No Family Reunion For Chen Guangcheng On Chinese New Year

While families gathered together around China to enjoy the holiday together, human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng would not be one of their number.

The blind lawyer, who spent four and a half years in prison before being released and then placed immediately under house arrest—which he still endures—was on Jan. 22, the eve of the Chinese New Year, prohibited from contact with the outside world. 

Chen Kerui, the 11-year-old son of Chen and his wife, has been taken care of by Chen’s in-laws for years, and was not allowed to visit his parents this year or last, according to a source who is close to Chen. 

Nor were Chen’s in-laws allowed to visit their daughter, Yuan Weijing, Chen’s wife, according to the source, who uses the name “Tumbleweed” online and who last year helped Chen deliver a letter to his friends. This individual also claims to have helped Chen smuggle out the video showing Chen’s conditions of house arrest, which infuriated the authorities and led to further beatings of Chen, according to human rights groups. 

Chen’s 80-year-old mother is also under surveillance, according to Tumbleweed; she was also prohibited from a family visit. 

Liu Ping from Jiangxi Province, who has followed Chen’s case for some time and visited him three times, said that Chen’s case represents what all Chinese citizens face. Because of her concerted attempts to visit Chen, she says she has herself been beaten and robbed numerous times. She said that friends trying to visit her on Chinese New Year were themselves attacked by unidentified men. 

Chen Guangcheng years ago used his legal knowledge to campaign on behalf of victims of forced sterilizations and exposed the violence of the Chinese Communist Party’s one-child policy. He was jailed for “damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic.” He was let out of jail in September 2010 and immediately placed under house arrest.

Another activist, Zhao Chen-jia from Liaoning Province, also visited Chen several times. He was beaten and arrested in each case, he said. His money and cell phone was taken from him. “The Chinese Communist Party has made the area truly a bandit’s lair,” he said.

Last Chinese New Year’s eve, the authorities lifted Chen’s house arrest for a day to allow neighbors and family to visit. Chen Kerui, the 11-year-old son, however, was not allowed to leave home until he was strip searched. After a video of that indignity was circulated online, and generated outrage, the family was put under tighter surveillance.

chinareports@epochtimes.com