Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng may find it hard to stay relevant now he’s in the U.S. But China should be proud of its bright and honest son.
Chen Guangcheng, the blind rights activist, finally left Beijing for the United States late last month with his wife and two children. The 40 year-old is going to study law at New York University, which has offered him a fellowship. It seems a happy ending to a diplomatic drama between China and the United States, one sparked by Chen’s dramatic escape from house arrest and his seeking refuge at the U.S. Embassy.
Actually, Chen left with mixed feelings, worrying about the safety of his extended family. And some of his supporters also worry that he might have embarked on a journey that will see him sliding into irrelevance. The Chinese authorities will, most likely, prevent him from returning, the same way they’ve treated other dissidents.
With his departure, will his voice still be heard in his homeland?
I first had the pleasure of meeting Chen in early 2000, through a friend at the British Embassy in Beijing. Back then, he was student at Nanjing Traditional Medicine University, but he had recently been lobbying for the closure of a polluting paper mill near his village Dongshigu, in central China’s Shandong Province, and was in the capital to convince the embassy to fund a well to provide drinking water for the villagers.
The three of us met at the Starbucks by the Friendship Store. Chen wore his signature dark glasses, his chin tilting slightly upwards, and his thin frame clad in a worn blue tunic which didn’t conceal his handsomeness. When we shook hands, he held mine for a few moments as if that was his way of “seeing” people. He smiled readily and talked eloquently. Once he began to tell me his story, I was intrigued.
The two characters of Chen’s given name guangcheng mean “bright,” and “honest.” The youngest of five brothers, he told me he lost his sight before the age of two after a severe fever. Refusing to be locked up inside the house, like other blind children, he ran around freely, climbing trees and catching fish. His father would sometimes read to him classic novels such as Water Margin. One of his fantasies was to become a chivalrous xiake – knight-errant – to uphold justice.
Although his childhood was happy, he experienced the pain of discrimination early on. Bullies would hit him for no reason, run away and everyone would have a laugh. He endured the taunts at first, but soon decided to take matters into his own hands. Chen would snatch opportunities to punish the bullies – he always remembered their voices.
Chen didn’t start his education until he was 17 – only about 5 percent of blind Chinese, by some estimates, have the opportunity to receive an education – after his brother heard about a school for the blind in the nearby town Linyi. There, he studied text books, but also basic skills such as threading needles. In a competition, he threaded 10 needles in 50 seconds.
He went to Qingdao for his secondary school education. In his spare time, he began to listen to Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, which opened up a new world to him and planted the seeds of right consciousness in him. Since he was one of the better educated in the village, villagers often turned to him for legal advice. He didn’t always have ready answers so he decided to study law by himself.
It was in 1996 that Chen took the law as his weapon for the first time. He initially complained to the local authority that his family was forced to pay an agricultural tax he ought to be exempted from due to his disability. After being rejected, he brought his case to Beijing’s petitioning office. To his surprise, the tax was later refunded. This small victory spurred him to take on more legal actions, including the campaign against the paper mill.
A few months after our first meeting, I travelled with the British diplomat to Shandong as a stringer for the Independent to report on the case. Upon arrival, we were hijacked by the chief of Yinan county to attend a banquet stuffed with stir-fried silkworms, crispy scorpions and fiery white liquor. The chief informed us that the pollution was no longer a problem, therefore there was no need to visit the village. He then ordered us to stay at the county’s guesthouse instead of Chen’s house as originally planned. Chen was outraged. His thin lips quivering, he said: “Let them to choose where they want to stay.” I knew how much courage it took to stand up to his local officials.
Later, in the village, we observed the damage done by the paper mill, some twenty kilometers upstream. The machines had stopped running during our stay but the untreated water had destroyed corn and melon fields and caused widespread skin problems. The British Embassy agreed to pay 15,000 pounds towards the digging of a motor-pumped well. Another victory to Chen.
During our visit, I noticed that people would sometimes come to visit him or telephone him to ask all sorts of questions, some legal, some medical and others regarding government policies. Chen was making a name for himself.
Photo Credit: U.S. State Department
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Fu Man-chu
Chen GC is a son of China and a role model. Beijing should go after the local brutish warlords instead of Chen. Chen is the new CHina Beijing is trying to build, not the corrupt gangsteristic local Communist officials.
gngottawa
Of course Chen will fade away after his 15 minutes. That’s the fate of most celebrities (and he has been a cause celebre) in the 24-hours news cycle. It’s not like he’s an exiled revoluntionary with an army of followers waiting to thrust change on his home country a la Lenin, Khomeini, or even Bhutto. This is not an indictment of Chen, who is unquestionably courageous, but of the limited attention span of Western observers and the indifference of most Chinese to his cause.
Oro Invictus
An article which puts forth the argument that, agree with his politics or not, one should appreciate Chen Guangcheng and what he’s accomplished in the face of extreme adversity… And the first comment is by a malefactor attempting to pose as an American to discredit said group by declaring Chen Guangcheng to be naught more than a propaganda tool. Wonderful.
In any case, even if Chen never gets to return to his homeland or loses his influence in the struggle for human rights in the PRC (both of which would be tragedies), at least he can rest easy knowing he has brought hope into and improved more lives in just under two decades of practicing law than most people do in their entire lives. While I dislike simple altruism and the labeling of some as “saints” or “heroes”, Chen Guangcheng is indeed an individual worthy of great praise, both in terms of what he’s done and what he has inspired.
james
He was a very useful tool for our Govt.’s propaganda media machines, when he was in China.
Why our Gov. had let him in to our country.
He seem to be less useful tool for our Gov. now!!!
John Chan
@James,
Please maintain your composure; your government was incompetent enough to make such blunder; there is no need for you to confirm their ineptness.
GB
@John, are you surprised? There’s a saying: Like father, like son, and People deserve their government.