Paperwork for Blind Legal Activist Chen Guangcheng to Leave China

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:38:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Beijing—May 16, 2012). Less than 24 hours after a Congressional hearing on the plight of Chen Guangcheng, during which the blind activist and lawyer was able to speak directly to the hearing, Chinese officials visited Chen at his Beijing hospital room on Wednesday to deliver the forms needed to apply for a passport to leave the country.

The officials from the Shandong Provincial Public Security Department also collected the passport fees for Chen and his family of four and said their passports would be issued within 15 days.

ChinaAid’s founder and president Bob Fu believes the progress on Wednesday toward bringing Chen and his wife and two children to the United States was directly the result of Tuesday’s hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health & Human Rights on “Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him.”

Fu also expressed appreciation for the Shandong Public Security Department for handling Chen’s exit procedures according to the law.

ChinaAid looks forward to the early arrival of the Chen family to the United States so that he can rest and pursue further studies, and calls on the whole world to continue to follow the developments in the situation of Chen’s relatives in Shandong, where their safety is at risk, particularly Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, who is currently facing retaliatory criminal penalties.

(Video) Chen Guangcheng Talks about the Persecution on His Extended Family in 5/15 Congressional Hearing

noreply@blogger.com (对华管理员) — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:37:00 +0000

China Aid Association Visual Studio (VOCN) May 16, 2012

Chen talked during the May 15th Congressional Hearing that how his nephew was framed for the charge of "intentional homicide" after Chen escaped from Shandong. In the last 1 minute of the video he also talked about his family's current situation in Beijing. ChinaAid heard from Chen that right after this hearing a Chinese official told them "their passports will be issued within 15 days."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmWeuHm9VhM

Al Jazeera Interviews Bob Fu about Chen Guangcheng Case (Video)

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Al Jazeera May 15, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnaLLSsEwTM

ChinaAid’s Bob Fu Testifies at Congressional Hearing, Chen Guangcheng Again Speaks to Hearing via Fu’s cellphone (testimony text below)

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:45:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Washington, D.C.—May 15, 2012) For the second time in two weeks, blind human rights activist and lawyer Chen Guangcheng on Tuesday was able to speak directly to a Congressional hearing via the cellphone of ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu.

The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health & Human Rights convened the hearing on “Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him” at 1 p.m. Friday afternoon in the Rayburn House Office Building. Fu was one of four witnesses invited to testify. The text of his prepared remarks is below.

This is the second time since Chen escaped in late April from his home in Shandong province, where he had been kept under extra-judicial house arrest, and took refuge in the U.S. Embassy that Fu has been asked to appear before Congress about Chen’s case.

Two weeks ago, Fu testified before the Congressional-Executive Committee on China and enabled Chen to speak to the hearing directly via Fu’s cellphone to clearly state his wish that he and his family be allowed to come to the United States. See ChinaAid’s report here: http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/05/blind-activist-chen-guangcheng-speaks.html

At Tuesday’s hearing, Chen again used Fu’s cellphone to speak directly to Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), chairman of the subcommittee, and those who attended the hearing about his experiences and that of his family member, in particular his nephew Chen Kegui, who has been arrested for acting in self-defense and is now in a dangerous situation. Everyone at the hearing was moved, and several of the other witnesses spoke directly to Chen to encourage him.

At least two Republican and two Democrat representatives attended the hearing, an indication of the high importance they placed on the outcome of the Chen case.

Fu said that while the agreement reached by the U.S. and Chinese governments to allow Chen to come to the United States and the commitments to this end were a positive step, but “the implementation of the agreement and the realization of the commitments are far more important than the agreement and commitments themselves.” To date, there has been no substantive progress toward making arrangements for Chen to leave China. Fu called on Congress to be more engaged in whatever manner possible to help Chen and his family come to the United States and to protect the safety of his family members, especially Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, who has been arrested for intent to murder when all he was doing was acting out of self-defense. Fu also reminded the hearing that Chen’s supporters were now being persecuted by the government and called for attention to be paid to their cases as well.

The other witnesses at the hearing were veteran Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng (now founder and chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition), Tiananmen Square democracy movement commander-in-chief Chai Ling (now founder and All Girls Allowed, which seeks to end China’s one-child policy), Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, also an anti-one-child policy group, and a victim of China’s population control measures, Mei Shunping.

Watch the live broadcast of the hearing on C-span here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ChineseH

(Photo: Bob Fu responding to reporters’ questions after the hearing.)

Below is the prepared text of Fu’s testimony:

Why the ruthless treatment of a blind man?

--Prospects not bright for a way out for Chen Guangcheng

Testimony of Bob Fu, founder & president, China Aid Association

U. S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs (COFA)

Hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health & Human Rights

“Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him”

1 p.m., Tuesday, May 15, 2012

It has now been more than three weeks since Chen Guangcheng’s miraculous escape on April 22 from his family home in Dongshigu village (Yinan county, Linyi district) in Shandong province where he had been imprisoned for 19 months. After his escape, Chen Guangcheng managed to make his way to Beijing with the help of some netizens (or Internet-based supporters), then took refuge in the U.S. Embassy for six days, after which he was sent to Beijing Chaoyang Hospital where he was put under house arrest. On May 3, through a call on my cellphone, Chen was able to speak live to a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China and to tell Chairman Chris Smith directly that he and his family wished to come to the United States. The following day, the Chinese and U.S. governments expressed their willingness to work together toward this outcome. The entire Chen Guangcheng incident has been full of dramatic ups and downs and has captured the attention of the world. Along with the rest of the world, I continue to believe that a satisfactory result is possible. But in the almost two weeks since that phone call, there has been no substantive progress by the Chinese government toward allowing Chen to come to the United States. The Chinese government has yet to issue him a passport, which means Chen Guangcheng has not been able to leave China.

1. Chen Guangcheng's cause

Chen Guangcheng, 41, is a blind self-taught human rights lawyer who began in the early 1990s to use legal means to protect his own fundamental rights as well as that of his fellow villagers, including the villagers’ land use rights, and the right of disabled persons to enjoy tax exemptions and fare exemptions on public transportion. He had some success in winning cases of this kind. In 2001, he graduated from Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and in 2002, he tried but failed to set up an association for the rights of the disabled in Beijing. In 2003, the local government named him one of its Ten Outstanding Young Persons, and in July and August of that year, he and his wife visited the United States.

In 2005, Chen Guangcheng led a team of human rights lawyers in an investigation that exposed 130,000 cases of forced abortions and forced sterilizations (tubal ligations) in the Linyi district of Shandong province—for which he became the target of government attacks and oppression. That same year, he was named “Person of the Year” by the Hong Kong-based magazine Asia Week, and in 2006, Time Magazine named him one of its 100 most influential figures in the world. But in August 2006, because of his activism, the Chinese government sentenced Chen Guangcheng to four years and three months imprisonment. In August 2007, while he was serving his prison term, Chen was given the Philippines’ Magsaysay Award. Following his release from prison on September 9, 2010, Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were put under house arrest where they were beaten and abused and forbidden to seek medical treatment.

In the face of such harsh persecution, Chen Guangcheng has never given in: he has kept up his battle against the forces of evil, even to today.

2. Chen Guangcheng’s family

Chen Guangcheng's wife, Yuan Weijing, is a former high school English teacher. The couple has a son and a daughter. Yuan Weijing has made great sacrifices for Chen Guangcheng and his cause. She once said: “I am Guangcheng's eyes.” When Chen was in prison for more than four years time, all the family’s burdens fell on her, and she was allowed only three prison visits. After Chen’s release from prison, their children became the victims of guilt by association and have been unable to lead normal lives. Chen’s elderly mother was the only person allowed to go to the family’s home during Chen’s house arrest, and she has been the sole source of the basic supplies necessary to keep the family alive. Chen's eldest brother, Chen Guangfu, has been the victim of local government persecution since the beginning of 2006 because of his relationship to Chen Guangcheng. He, Chen’s wife, and Chen’s elderly mother have all been brutally beaten because of Chen’s noble actions.

After Chen Guancheng’s escape last month, the local official who has been directing the persecution of Chen, town mayor Zhang Jian, led a group of people in a raid on the home of Chen’s brother, Chen Guangfu, that began at about 11:30 p.m. on April 26 and continued to dawn. Without showing any IDs, they broke down the door and jumped over the walls of Chen Guangfu’s home, then savagely beat Chen Guangfu and his wife, Ren Zongju. Their son, Chen Kegui, thought bandits had come to rob them. When he was violently attacked, he injured several of his attackers with a kitchen knife. The Yinan county police have already formally arrested him on the charge of "intentional homicide." Almost all of the lawyers who were willing to handle Chen Kegui’s knifing case have lost their freedom of movement, or had their lawyer’s license revoked, or simply been kidnapped. According to Chen Kegui’s current lawyer, Liu Weiguo, Chen Kegui’s actions were entirely in line with legitimate self-defense. Nevertheless, Chen Guangcheng has made clear that he is worried that the local government will seek to retaliate against him through Chen Kegui. Furthermore, Chen’s brother, Chen Guangfu and his wife have been criminally detained for the crime of “harboring and sheltering” [a criminal or fugitive]. They have been released on bail but could be sentenced at any time.

Chen Guangcheng’s family and relatives stand firmly with him. Even though they have suffered intense persecution, they have never abandoned him nor given up their support of his noble cause. This is truly a family of heroes.

3. Chen Guangcheng’s supporters

Chen Guangcheng has a band of loyal supporters who have united around him because of their shared sense of responsibility for advancing human rights and the rule of law in China. They too have suffered for supporting Chen. Among them, there are some well-known persons like lawyers Teng Biao and Jiang Tianyong and dissident Hu Jia and his wife, as well as some ordinary heroes like the key figures in the rescue operation Miss He Peirong, Guo Yushan and others. In addition, American movie star Christian Bale, of Batman fame, as well as a steady stream of hundreds of ordinary Chinese went to visit Chen Guangcheng in 2011. They were illegally blocked, beaten, arrested, robbed, and verbally abused. Recently, when lawyers Jiang Tianyong and Teng Biao tried to visit Chen Guangcheng in hospital, they were both beaten and Jiang lost the hearing in one ear.

Here in the United States, I and many people from different countries and different backgrounds have all been supporting Chen Guangcheng and his cause. They include Congressmen Chris Smith and Frank Wolf, Committee chairperson Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, many mainstream reporters, and many people living in Midland, Texas, where ChinaAid is based. Zhang Min, a news show host on Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin service, was the first and has been the most comprehensive in reporting on Chen Guangcheng’s great deeds, and she is a true friend of Chen Guangcheng and his wife.

But let me remind everyone here, there is one long-term supporter of Chen Guangcheng who has paid a heavy price for following his conscience whom we should not forgot, and that is the constitutional law expert and pioneer of the Christian rights defense movement Dr. Fan Yafeng.

Beginning in 2005, Fan Yafeng and a number of other lawyers and dissidents (many of whom are Christians), including Gao Zhisheng, Hu Jia, Li Fangping, Xu Zhiyong, Li Jinsong, helped and supported Chen Guangcheng’s cause: to expose the atrocities of forced abortion and forced sterilizations (tubal ligations). On September 20, 2010, Fan Yafeng hosted a Beijing lawyers forum that was attended by Li Subin, Zhang Kai and other Beijing human rights lawyers to discuss how to help win the freedom of Chen Guangcheng, who had served his time and been released from prison only to find himself imprisoned at home. Three days later, he and two other Christian human rights activist went to the Shandong provincial government’s representative office in Beijing and held up banners protesting the persecution of Chen Guangcheng. Less than three months later (Dec. 9 to 18), Dr. Fan Yafeng was taken into custody and tortured. After he was released, he was held in “Chen Guangcheng-style house arrest”—with communication with the outside world completely cut off, even to today.

If the persecution of Chen Guangcheng is considered “the actions of the local government,” then I can’t help but ask, how do you explain Fan Yafeng’s 15 months of house arrest in Beijing, or the beatings of Chen Guangcheng’s two Beijing lawyers who tried to visit him in Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing? What I want to make clear to the American government and the American people is this: Do not be easily misled and deceived.

4. Where is the way out for Chen Guancheng?

The power struggle among China’s senior leaders in advance of the 18^th Communist Party Congress has been intensified by the Wang Lijun - Bo Xilai case, and it has already clearly revealed that the central government has split into two. Against the backdrop of these unique circumstances, the fact that Chen Guangcheng was still able to take and make calls on his phone after he was handed over by the U.S. Embassy to Beijing Chaoyang Hospital without doubt upset the plans of many players in this incident. And it also increased the dramatic variables at play.

Despite the fact that the United States and China have reached an apparent agreement on and are committed to Chen Guangchengs’s freedom and security, Chen Guangcheng remains under house arrest in hospital and visitors are barred, tailed and beaten. All of this shows that the implementation of the agreement and the realization of the commitments are far more important than the agreement and commitments themselves.

I hope that Congress will do more in monitoring and urging the Obama administration to ensure that the civil rights of Chen Guangcheng and his family members are protected by law. Chen Guangcheng was allowed to enter the U.S. Embassy, and members of Obama’s administration, including Assistant Secretaries of State Kurt Campbell and Mike Posner, State Department legal advisor Harold Koh and Ambassador Gary Locke, all made great efforts and sacrifices during the negotiation period. Although some aspects of the events that followed certainly were not handled appropriately by the Administration, we are nonetheless pleased to see that high-level American and Chinese officials have promised to help Chen Guangcheng and his family come to the United States so he can rest and further his studies. This shows that our country recognizes that it is responsible for the outcome of the fate of Chen Guangcheng. We hope that Congress can continue to offer maximum support to the Administration in quickly implementing the agreement reached by the Chinese and U.S. leadership, and can help Chen Guangcheng and his family transition smoothly to life in the United States.

Conclusion

Chen Guangcheng has paid an extremely heavy price to defend the rights of the disadvantaged groups who were the victims of coercive population control measures (mainly women). His conscience, courage and spirit has been like a light shining in the long dark night of defending human rights in China, and has also inspired people around the world who are struggling for human rights and justice.

He is blind, yet he sees and speaks the truth. And he is willing to pay the price for doing so.

The time is now—for the free world to provide a way out for this great blind man.

Thank you.

Pastor Xiqiu “Bob” Fu, founder and president, China Aid Association

Tuesday May 15, 2012

AP: Chen Guangcheng, Blind Chinese Activist, Speaks To U.S. Congress By Phone

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:36:00 +0000

AP WASHINGTON -- For the second time in less than two weeks, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has spoken by phone to a U.S. congressional hearing and alleged persecution of his relatives.

In this file photo taken Wednesday, May 2, 2012. and released by the U.S. Embassy Beijing Press Office, blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, center, holds hands with U.S. Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, at a hospital in Beijing. (AP Photo/U.S. Embassy Beijing Press Office, File)

Chen complained Tuesday that his elder brother and nephew had both been beaten by Chinese authorities since Chen fled house arrest in late April.

Chen said a charge of homicide brought against his nephew was "trumped up" as he was acting in self-defense after being subjected to a three-hour beating that left him bleeding.

"This is a pattern," Chen said. "This is not the first time it happened against my family."

Rights activist Bob Fu, who translated Chen's comments, earlier testified that Chen's nephew, Chen Kegui, using a kitchen knife, had injured several people who had burst into his home without warrants.

Chen is awaiting Chinese permission to travel to study in the U.S.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that U.S. visas for Chen, his wife and children are ready for them to travel to America once Beijing gives the green light. She said the visa processing was completed more than a week ago.

Chen, a blind legal activist, has been at a Beijing hospital after his flight to the U.S. Embassy triggered intense U.S.-China negotiations on his fate.

Chen has gained recognition for crusading for the disabled and fighting against forced abortions in his rural community. But he angered local officials and was convicted in 2006 on what his supporters say were fabricated charges. After serving four years in prison, he then faced an abusive and illegal house arrest.

"What I have done is out of my conscience and conviction," he said Tuesday. "We cannot be silent when we see and face these kinds of evils."

His call to the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights from the Beijing hospital was his second in 12 days.

Both hearings focused on the fate of Chen and his family, chaired by Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a fierce critic of China and its one-child policy that aims at restricting the growth of the world's largest population.

Smith and the witnesses who were testifying gathered on the dais and huddled around the microphone to listen to Chen's crackling voice for about 25 minutes and pay tributes to him.

He complained that local authorities have refused to allow a lawyer commissioned by his nephew's wife to defend the nephew, unless the wife appears in person, which Chen claimed was a tactic designed to get the wife to surrender to authorities. Chen contended the same tactic had been used against him when he faced trial in 2006.

He described it as a violation of the Chinese constitution and criminal law.

Smith, who is critical of the Obama administration's handling of Chen's case, earlier described the dissident's current status at the Beijing hospital as "de facto house arrest" because of restrictions on his movements and visitors.

U.S. officials have said diplomats can meet with Chen's wife, and speak to Chen by telephone, but have not met with him in person since May 4. Nuland said U.S. officials have been in contact with Chen two or three times a day, and Chen confirmed the embassy has been communicating with him every day.

It's unclear when China might authorize Chen's departure from the country.

In the meantime, Chen said that his two children were happy in Beijing as they were able now to play outside. Chen said that simple freedom shows how terrible their circumstances had been in their home village in Shandong province.

____

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/chen-guangcheng-congress-phone_n_1519815.html

The New York Times: Bush Dips a Toe Back Into Washington

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:24:00 +0000

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Former President George W. Bush with Ammar Abdulhamid, left, who fled Syria, and Bob Fu, an immigrant from China, at an event honoring people working for freedom.

The New York Times By PETER BAKER Published: May 15, 2012

WASHINGTON — In the three years since he left office, former President George W. Bush has largely stayed out of the political arena. He has spent his time mapping out his library, making speeches, hosting injured veterans for Texas bicycle rides and making clear how glad he is to be out of the nation’s capital.

But gingerly, the 43rd president is beginning to add his voice back into the national dialogue. A month ago, he spoke publicly in favor of one of his defining domestic legacies, the tax cuts that still divide the country. Two months from now, he plans to publish a book outlining strategies for economic growth. And on Tuesday, he made a rare return to Washington to promote freedom overseas.

At an event less than two blocks from the White House, Mr. Bush gathered former aides and human rights leaders to unveil the “Freedom Collection” sponsored by his public policy institute, an assemblage of interviews with dissidents who took on autocratic regimes. Along the way, Mr. Bush used the occasion to endorse Mitt Romney for president and to nudge both political parties to do more to support revolutionaries and build democratic institutions around the world.

“America does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the Middle East or elsewhere,” Mr. Bush said in his speech. “It only gets to choose what side it is on. The tactics of promoting freedom will vary, case by case. But America’s message should ring clear and strong: We stand for freedom and for the institutions and habits that make freedom work for everyone.”

He singled out Syria, where the government of President Bashar al-Assad has killed thousands to squelch opposition. “All of us here today join you in hoping and praying for the end of violence and the advance of freedom in Syria,” Mr. Bush told Ammar Abdulhamid, a prominent Syrian opposition figure invited to speak at the event.

Mr. Bush did not mention President Obama or Mr. Romney in his speech, but former aides said it was clear that his words were meant to urge both to pay more attention to an issue he considered a hallmark of his tenure.

“He is very concerned about what he likes to call isolationism,” said a former Bush administration official, who asked not to be identified presuming to speak for Mr. Bush. “If there is a nudge involved, it is completely bipartisan. Hardly anyone is doing enough to support dissidents and freedom advocates these days.”

The “freedom agenda” Mr. Bush advocated during his presidency proved more controversial than its stated goals. Because it became associated with the Iraq war, many critics saw it as a way of spreading an American-style system at gunpoint, something Mr. Bush always denied. Moreover, the demands of geopolitics often made its application seem inconsistent; the Bush administration applied relentless pressure on countries like Syria, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and Belarus, but approached more cautiously with nations it needed, like Russia, China and Saudi Arabia.

Now, out of office, Mr. Bush has more latitude to speak on the issue, and advisers said he hoped to make it central to his life’s work. He wants to make the George W. Bush Institute, which along with his future library is at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, a haven for dissidents to share stories, history, tactics and inspiration. Dozens of interviews are already featured on a Web site, www.freedomcollection.org.

Among those he brought together on Tuesday were Bob Fu, a Chinese-born pastor; Normando Hernández, a former political prisoner in Cuba; and Viktor A. Yushchenko, who helped lead the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who after decades of house arrest and struggles was just elected to the Parliament in Myanmar, spoke via Skype.

While Mr. Bush was focused on politics overseas, he finally put his toe into politics at home. As he was leaving the event, a reporter asked him about the presidential race. “I’m for Mitt Romney,” he said before ducking away. Mr. Bush had declined to endorse until now.

Later in the day, Mr. Bush joined former President Bill Clinton for a fund-raiser at the Newseum to bring in money for a $76 million memorial to the heroes and victims of United Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001, after passengers confronted hijackers.

But Mr. Bush did not plan to linger in the capital. As he spoke about his Freedom Collection, he said, “I actually found my freedom by leaving Washington.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 16, 2012, on page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Bush Dips a Toe Back Into Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/us/politics/george-w-bush-briefly-visits-washington.html?_r=1

Dallas News: Bob Fu Participates Bush Freedom Collection Event in DC

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:08:00 +0000

By Sean Collins Walsh swalsh@dallasnews.com | Bio 11:16 AM on Tue., May. 15, 2012 | Permalink

WASHINGTON - Former President George W. Bush broke his silence on the 2012 presidential race and informally endorsed Mitt Romney on Tuesday, ABC News reports.

"I'm for Mitt Romney," Bush said when asked by a reporter after an event promoting a project of the George W. Bush Presidential Center , which will be built at Southern Methodist University.

When the GOP primary was still competitive, Bush had declined to pick a favorite, despite a highly public endorsement by his father, President George H.W. Bush, for the former Massachusetts governor.

Now that the field has thinned, the younger Bush has lined up behind the last Republican standing.

Earlier in the event, billed the "Celebration of Human Freedom," Bush voiced support for the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

"We are with you in your desire for freedom and your struggle for freedom," Bush said of Syrian protesters. He was vague as to how the U.S. should aid the Syrian protesters, but said the goal should be "to help reformers" in the Middle East.

The event featured activists from around the world, including Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian-American founder of the Tharwa Foundation who introduced Bush.

Bush joked about returning to the Capitol for what he called the "Washington launch" of his "Freedom Collection," a project that amasses artifacts and testimonies from "dissidents."

"I actually found my freedom by leaving Washington," Bush said to laughter.

Discussing North Africa and the Middle East, Bush indicated he might support a more active U.S. role in promoting uprisings by saying he disagrees with being "content with supporting the flawed leaders they know in the name of stability."

"In the long run, this foreign policy approach is not realistic," he said. "It is not realistic to presume that so-called stability enhances our national security."

After the event, Bush declined to say whether he would support U.S. military intervention in Syria.

Xiqiu "Bob" Fu, the Chinese religious freedom activist who made headlines recently for facilitating Chen Guangcheng's congressional testimony, also spoke at the event.

Fu, founder of CHINAaid in Midland , introduced former First Lady Laura Bush.

"There must be something in the dusty air of Midland, Texas, that inspires individuals to stand up for what is right," said Fu, after greeting the audience, "y'all," in his Chinese-American accent.

Laura Bush then held a transcontinental video conference with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, an opposition leader in Burma.

Suu Kyi said the international community should support the Syrian uprising but do so without violent force.

"We should all help people struggling for freedom anywhere in the world," she said. "I think it is violence that begets violence."

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/05/george-w-bush-in-washington-to.html

Bob Fu Participates Bush Freedom Collection Event in DC

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:58:00 +0000

Photo By KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS

Former U.S. President George W. Bush sits between Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid (L) and Chinese activist Bob Fu (2nd R) during an event celebrating human freedom around the world, in Washington May 15, 2012. At right is former first lady Laura Bush. The event was hosted by the George W. Bush Presidential Center. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/photos/george-bush-sits-between-ammar-abdulhamid-bob-fu-photo-162600142.html

MSNBC: Bush: Embrace change over 'so-called stability' in Arab Spring

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:52:00 +0000

By NBC's Catherine Chomiak and Domenico Montanaro

A stone's throw away from the White House, former President George W. Bush said today the world is in an "extraordinary" time for freedom and that the changes of the Arab Spring should be embraced despite the uncertain future that comes with them.
Bush said those who say the dangers of democratic change are too great and that America should be in favor of stability over change are unrealistic.
"In the long run, this foreign-policy approach is not realistic," Bush argued, "It is not realistic to presume that so-called stability enhances our national security. Nor is it within the power of America to indefinitely preserve the old order, which is inherently unstable."

Bush advocated a clear stand. "American's message should ring clear and strong," Bush said. "We stand for freedom -- and for the institutions and habit that make freedom work for everyone."

Bush's stance puts him at odds with some hard-liners in his party, who have considered Israel's interests in the region first. They have been critical of Hosni Mubarak's ouster and the political process that has followed, including the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The U.S., led by Obama, has walked a fine line on intervention during the Arab spring. America was reticent at first to get involved in Egypt, because of the "stability," from an American perspective, that Mubarak represented. But eventually Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embraced the changes.

The U.S. intervened in Libya, but only after building a multilateral approach and letting NATO take the lead. Some Republicans presidential knocked Obama for not intervening, and then others criticized him for getting involved at all. Newt Gingrich did both. The U.S. has not intervened in Syria, something Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been critical of Obama for not doing more on Syria.

Romney on a radio program in October called the Arab Spring "out of control." “We’re facing an Arab Spring which is out of control in some respects," he said, "because the president was not as strong as he needed to be in encouraging our friends to move toward representative forms of government."

He says on his website that what's happening in the Arab Spring is "doubled edged." And: "To protect our enduring national interests and to promote our ideals, a Romney administration will pursue a strategy of supporting groups and governments across the Middle East to advance the values of representative government, economic opportunity, and human rights, and opposing any extension of Iranian or jihadist influence. The Romney administration will strive to ensure that the Arab Spring is not followed by an Arab Winter."

Bush acknowledged that once these movements succeed in overthrowing a regime the hard work is not behind them. "After the euphoria, nations must deal with questions of tremendous complexity," he said, adding, "Problems once kept submerged by force must now be resolved by politics and consensus."

Bush and the former first lady were in town for the Washington launch of The Bush Center's Freedom Collection, which is an initiative to document the stories of dissidents. They were joined by Pastor Bob Fu the founder of ChinaAid and an advocate for Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and the newly elected member of parliament Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeared from Myanmar via Skype. Pastor Fu said he hopes to see Mr. Chen and his family in the U.S. soon.

President Bush quipped at the top of his remarks that he found his freedom by leaving Washington.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11719676-bush-embrace-change-over-so-called-stability-in-arab-spring?chromedomain=nbcpolitics&lite

Foreign Policy：Bush: The authoritarian regimes of the Arab world will fall

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:33:00 +0000

Foreign Policy Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - 12:17 PM

President George W. Bush predicted Tuesday that the remaining authoritarian regimes in North Africa and the Middle East are unsustainable and will give way to movements driven by the quest for freedom and human rights.

"These are extraordinary times in the history of freedom," Bush said in Tuesday morning remarks. "In the Arab Spring, we have seen the broadest challenge to authoritarian rule since the collapse of Soviet communism. Great change has come to a region where many thought it impossible. The idea that Arab people are somehow content with oppression has been discredited forever."

Bush was speaking at an event to celebrate and publicize the "Freedom Collection," a set of artifacts from democratic struggles around the world, collected by the George W. Bush Institute, run by former magazine editor and State Department official James Glassman.

Bush cautioned that there were risks to democratic change and that sometime overthrowing authoritarian regimes leads to periods of instability, but argued that American had to always support those fighting against oppression.

"Some look at the risks inherent in democratic change -- particularly in the Middle East and North Africa -- and find the dangers too great. America, they argue, should be content with supporting the flawed leaders they know in the name of stability," he said. "But in the long run, this foreign-policy approach is not realistic. It is not realistic to presume that so-called stability enhances our national security. Nor is it within the power of America to indefinitely preserve the old order, which is inherently unstable."

In a return to the soaring rhetoric of his second inaugural address, Bush said that America's role in each country undergoing change in the Arab world will be different but that the United States must always side with people against dictators and should do everything it can to help emerging democracies build civic institutions and a pluralist political culture.

"America does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the Middle East, or elsewhere. It only gets to choose what side it is on. The tactics of promoting freedom will vary, case by case," he said. "But America's message should ring clear and strong: We stand for freedom -- and for the institutions and habits that make freedom work for everyone. The day when a dictator falls or yields to a democratic movement is glorious."

Bush was introduced by Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid. "All of us here today join you in hoping and praying for the end of violence and the advance of freedom in Syria," Bush said to him, joking, "I actually found my freedom by leaving Washington."

Chinese activist Bob Fu spoke after Bush. He was followed by Laura Bush, who introduced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who answered questions live via Skype.

Suu Kyi said that while she favored a non-violent approach to confronting dictatorships, she understood that the Syrian people had no choice but to meet the government's violence with violence of their own.

"We should all help people's struggle for freedom around the world," she said. "I would like to say to the people of Syria, we are with you in your struggle for freedom."

Suu Kyi will soon go on her first trip abroad in 24 years after recently being released from house arrest and elected to the Burmese parliament. She will travel to London and Oslo, Norway, where she will formally accept her peace prize, granted in 1991 while she was under house arrest.

Suu Kyi could not confirm rumors that a large number of Burmese government ministers are about to resign. She did say that she supports Sen. John McCain's idea to "suspend" some sanctions against the Burmese state as further incentive for the military government to continue reforms.

"This is a possible first step," she said. "That is a way of sending a strong message that we will try to help the process of democratization but if this is not maintained we will have to think of other ways of making sure the aspirations of the Burmese people for democracy is respected."

"I believe that sanctions have been effective in persuading this government to go for change," she said. "I do advocate caution, though. I sometimes feel that people are too optimistic about what we are seeing in Burma. You have to remember that the change in Burma is not irreversible."

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/15/bush_the_authoritarian_regimes_of_the_arab_world_will_fall

House Churches in Xinjiang, Hebei See Encouraging Progress in Lawsuits Against Local Authorities

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:07:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Baoding, Hebei—May 14, 2012) House church Christians in Hebei province and the far western region of Xinjiang have seen encouraging progress recently in lawsuits they filed against local authorities who had raided their meetings and detained church members, ChinaAid has learned.

Both cases are being handled by well-known Christian rights defense lawyer Zhang Kai.

The Hebei case stemmed from the Jan. 31 raid on a house church in Wangdu county, Baoding, during which more than 20 church members were taken away by police. The local police also confiscated books and other church items. Six people, two men and four women, as well as the pastor, Sui Zhigang, were punished by being administratively detained for 15 days. Sui engaged lawyer Zhang Kai on Feb. 12 to seek an administrative review of the case. See ChinaAid’s earlier report on this case: http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/02/small-house-church-service-in-hebei.html

Five people filed requests for an administrative review, and on April 16, the court accepted the lawsuit of one of the five. Because of repeated prevarication on the part of the court, no decision has been made on the lawsuits of the other four.

In another heartening development, the local United Front Work Committee, a state organ under the Communist Party that carries out religious policy directives, has not only returned all the confiscated books and other church property but also proposed giving Bibles to the church.

There is reason to believe that this case might be settled out of court. Pastor Sui has already asked for compensation, pointing out that the local police delayed until Day 14 of his 15-day administrative detention to produce the paperwork for his detention, and this was done only after his lawyer intervened. This was clearly a violation of basic administrative enforcement procedures.

The Xinjiang case stemmed from the Sunday March 4 raid on a Han Chinese house church in Khotan, a city in the southern half of the Uyghur autonomous region, when local police and Domestic Security Protection agents who burst in on about 50 Christians holding a Sunday worship service. They took away the preacher, Zhong Shuguang, who was also the head of the household where the worship service was being held, and confiscated a computer and a projector that were being used during the service as well as other church items. Zhong was later released the same day, but the computer equipment and other confiscated items have not been returned. See ChinaAid’s earlier reports: http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/03/han-chinese-house-church-in-xinjiangs.html and http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/03/chinaaid-obtain-police-documents-in.html

A request for administrative review was filed with the Khotan police on April 26. On May 9, the Khotan police department ruled that its previous administrative punishment decision had violated legal procedures and nullified it. It also ruled that new administrative measures be implemented within 60 days.

Zhong Shuguang wrote in his request for administrative review, “The applicant holds a diploma from the Jinling Theological Seminary and is a Christian whose faith is pure and who needs to practice his faith. Because there is not a single church in the city of Khotan, the applicant, in accordance with practice of house church Christians, met together with friends and family in his home for worship. This activity is protected by the constitution and the law and brooks no interference from state organs.” Zhong also requested compensation.

ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu welcomed the positive developments in the Hebei and Xinjiang cases. He said, “These improvements in the rule of law that protect the legal rights of citizens to practice their faith are bound to promote sustained social development and stability.”

Church in Hefei, Anhui Province Illegally Demolished By Government-Backed Real Estate Developers

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Sun, 13 May 2012 21:15:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Hefei, Anhui—May 13, 2012) A church in the provincial capital of coastal Anhui province was illegally demolished last month by government-backed real estate developers who left the church site looking like the scene of a bombing in a movie, ChinaAid has learned.

The members of the church in Zou Gang, Feixi county are calling for urgent prayers following the April 27 destruction of their 800 square-meter (8,600 square-feet) church building. They hope to be able to resume normal worship services and meetings soon.

As a result of the economic development and expansion the city of Hefei, the Zou Gang church site was part of an area marked for demolition, and the church’s board of deacons decided to actively cooperate with the city’s development needs. From April to November 2011, the church was in discussion with the Communist Party committee of Chaohu village, Feixi county and the Xingang Industrial Park about resettlement and other related matters. During the discussions, the attitude of the developers was often tough and arbitrary, and they gave many excuses for refusing to make resettlement arrangements for the church.

On Aug. 24, the church’s electricity was cut, and four days later, the developer started to dig a deep trench on the north side of the church, disrupting traffic. On Nov. 22 at about 6 p.m., the developers dug another long and deep trench on the south side of the church, which also disrupted traffic. Two night later, at about 8 p.m., the digging resumed and the trench was extended to the point that all access to the church was blocked.

On April 27, at about 8 p.m., more than 100 unidentified people arrived at the church and illegally demolished it. Some broke down the main gate to the church compound, others broke down the door to the duty room and stormed inside, dragging several staff members on duty from the duty room, including one 60-plus-year-old Christian woman who was injured in the process. It was only after other Christians rushed to the scene that she was not taken to the hospital, by fellow church members, for treatment. Other members of the demolition crew blocked church members from entering the church compound while a large bulldozer started to tear down the church building.

Within minutes, this building where more than 500 Christians had worshiped for more than 10 years was forcibly demolished. The site looked like a bombing scene from a movie. The Zou Gang Christians are very angry about this entire series of barbaric events and unlawful violence that disrupted their normal worship activities.

The New York Times: Echoing Out of Texas, Chinese Voice of Dissent for Religious Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Alex Wong/Getty Images Bob Fu at a Washington hearing with Congressman Christopher H. Smith, left, as Chen Guangcheng called in from Beijing.

The New York Times By ANDREW JACOBS Published: May 12, 2012

MIDLAND, Tex. — When the Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng stole the show at an emergency Congressional hearing this month by calling into the chamber during a live television broadcast, few people noticed who was holding the cellphone.

But those within the tightknit community of Chinese dissidents in the United States, and their supporters, immediately recognized the man, who had arranged for Mr. Chen’s voice to be carried to Washington directly from his Beijing hospital bed: Bob Fu, a Chinese-born pastor who operates out of a squat, whitewashed house opposite a Family Dollar store here in Midland.

“When it comes to contacts in China, Bob’s network can’t be beat,” said Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, who convened the hearing to put pressure on the Obama administration and help ensure that Mr. Chen, a self-taught lawyer, would be allowed to leave China with his family to study law in the United States.

If the drama over Mr. Chen’s fate has placed a harsh spotlight on China’s capacity for repression and created a diplomatic migraine for the White House, it has also been something of a boon to Mr. Fu, 44. His organization, ChinaAid, is at the crossroads of a growing movement among American Christians agitating for religious freedom in China and the wider dissident network inside the United States, as well as members of the underground church in China trying to practice their faith in a hostile environment.

The attention has also highlighted the increasingly defiant role that Chinese Christian lawyers, pastors and church members are playing in the struggle for human rights, including sometimes smuggling dissidents out of China when the heat on them becomes too intense.

But some critics say that Mr. Fu’s high-profile role as an advocate for religious freedom is a double-edged sword. It has raised awareness of human rights abuses. But his close association with Republicans and evangelical Christians, the critics say, risks stoking China’s fears that foreign forces are plotting to subvert the ruling Communist Party.

“Bob’s heart is in the right place, but sometimes in his zeal to bring attention to his cause he gets sucked up into the partisan maelstrom of Washington,” said one American human rights advocate who works closely with ChinaAid and spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to offend Mr. Fu.

A soft-spoken former English teacher who fled China in 1997, Mr. Fu, whose Chinese name is Xiqiu Fu, has hit pay dirt here in the Permian Basin, a parched expanse of West Texas flatland that produces more than 15 percent of the nation’s oil and gas. Since a group of pastors invited him and his family to move here eight years ago, Mr. Fu has been embraced by Midland’s prosperous evangelical citizenry.

(This booming city is best known, perhaps, as the childhood home of President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, whose portraits — posing with Mr. Fu — are generously spread around ChinaAid’s offices.)

In addition to bankrolling Mr. Fu’s $1.4-million-a-year operation, local residents serve on ChinaAid’s board, provide money for the families of jailed believers and finance a network of 30 defense lawyers who are willing to step into the lion’s den of China’s legal system to defend the persecuted.

“Bob has really educated us about the terrible things that are going on in China,” said Doug Robison, a third-generation oilman who is chairman of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. “The message he conveys is pretty compelling.”

Mr. Fu, a frequent speaker at the city’s megachurches, rarely has to make the hard sell. During last month’s annual ChinaAid gala at the Midland Country Club, Mr. Fu said he was hoping to pull in $200,000. He left with nearly twice that amount.

“A few times a year, strangers walk into my office and write out $100,000 checks,” Mr. Fu said last week as he toggled between calls from a Christian radio station in Pittsburgh, a Japanese newspaper and Mr. Smith, the congressman.

ChinaAid’s growing profile on Capitol Hill and its prodigious mentions in the news media have drawn slings and arrows from some Chinese rights advocates who disparage Mr. Fu’s singular devotion to persecuted Christians. (Although it was his legal fight against forced abortions and sterilizations that got him into the trouble with the government, Mr. Chen, the lawyer, is not Christian.)

Others have criticized Mr. Fu as overly partisan, pointing to statements he made that accused the Obama administration of “abandoning” Mr. Chen and mishandling the episode in which the dissident — who had fled house arrest — left the safety of the American Embassy in Beijing only to reverse course and ask to leave China to visit the United States.

Mr. Fu says his close relationship with Republicans is partly a matter of pragmatism. Democrats, he said, are not always interested in his cause. “I’ve never tried to side with one party,” he said. “To do so would be a disaster for our movement.”

Indeed, many mainstream human rights organizations praise Mr. Fu’s mettle and say he does an admirable job juggling the demands of his evangelical backers with the broader causes of democracy and legal reform in China. “There is no single make or model for human rights activism,” said Sophie Richardson, the China director for Human Rights Watch. “As the environment in China has worsened, it’s all hands on deck.”

Jerome A. Cohen, a New York University law professor who arranged for Mr. Chen to receive a fellowship to attend N.Y.U.’s law school, said Mr. Fu was the rare example of a Chinese exile who has managed to stay relevant outside China. “Bob shows that if you come out young and flexible and with enough drive, you can make a difference,” Mr. Cohen said.

It is in part Mr. Fu’s personal story that makes him such a compelling advocate. The son of farmers from China’s northeast, he led classmates at Liaocheng University to join the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

It was after the army violently quashed the demonstrations and Mr. Fu was hauled in for interrogation that he had his crisis of faith. The tipping point, he said, was betrayal by the university president, his mentor, and the classmates who implicated him to save themselves.

One night Mr. Fu devoured a book, smuggled in by a foreign Christian teacher, about the redemption of an opium addict who went on to establish a drug-treatment center. “I realized only the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit could help me,” he said.

Redeemed by writing countless self-criticisms, Mr. Fu escaped serious punishment and eventually moved to Beijing, along with Cai Bochun, a fellow student he later married. They started a small house church — an unofficial congregation outside state control — even as Mr. Fu landed a job teaching English at the Communist Party’s central school.

The incongruity of working by day for an officially atheist government and preaching the Gospel by night was not lost on him. “I was God’s double agent,” he likes to say with a shy smile.

In 1995, the police discovered the clandestine congregation and Mr. Fu and his wife were taken into custody. Their two-month detention was marked by long interrogations and 10- to 15-hour days during which, Mr. Fu said, he was forced to sit with his arms and legs held upright. If he faltered, he said, other prisoners would beat him. “I got quite good at not moving,” he said.

Soon after their release, the couple began planning their escape. Ms. Cai was two months pregnant but lacked a childbearing permit from family planning authorities, which Mr. Fu feared could lead to a forced abortion. “We saw it happen to some of our friends,” he said.

A former student working for the public security bureau warned Mr. Fu of his impending arrest. To evade their minders, Mr. Fu jumped from a bathroom window and Ms. Cai slipped out in disguise. They made their way to the countryside, where a Christian policeman took them in. Later, another believer, the owner of a state-run travel agency, arranged for the passports and paperwork that allowed them to escape to Hong Kong.

In the summer of 1997, after an eight-month wait, the couple received political asylum from the United States. The Fus and their newborn son settled in Philadelphia, and Mr. Fu attended Westminster Theological Seminary. ChinaAid was born in his garage.

These days, the group has five employees and an army of volunteers. In China, Mr. Fu’s devoted network of friends and sympathizers has spread. Over the years, it has secretly ferried a dozen people out of the country, including Mr. Fu’s 70-year-old father, who had been brutalized by the police in retaliation for his son’s activities. Mr. Fu’s most recent rescue was Li Jun, a Chongqing property developer who says he was tortured by officials seeking to appropriate his business.

The group’s tenacity and organizational prowess have alarmed the Communist Party, and officials appear to be especially vexed by Mr. Fu.

“I’m happy to meet with them,” Mr. Fu said, referring to feelers he has received from high-level security officials. “I’ll meet them almost anywhere,” he added. “Just not in China.”

Shi Da contributed research from Beijing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/us/bob-fu-echoing-out-of-texas-is-a-chinese-voice-of-dissent.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

WP: Only fear can enter activist’s village

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Sun, 13 May 2012 03:08:00 +0000

The Washington Post Keith B. Richburg Friday, May 11, 2012

LINYI, China — At the turnoff to the road leading to Dongshigu, the home village of activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng, burly men hold sway, hiding their faces behind sunglasses, broad-brimmed straw hats and shirts held up to their noses. They block anyone from entering the village, shouting at and kicking vehicles that slow down or venture too close.

Plainclothes security officers wait nearby in unmarked black cars, ready to tail outsiders in a conspicuously sinister form of close-up surveillance.

In the neighboring village of Xishigu, frightened residents tell in whispers of additional men and security agents moving into the area since late April, when Chen, who is blind, defied the odds and pulled off an escape so improbable that villagers say he possesses “magic” powers.

“I don’t dare go over there,” one woman said, pointing across the cornfields toward the bridge that separates her village from Chen’s. “They don’t have guns, they use sticks. If you look like an outsider, like you’re not from the village, they beat you.”

Residents said that since Chen fled to Beijing, the reign of fear has expanded beyond Dongshigu to at least three other close-knit villages in the city of Linyi, in the eastern province of Shandong.

Chen’s nephew has been arrested and accused of intent to murder, and lawyers attempting to represent him have been threatened and harassed.

“The crazy retribution against my family is going on right now,” Chen said Friday, speaking by telephone from Beijing’s Chaoyang hospital.

More than a week after Chen left the sanctuary of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to be reunited with his wife and children, the activist continues to recover from intestinal problems and broken bones in his foot. He said he is filled with worry about his extended family and is waiting for Chinese authorities to fulfill their pledges to let him leave for the United States and to investigate the local officials who kept him imprisoned in his farm house here for nine months.

“The abuse of power and the evil committed by the local government still haven’t been brought under control,” Chen said. “I worry that the reprisals, the infringement of people’s rights, the violations of the law back at home will get even worse.”

Dongshigu and the other villages around it are small, semi-urban neighborhoods with rows of concrete farmhouses separated by a maze of narrow alleys, just off Linyi city’s main road, where the farmers grow corn and peanuts and raise chickens and pigs.

A visit to the area by The Washington Post seemed to confirm Chen’s fears. When a reporter’s car slowed down as if to turn onto the road leading to Dongshigu, men raced over, yelling and kicking the side of the car.

The vehicle was then followed for several miles, including at high speeds when it reached the expressway, by as many as three black cars. One car had no license plates, front or back. Another was registered in Laiwu city, in the center of Shandong province, and the third was registered in Weifang city, north of Linyi. The use of cars from different cities suggested a province-wide security and surveillance operation, not confined to Linyi.

‘We’re all scared’

Interviews conducted in Xishigu, the nearby village, revealed a climate of fear. “We’re all scared,” said one young man, a farmer in his mid-30s with a young daughter. “They might come and arrest us.”

A 56-year-old man who gave his surname as Wang said Chen’s many relatives in the area are all under strict watch, including those not under house arrest. “Even if his family members are allowed to go out, they are followed by those thugs,” the man said.

Chen’s older brother and his wife are under de facto house arrest in Dongshigu, prohibited from leaving by the men who control entry and exit to the village. Their 31-year-old son, Chen Kegui, is being held at the Yinan county detention center in Shandong province, charged with attempted “intentional murder,” according to lawyer Liu Weiguo.

Chen Kegui injured three people who stormed into his house late on April 26, the night authorities discovered that Chen Guangcheng had escaped, Liu said. The three turned out to be government officials, including one named Zhang Jian, a senior official from the town of Shuanghou, in Yinan county, who Liu said sustained relatively serious injuries.

“It’s unreasonable to accuse Chen Kegui of murder,” said Liu, who showed The Washington Post a copy of the detention order. “He acted in self-defense.”

Liu, in an interview Thursday in his office in Jinan, the provincial capital, said he had initially agreed to represent the young man a day after the incident, in response to a request from Chen Kegui’s wife. Police warned him not to get involved, however, and to give no interviews.

“They said they would visit my mother,” Liu said, recounting a telephoned threat from security police. “Now the pressure on me is really enormous.”

Liu said he arranged for a lawyer from Guangzhou, far away in southern China, to take Chen Kegui’s case. But he said that the lawyer, Chen Wuquan, had his law license abruptly confiscated by the Guangzhou Lawyers Association. Liu said he considers the actions against the lawyers an attack on the rule of law and a violation of the principle that lawyers should be able to represent any client free of government harassment.

“I’ve been banned from taking this case, lawyer Chen has been banned, and more lawyers will be banned. But please tell the outside world that the lawyers won’t quit,” Liu said. “This is not for Chen’s family or for any individual. This is for the dignity of all Chinese.”

Tough policies continue

Here in Linyi, some villagers know Chen Guangcheng as the blind neighbor who helped them fight local authorities’ aggressive enforcement of the Communist central government’s family-planning program, which was launched in 1979.

Chen filed a class-action lawsuit suit against Linyi in 2005. He was arrested a short time later and sent to jail for four years and three months, on charges of organizing a mob and “obstructing traffic.”

Villagers here said that despite Chen’s efforts, the Linyi government’s tough enforcement of the family-planning policy continues.

“Chen Guangcheng is a good man. He spoke for the people,” said the farmer in his 30s. The man said two children per family are tolerated in the region but “if people want a third, and they find you, they will definitely take you to the hospital to have an abortion.”

The man said that if a couple expecting a third child manages to flee the authorities, all their relatives will be arrested. He described how couples are forced to undergo sterilization after two children, with the government making the couple decide whether the man or the woman should have the operation.

“Other countries don’t have to do this. Why do we?” he asked.

Liu, the Jinan lawyer, called Linyi’s family planning policy “inhumane.”

“In other countries,” he said, “family planning is a human rights issue. Here, it’s government policy, and people don’t have the right to say no.”

Chen Guangcheng, interviewed Friday, said that the policy of forced abortions and sterilizations continues because no local officials have ever been disciplined for enforcing it, or told to stop.

“The responsible officials were not punished,” Chen said. “They got promoted instead. I think that’s why the family-planning control in Linyi is still so tight.”

Chen said he is still waiting for Beijing officials to open their promised inquiry into his treatment at the hands of Linyi officials.

“I worry, why hasn’t the central government started the investigation?” Chen said. “I’ll keep asking them to launch their investigation as soon as possible.”

richburgk@washpost.com

Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/rss.jsp?rssid=613&item=http%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fworld%2fin-chens-frightened-village-surveillance-increases-thugs-keep-outsiders-at-bay%2f2012%2f05%2f11%2fgIQAvrSwHU_mobile.mobile&cid=-1&spf=1

ChinaAid’s Bob Fu to Testify at 2nd Congressional Hearing in Two Weeks on Chen Guangcheng

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:02:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Washington, D.C.—May 11, 2012) ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu has been invited to testify at a Congressional hearing on blind Chinese lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng next Tuesday, the second such hearing in two weeks since Chen miraculously escaped his government captors.

The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health & Human Rights is holding the hearing on Tuesday May 15 at 1 p.m. in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

The hearing on “Chen Guangcheng: His Case, Cause, Family, and Those Who are Helping Him” is open to the public, and ChinaAid encourages all supporters of Chen and any other interested parties to attend.

At least three other witnesses are scheduled to testify, including veteran Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng (now founder and chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition) and Tiananmen Square democracy movement commander-in-chief Chai Ling (now founder and All Girls Allowed, which seeks to end China’s one-child policy). Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, also an anti-one-child policy group, is also on the list of witnesses.

Fu’s appearance at the Tuesday hearing on Chen follows a similar hearing on May 3 of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China, when Chen was able to speak to the hearing directly via Fu’s cellphone and to clearly state his wish that he and his family be allowed to come to the United States.

Also on Tuesday May 15, Fu will be a panelist at a morning event sponsored by the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s Freedom Collection. George W. and Laura Bush will both be speaking at the event as well, which is to be held at the new building for the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

BREAKING NEWS: Chen Guangcheng’s nephew charged with "intentional homicide," could face death sentence

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:09:00 +0000

China Aid Association

(Yinan, Shandong—May 11, 2012) ChinaAid has just learned that the nephew of blind, self-taught lawyer Chen Guangcheng has been formally arrested and charged with "intentional homicide," a crime that carries the death sentence.

The formal arrest of Chen’s nephew Chen Kegui took place on Wednesday May 9, and the formal arrest notification with the charge of “intentional homicide” was delivered to Chen Kegui’s mother, Ren Zongju on Thursday May 10. They were executed by the Yinan County People’s Procuratorate and the Yinan Public Security Bureau.

(At left: notice of arrest, see translation below)

According to Chinese law, Chen Kegui could face the death sentence if convicted. Due to the circumstances of the case, it is unlikely that Chen Kegui will get a fair trial.

According to one of Chen Kegui’s lawyers, Liu Weiguo, who himself has been put under house arrest after taking up Chen Kegui’s case, the charge stems from a government raid on the home of Chen Guangcheng’s brother, Chen Guangfu, on the night of April 26, after local authorities discovered that Chen Guangcheng had escaped from 19 months of extrajudicial house arrest.

At about 11:30 on April 26, about two dozen Yinan county officials and hired thugs broke into Chen Guangfu’s home. None of the government officials showed any IDs. The raid lasted through the night and did not end until nearly dawn on April 27.

Chen Guangfu’s son, Chen Kegui, was awakened by the noise of his parents being beaten up. He grabbed a knife and walked out of his room, and was immediately attacked and beaten up as well. In self-defense, he wounded three of his attackers, all of whom were government officials. He is now being held in the Yinan county detention center.

At least one lawyer who tried to approach Chen’s village on Thursday May 10 seeking to meet with Chen Kegui’s parents was kidnapped by local authorities.

“We are appalled by the immediate vengeance of the local authorities, who are acting in this way to retaliate against Chen Guancheng,” said ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu.

In a Friday May 11 phone conversation with Fu, Chen Guangcheng said, “I appeal to the central government to take honest and credible concrete measures to stop these illegal and barbaric actions of the Shandong authorities against my family members, including my nephew Chen Kegui, my brother Chen Guangfu and my sister-in-law Ren Zongju. There is no doubt that the Shandong authorities are acting out of revenge because of my escape from my house.”

He called the charges “illegal and barbaric.”

Fu said, “Chen Kegui cannot get a fair trial. The local government will make him pay for their incompetence in letting Chen Guangcheng escape. This is a test of the rule of law and the government’s promise to investigate corrupt and brutal local officials.”

ChinaAid calls on the international community, and especially the U.S. government to speak up on behalf of Chen’s family members who are being persecuted solely for their relationship with Chen Guangcheng.

Arrest notification addressed to Chen Kegui’s wife, Liu Fang:

Shangdong Yinan County Public Security Bureau

Notice of Arrest (2012) No. 00230

To Liu Fang,

This bureau on May 9, 2012 at 9 a.m carried out the arrest of Chen Kegui for the alleged crime of intentional homicide, as ordered by the Yinan County People’s Procuratorate. He iscurrently detained at the Yinan County Detention Center.

Yinan County Public Security Bureau

May 9, 2012

Reuters: China's Chen says officials launch crazed reprisals on family

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:27:00 +0000

By Chris Buckley and Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING | Thu May 10, 2012 3:07am EDT

(Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and a family lawyer have accused local officials of detaining two of his relatives and hounding and harassing others in revenge for his recent escape from house arrest and for sparking an international furor.

A handout photo from the U.S. Embassy Beijing Press office shows blind activist Chen Guangcheng (C) speaking into a phone in Beijing, May 2, 2012. Credit: Reuters/US Embassy Beijing Press Office/Handout

Chen, whose escape last month caused embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic crisis in U.S.-Sino relations, said a sister-in-law and nephew had both been detained, though the lawyer added that Chen's sister-in-law had since been released.

Chen has spoken previously of his fears for reprisals against his family, but his remarks to Reuters on Thursday, corroborated by the lawyer, are the first time he has relayed details of what he says is a crazed campaign of reprisals.

"Now they're going crazy with reprisals," Chen said in a telephone interview from a Beijing hospital where he is being treated for injuries suffered during his escape.

"In fact, they've already started taking revenge."

Chen's story has overshadowed Sino-U.S. diplomacy since he foiled guards and security cameras around his home in Shandong province, in rural east China, and was taken by supporters to Beijing where he sheltered in the U.S. embassy for six days.

Chen is also being treated in hospital for an intestinal ailment left untreated while under house arrest for 19 months. He now plans to study in the United States, where he has been offered fellowships by New York University and the University of Washington, under a deal between Beijing and Washington.

Chen said relatives back in Shandong appeared to be bearing the brunt of officials' anger over his audacious escape and the international uproar it sparked.

The reprisals were, he said, weighing heavily on his mind though for now he was unlikely to delay his plans to go to the United States. "It shouldn't. We'll see," he said.

GROWING FEARS

Chen, who recently spoke by phone to his elderly mother but otherwise had patchy communications with his relatives, said his biggest worry was the fate of his nephew Chen Kegui.

He said police had detained Chen Kegui after the nephew was accused of brandishing a kitchen cleaver at guards who had stormed into the home of the blind dissident's brothers after his bold escape prompted a panicked search by officials.

"It seems the Yinan public security has already said he's in their hands," said Chen, adding that a sister-in-law had also been detained.

It was not completely clear if he was referring to Chen Kegui's mother, who the lawyer said had been detained and released, or another sister-in-law. The dissident has four sisters-in-law.

"My family is very worried," Chen said.

Liu Weiguo, a lawyer representing Chen Kegui, told Reuters that Chen Kegui was being held at a detention centre in Yinan county in Shandong, but he had no idea what charges he faced.

Yinan County Detention Centre was unavailable for comment. When asked about Chen Kegui, a woman surnamed Gao at the Yinan public security bureau said she was "unclear" of the situation.

Chen Kegui's mother "obtained a guarantee pending a trial", similar to bail, after her six days of detention, while his father, Chen Guangfu, was barred from leaving the village and his mobile phone confiscated, the lawyer Liu said.

Police told Chen's relatives that they were searching for Chen Kegui's wife, demanding that she sign some paperwork, although Chen said the wife might also be in police detention.

"His wife shouldn't be under criminal detention, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been detained," said Chen. "So now this Chen Kegui case is making me very worried."

Chen said it was difficult to keep in touch with family members in Shandong and clarify what was going on because many of their phones were seized by officials. Chen's wife and two young children are with him in Beijing, waiting to join him in his bid to travel to the United States.

"The family's phones have all been seized," he said. "Just like before when they raided my home, seizing stuff without any procedures or warrant."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley and Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/us-china-dissident-idUSBRE8490BF20120510

WP: How is Chen Guangcheng doing?

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:43:00 +0000

The Washington Post Posted at 01:11 PM ET, 05/08/2012 By Jennifer Rubin

The U.S. media’s flea-like attention span has left Chen Guangcheng, pushing him off the front pages and out of the news broadcasts over the last couple of days. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left China; Chen has not as yet.

Reports suggest that Chinese authorities are moving ahead with his paperwork so he can “study for a few months” in the United States. In keeping with their negligent negotiations, U.S. officials have not been able to meet with Chen at a Beijing hospital. Human rights activists in the United States remain optimistic that Chen will be able to leave sooner or later, but questions remain about whether his family and friends who assisted him will face retribution.

Meanwhile, as if to emphasize just who is in charge and its power to squash the free flow of information, the Chinese government expelled the well-regarded journalist Melissa Chan, who was working for the English-language arm of al-Jazeera. She is a U.S. citizen.

The Post reports:

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, or FCCC, protested the expulsion, describing it as “the most extreme example of a recent pattern of using journalist visas in an attempt to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents.” . . .

The incident marked China’s first expulsion of a foreign journalist in 14 years, although many have been threatened with expulsion and others have had long delays getting visas approved. Most recently, police in Beijing last week threatened to revoke the visas of a dozen foreign reporters for trying to enter the hospital where blind activist Chen Guangcheng is now confined.

The State Department has not responded to repeated inquiries as to whether this issue was raised with Chinese officials and whether the U.S. government perceives this as the beginning of a post-Chen crackdown.

So what do we learn from all this? The most important lesson for Chinese dissidents surely must be not to rely on U.S. officials for a thorough and deliberate negotiation on your behalf. In this case, Chen was aided, once the American debacle unfolded, by international human rights activists and media, who helped create the firestorm that hopefully will spring Chen from his captivity.

As for President Obama’s China policy, former ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton writes: “Our halting, confused and so far inconclusive diplomacy has increased China’s determination to exploit our perceived weaknesses across the broader relationship. Beijing’s conclusion is that America is unwilling or unable to stand firm on its core values and interests.”

He observes, “At a time of potentially enormous upheaval within China, America’s current foreign-policy leaders had no strategy to advance our interests and support those of like mind inside China. Instead, we find ourselves more vulnerable to China and other present and potential adversaries exploiting our weaknesses and inattention.”

The perception that we rushed the Chen negotiations and were desperate that Sino-U.S. talks would proceed without a glitch is shared by a number of foreign policy analysts. Clyde Prestowitz notes that the United States got precious little from the had-to-be-there-can’t-delay talks:

Perhaps out of gratitude and certainly to prove to themselves that it had all been worth the effort, the U.S. team then proceeded to present the Dialogue as an outstanding success — one obviously worth the ambiguity with Chen. . . .

Clinton could not repress a telling burst of clichés. “Our countries,” she said, “have become thoroughly, inescapably interdependent.” And, “the United States believes that a thriving China is good for America, and a thriving America is good for China.”
In fact, as Prestowitz points out “none of the agreements to consider doing various things are at all binding on Beijing, or the United States for that matter.”

Meanwhile, other than vague promises to consider increasing Chinese consumption and opening up China’s economy slightly to outside investors (“foreign financial firms will now be allowed to increase their stake in Chinese firms to a maximum of 49 percent from the current 33 percent”) the basics of China’s economy remain unchanged. There was no agreement on currency evaluation, and “it is clear to market players that if they want to sell in China they will need to produce in China because of both overt and covert Buy China policies and attitudes.”

So China gets to keep doing what it wants. As with the talks about Chen, the Clinton performance can be characterized as “feckless,” Prestowitz says. “Not only have our ‘top diplomats’ led by Clinton given us a feckless performance in Beijing. They are leading to nowhere in particular. They are captives of the status quo, of slogans and shibboleths and the march of events. No one is thinking. They’re all too busy doing Dialogues.” And for this we rushed Chen out of the embassy, failed to secure access to him and are left to hope that Chen, his family and friends don’t face reprisals. Unfortunately, Melissa Chan won’t be there to tell us how it turns out.

By Jennifer Rubin | 01:11 PM ET, 05/08/2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/how-is-chen-guangcheng-doing/2012/05/08/gIQA3VipAU_blog.html

Time: Will Chen Guangcheng Be Allowed to Leave China? The Waiting Game Continues

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:24:00 +0000

Time By HANNAH BEECH | May 6, 2012

U.S. EMBASSY BEIJING PRESS / GETTY IMAGES
Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, right, rides in a car with the U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke, talking on the phone, as they left the U.S. embassy to go to a hospital in Beijing on May 2, 2012

And now the waiting game is on. Before leaving Beijing on May 5, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave positive indications that Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng might be allowed by his homeland to go to the U.S to study. The blind activist, whose dramatic six-day sheltering in the U.S. embassy captured global headlines, had escaped extralegal house arrest on April 22 by scaling over walls and limping on for hours in his native Shandong province. On May 2, Chen emerged from American custody and checked into a Beijing hospital because of an agreement with the Chinese side that would allow him to live life as a normal Chinese citizen and even attend a Chinese university to study law. (As a blind man in China, Chen was unable to formally study law when he was at university.) The deal would have given Chen a life far different from the years of abuse he and his family have endured at the hands of local officials in Shandong.

But the promise of freedom appeared short-lived. Chen is now enduring virtual imprisonment by Chinese forces at the hospital, where he is being treated for the injuries he sustained during his escape from his guarded farmhouse. American diplomats have not been able to meet him face to face since Wednesday, save a short confab in which they largely discussed his health issues, which include a broken foot and stomach problems. As a result of the treatment and counsel he has received since leaving the U.S. embassy, which has included harsh warnings from Chinese officials, Chen reversed the stance he held during Sino-American negotiations that he had wanted to stay in China and continue his legal work on behalf of China’s downtrodden. Now the man who has spent seven years in detention — prison on trumped-up charges, an extralegal house arrest punctuated by vicious beatings and now confinement in a hospital where staff do not allow his friends to visit — wants to go and “rest” in the U.S., where he has been offered a fellowship to study law.

Before leaving Beijing, where she was conducting annual talks on economic and other issues, Clinton had hinted that such a plan might be feasible. On May 4, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland seemed to go one step further, sending an even more optimistic message: “The United States government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these [travel] documents.” Hours before, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had piped in, releasing a statement that Chen, like any other Chinese citizen, had the right to apply to study abroad — a potentially hopeful if ambiguous wording. On Sunday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. was ready to give Chen a visa “right away.” The activist, who earned local authorities’ ire for exposing a horrific campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations in the Linyi region of Shandong, is clearly a special case.

So what now? Chen, now reunited with his wife and two children in Beijing and expecting to go abroad with them, must wait to see if the Chinese will let him go. In the meantime, a number of Chen’s lawyers and sympathizers who tried to visit him at the hospital have been beaten up or dragged away. Others who played a part in his escape and flight to the U.S. embassy are now under house arrest; even activists whose apparent crime was speaking to him by phone after his departure from the embassy face similar restrictions. Around 20 foreign journalists who tried to access him at the hospital have been summoned by Chinese Public Security Bureau officials and told that, should they try to visit him again, their visas will be revoked. With a once-a-decade leadership transition expected in China in the fall, a crackdown on dissidents and other freethinkers was already gathering force. Even if Chen and his immediate family are allowed to go to America, China will likely continue to tighten the screws.

If Chen does successfully go abroad, he may not be allowed to go back to China again, even if there is no talk of formal exile at the moment. For Beijing, the best outcome for an activist who has been a thorn in the country’s side for years could be to tacitly allow his influence to wane overseas. Although principled dissidents — like Tiananmen student leader Wang Dan, who was once called Enemy No. 1 by Beijing — have escaped to America, their ability to dictate events back home has diminished with each year of exile. Recently, Wang, a gentle academic who has not compromised on his commitment to democracy, tried to apply for a visa to return home. There’s little chance of success in his quest.

Nevertheless, this is the digital age, and it’s not as easy for a dissident to fade into obscurity with the Internet connecting people in unprecedented ways. One of the people who have been instrumental in publicizing Chen’s case and who even testified in front of Congress on May 3 on his behalf is a Chinese-born pastor, Bob Fu, who now lives in exile in Texas after enduring religious discrimination back home. He, like many other Chinese activists fated to live overseas, is hardly a spent force.

When Chen sought refuge in the U.S. embassy, he said he wanted to stay in China and use the legal system on behalf of the country’s masses, who know little about their rights. It was a noble goal. But there is little chance that the government will allow the activist to truly work as a human-rights lawyer — even if Beijing were to make good on its promise to allow Chen to study law at a Chinese university. The bravest lawyers in China face the continuous threat of detention for their work. As such a high-profile activist, Chen would surely be similarly constrained. Between a fate of exile in the U.S. or potential confinement in China, Chen has no perfect choices. And in the meantime, all the world can do is wait for China to give the word on whether Chen and his family can leave: tomorrow or next week or next month.

Related Topics: chen guangcheng, China Human Rights, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Linyi, Shandong, U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China

VOA: Chen Kegui already criminally detained; case related to Chen Guangcheng

noreply@blogger.com (C.L.Fu) — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:03:00 +0000

Voice of America, May 7, 2012
by Li Bao, Hong Kong

Translated by China Aid Association

(AP photo of Chen Guangcheng)

The nephew of blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng from Shandong province has been criminally detained by police. Sources say the authorities’ handling of the case of Chen Kegui ’s knife-wielding attack is directly related to the handling of Chen Guangcheng’s case by the Chinese and U.S. governments.

On Monday morning, Mo Zhixu, an independent Beijing-based writer who has been following Chen Guangcheng’s case for many years, sent a message on Twitter that Chen Kegui had already been placed under “criminal detention” and was currently being held at the Yinan County Detention Center. Chen Kegui’s parents, that is, Chen Guangcheng’s brother Chen Guangfu and his wife, had been sent home, the tweet said.

Mo told the Voice of America that he got the news form a reliable source who could not release it directly to the outside world. He said, “I can only tell you that the news is from someone I trust a lot and he’s a rights activist too. He was warned by the police not to release the news, so he asked me to do it for him.”

Defense lawyer: Someone will be sent to the detention center to visit Chen Kegui

Chen Kegui’s defense lawyer, Liu Weiguo, confirmed to the Voice of America that Chen Kegui was currently in police custody and that someone from his defense team would be sent to meet with him in the detention center in accordance with the law.

Liu Weiguo said, “First of all, we have the right to go to the detention center to see him and to learn about basic facts of the case and the criminal charge… on what charge (the authorities) have arrested him. We have already discussed this and a lawyer is about to go.”

At the end of last month, after blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng escaped from the illegal detention he had been placed under in his hometown of Dongshigu village in the town of Shuanghou, some people—led by town mayor and party secretary Zhang Jian—jumped over the wall of Chen’s nephew Chen Kegui’s home demanding he hand over Chen Guangcheng. A physical fight ensued, in which Chen Kegui in self-defense injured Zhang Jian with a knife, then fled the village. He has said in a phone conversation with the outside world that he had tried to turn himself into police, but ended up being chased by the police who attempted to kill him.

Over the past more-than-a- week, people have been worried that Chen Kegui was in danger for his life and they have been urging the authorities to handle his knifing case according to the law.

Chen Kegui’s case is highly sensitive and is related to the future of Chen Guangcheng

Mo Zhixu, who on Monday released the news about Chen Kengui’s criminal detention, said it was possible that the police had taken him into custody at a much earlier time but authorities had withheld the information for fear it would affect the handling of Chen Guangcheng’s case.

Mo said, “(He) was captured much earlier, that’s what I now suspect. But the information was not released all this time. It would affect the actions, speech and even the decision of whether to leave or stay of Chen Guangcheng himself. That’s why I think the information was so sensitive.”

Last Wednesday, Chen Guangcheng—accompanied by American officials—left the U.S. Embassy where he had been hiding for six days. After learning how the authorities had mistreated his family members, he quickly changed his mind about wanting to stay in China. Chen, who is currently still in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said that he was still worried about the safety of his family and relatives.

Observers say that local Shandong authorities were probably awaiting instructions from the central government and might handle Chen Kegui’s case after Chen Guangcheng has left China.

Chen Kegui’s defense lawyer Liu Weiguo said that authorities were restricting his freedom of movement as a defense lawyer, saying it was because of the highly sensitive nature of Chen Kegui’s case, but he is being helped by more than 10 lawyers from several other cities so that he can fulfill his lawyer’s duties according to the law.

Liu told the Voice of America that based on the preliminary information he has obtained, Chen Kegui inflicting injury should be considered legitimate self-defense. But he was not optimistic that the case could be judged with fairness and justice. Nonetheless, he thought the widespread international attention paid to Chen Guangcheng would to some extent have a monitoring effect on the authorities in how they handle this case.

Liu Weiguo said, “It will definitely have this kind of effect. Because if they handle it in the dark, the result would be too terrible to imagine.”

Mo Zhiyu, who is familiar with the treatment of Chen Guangcheng, also thinks that international attention to Chen Guangcheng’s case will be conducive to Chen Kegui receiving the kind of treatment he should receive in the detention center according to the law.

The Voice of America called the Yinan county detention center on Monday, but calls to the office phone and the cellphones of the two managers went unanswered.

The Chinese-language report on VOA is available here: http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20120507-chen-guangcheng-relatives-150401435.html

VOCN: Bob Fu Talks with Chen Guangcheng in CECC Congressional Hearing on 5/3/2012 (Video)

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:30:00 +0000

ChinaAid Visual Studio (VOCN) May 07, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgmnYPaDtyE

The Washington Post: Bob Fu, once obscure crusader of rights in China, is now famous for helping dissident Chen Guangcheng (Video Attached)

noreply@blogger.com (对华援助协会) — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:51:00 +0000

The Washington Post By Pamela Constable, Published: May 2, 2012

Video: The U.S. is confirming that blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his family want to leave China, undoing a diplomatic deal and presenting American officials with a dilemma. (AP May 03, 2012)

MIDLAND, Tex. — One week ago, Bob Fu was an obscure crusader for religious rights in China. His nonprofit group, China Aid, improbably based in this dusty West Texas oil town, followed the plight of persecuted “house churches,” opposed forced sterilizations and abortions, and promoted pen-pal campaigns for pastors in prison.

In the past 72 hours, Fu has become an international media figure at the center of the most sensational human rights crisis in China in a decade. It erupted when blind lawyer and dissident Chen Guangcheng fled house arrest and took refuge in the U.S.

Embassy in Beijing — just as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was arriving this week for critical and wide-ranging talks with Chinese officials.

Fu, who helped engineer Chen’s escape and describes himself as Chen’s “ambassador,” has since been besieged with media calls, rumors and tips in half a dozen languages. At 6 a.m. Wednesday, American officials called Fu from Beijing to inform him that Chen had made a deal with Chinese authorities — a deal that appeared to quickly unravel. Now, Fu is rushing to Washington to testify on Capitol Hill about Chen’s unfolding case.

“Bob is our hero, but before this we were mostly below the radar. Now everyone in the world is trying to reach him,” said Celia Harris, the white-haired secretary at China Aid. Like many local supporters, she is a member of the large Christian community church in Midland that helped Fu settle when he fled China in 1997. He is now a pastor there as well as the founder and director of China Aid.

Fu, a scholar and activist who grew up in communist-ruled China, said he found God after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Disillusioned by the crackdown, he said he was full of hatred and despair until he read a book smuggled into China by a Christian teacher. He began teaching in secret Bible schools and was arrested by the secret police in 1996. A year later, he escaped from his apartment and fled to the United States with his wife, partly to save her from a forced abortion after she failed to receive a pregnancy permit at her workplace.

Fu was born in the same rural province as Chen, who is not Christian but who has long been a passionate and outspoken opponent of Beijing’s policy of forced sterilizations and abortions. The issue is at the heart of U.S. religious groups’ criticism of China.

“I always felt a natural connection with Chen,” said Fu, speaking in short snatches between a barrage of phone calls late Tuesday. The queries intensified as midnight approached and rumors swirled across the Internet that Chen was about to make a deal. “I chose a peaceful life in the United States, but he believed the system in China could change, and he wanted to stay and be part of it, even after suffering so much. He believes that a million ants can move a hill. He is a symbol of courage for all of us.”

Far from being an armchair activist in his remote Texas outpost, Fu is intimately engaged in human rights work in China. He helped organize a group of volunteers who formed an underground railroad to spirit Chen 300 miles from his farmhouse to the U.S. Embassy last week, and he stays in constant touch with a close network of activists, though he declined to describe all their methods of communication.

On Wednesday morning, when U.S. officials announced that negotiations with Chen were complete, Fu was immediately skeptical. Friends in China kept tweeting and texting with reports that Chen and his family were missing, under threat, or being starved in a hospital. Fu, working at a conference table with his laptop and three cellphones, kept up a drumbeat of radio and press interviews. Over and over, he expressed fears for Chen’s safety and denounced the deal as hastily concocted to smooth over the U.S.-China talks. “They wanted to clear the clouds before the beautiful banquet,” he said.

Fu founded China Aid 10 years ago, and it has offices in Washington and Los Angeles, but he decided to set up its headquarters in Midland, a small city surrounded by oil wells, cattle ranches and flat hard prairie as far as the eye can see. There are fewer than 100 Chinese-born residents there but numerous Christian churches whose members give generously to his cause. In his office are portraits of former president George W. Bush, who once lived here, posing with Chinese exiles.

“This is the Bible Belt,” Fu said of the community that welcomed his family a decade ago. “Midlanders are bighearted, and they care about freedom.”

One local supporter, a burly lawyer named Dan Dane, came by Fu’s office Wednesday to express concern about Chen. He chuckled as he described the excitement of baptizing Chinese refugees in his swimming pool.

“We’re not just about Friday night football and oil wealth. People here have vision, too,” he said.

Despite Fu’s longtime religious convictions and new high-profile role in promoting Chen’s cause, his analysis of developments in China is complex and nuanced. While skeptical of the argument made by some U.S. experts that engaging China will eventually lead to political and social reforms, he acknowledged that its leadership is changing and that, on paper at least, it has enshrined democratic laws and principles.

However, Fu is deeply suspicious of Chinese authorities, describing them as cagey in their dealings with the West and ruthless in their suppression of embarrassing dissidents such Chen.

“They have made many promises, but you know they can change the moment the Americans leave,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bob-fu-once-obscure-crusader-of-rights-in-china-is-now-famous-for-helping-dissident-chen-guangcheng/2012/05/02/gIQAz8lYxT_story.html