Chen Guangcheng is a human rights activist in rural Shandong, China. He is blind since young age. Since he started defending the legal rights of his villagers against corrupt officials and brutal one-child policy enforcers, he has faced beating, torture, imprisonment, and "soft detention" where his family (including his 6 year old daughter) is completely isolated and prevented from communicating with the outside world.
But this post is not about just him. A movement is gathering steam in China to rally around Chen Guangcheng's cause. Many people have traveled to Linyi, Shandong, in attempts to visit him, to show solidarity with him. None of them have been successful. They have been beaten, robbed, and raped by the police and the local authorities. But they have not stopped.
Chen's story can be found in this wiki entry.
Chen Guangcheng is blind from a fever during childhood. He was illiterate until he attended a high school for the blind in 1994. After graduating from college (majoring in Chinese traditional medicine), he returned home to work as a blind masseur in a hospital. He audited in law classes and used what he learned to help his fellow villagers.
His two major expose's were the "dual track land system" which was used by the local officials to extract higher taxes from the peasants than the law allowed, and the brutal enforcement of the one-child policy. Many local officials of Linyi were detained when the media attention, including Time magazine and Radio Free Asia, was brought to these problems. But afterwards, Chen was arrested for destroying public property and disrupting traffic. His defense lawyer was prevented from attending the trial. Despite Chen's repeated declaration of refusing the representation of the court assigned lawyers, the court proceeded with the trial and sentenced him to four years in prison.
After serving his full term in prison, Chen was released this year. But he and his whole family, including his wife, 6 year old daughter, and his mother, are under house arrest and are prevented from contacting the outside world. Each time when someone attempted to contact the outside world, thugs were sent into their home to beat them and ransack the house. They even took away all of her daughter's toys.
Chen was in Time Magazine's list of "2006's Top 100 People Who Shape Our World" in the category of "Heroes and Pioneers." He was also awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent leadership.
The Chinese people are not sitting idly by. People who have learned Chen's ordeal are spreading the message on the internet. They organize trips to the village named Dongshigu, where Chen is detained, to try to visit him. Many people have gone but all of them were stopped before reaching the village. Here is a partial list of people who tried and what happened to them:
1. Chen yunfei, from Chengdu. Chen arrived in Dongshigu on Nov 30, 2010, and was promptly escorted out of town by police.
2. He Peirong (female), from Nanjing, netid @pearlher. She made 5 attempts. First time, Jan 10, 2011, her car was stopped and windshield smashed; 2nd time, May 31, 2011, she brought some presents for Chen's daughter, but didn't succeed and was escorted out; 3rd time, Jun 2, 2011, she was stopped by local government officials, beaten, robbed of 10000 yuan she had with her, tortured and kidnapped, and dumped at a place 100 kilometers away, got into a serious traffic accident, where the local police sent her back to Linyi; 4th time, Jun 7, 2011, was kidnapped before able to reach Linyi; 5th time, Jun 9, 2011, again stopped and finally was picked up by Nanjing police who sent her back to home.
3. Gao Xingbo, netid @bbf_gao. Gao arrived on Feb 14, and brought some lamb with him because he heard that Chen liked lamb. Gao was beaten and then dumped in the wilderness, robbed of everything he had and they left him with only 50 yuan.
4. Liu Shasha and a buddhist nun Miaojue. They arrived together on Sep 19. Liu was dragged out of the car, beaten, robbed and sexually assulted, then she was covered with a black hood and coat, took to outside of the town, pushed into water and beaten again, then dumped in another village; Miaojue was robbed and dumped in a different village.
5. Sep 21, Liu Shasha again attempted to enter Dongshigu, this time with several friends Deng, Huang Bin, and Wang Xuezhen. They were robbed by a mob of 30 people, and were separated from each other. They were each beaten and humiliated.
6. Oct 5, 9 people including a journalist from New China News agency, attempted one more time to enter Linyi. They were stopped again by mobs and separated, each of them robbed, beaten, and humiliated. Buddhist nun Miaojue left behind in Xuzhou (a major city) to watch their luggage, and was detained by police then escorted by police to Guangzhou. (The involvement of police from different cities proves that the violence was coordinated with the police on the national level)
7. Oct 9, a citizen with netid @作业本 and Huang Kui went together to Dongshigu village. They stopped outside the village when they saw the security around it. Upon return they wrote about what they saw.
8. Oct 10, writer Lu Haitao made an attempt to enter Dongshigu, was arrested and beaten and dumped in another village. He wrote about his experience.
9. Oct 10, Yang Minzhe also attempted to enter Dongshigu, was also beaten then dumped on the highway. He wrote about his experience.
11. Oct 10, Huanan Normal University teacher Yu Xinbing, netid @whobay, said on the microblog that he was making an attempt but we haven't heard from him since.