Chinese Activist Says 'Sinful' Violence Used to Maintain One-Child Policy
Blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has recently released a video condemning the Chinese Communist Party's poor human rights record, especially focusing on the country's controversial One-Child Policy.
Additionally, Chen calls on the international community to focus its attention on policing the human rights practices of China in preparation for the upcoming international Human Rights Day 2012, slated to take place on Dec. 10.
"The violence in maintaining China's One-Child Policy still extensively exists. It is a sin, because life is sacred," Chen said in a Dec. 2 video produced and translated by ChinaAid, a New York-based human rights group.
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"The human rights situation in China is, in fact, getting worse," Chen claimed, adding that "in China, no one is safe."
Chen also called upon the United States to monitor China's human rights record, because "the United States, in particular, as a beacon of freedom, needs to play a leading role" in shifting China's attention to human rights reform.
"Citizens of the world with a conscience ought to respond by speaking out for justice," Chen added.
Chen, a self-taught lawyer, made a name for himself throughout China for defending women's rights and the welfare for the poor.
In 2005, Chen was put on house arrest for filing a class action lawsuit against China's One-Child Policy, a government-mandated attempt at population control that forces each family to only produce one child, often resulting in forced sterilization and abortion.
Chen then served 51 months in prison for his human rights efforts, and was then placed on house arrest for the second time.
In May 2012, Chen garnered international attention by successfully fleeing his well-guarded house arrest and arriving safely in New York City.
Although Chen continues to live safely in the U.S., his family still suffers back in China.
Just last week, the famed civil rights activist's nephew, Chen Kegui, was sentenced to 39 months in prison for injuring government officials when they stormed Chen's home in April 2012, after Chen had escaped his house arrest.
In his recent plea for human rights, Chen urged China to take on the responsibility of issuing human rights reforms, or suffer a "violent transition" to said reforms.
"The whole nation is watching you," Chen warned the Communist Party of China.
"Whether you follow the mandate of heaven and the will of the people and carry out reform or you hijack the government and protect the privileged [i.e. those in power] foretells whether our motherland will go through a peaceful or a violent transition," Chen added.
