Chén Guaˉngchéng 䰜ܝ䆮
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004_chen-guangcheng.indd4_chen-guangcheng.indd PagePage 4848 7/30/157/30/15 8:088:08 PMPM f-479f-479 //203/BER00069/work/indd/C203/BER00069/work/indd/C ǁ Chén Guaˉngchéng 䰜ܝ䆮 b. 1971—Blind civil rights activist best known for his activities as a “barefoot lawyer” Alternate name: trad. 䱇ܝ䁴 Summary he learning and applying law on behalf of largely impoverished and uneducated A self-taught legal advocate, Chen clients, but he was managing to do this Guangcheng has worked on behalf of despite the fact that he has been blind the rural poor and for women forced to since infancy. have abortions or coerced into steriliza- • tion due to China’s family-planning practices. In 2012, the blind activist Early Life and Education 䰜ܝ䆮 gained fame with a daring escape from • detention, taking refuge in the American Chen was born in 1971 in Dongshigu, a embassy in Beijing, which led to a remote village in Yinan County, Shandong negotiated exile to the United States. Province. He was the youngest of fi ve brothers, and when he was about six hen Guangchengfi rst came to pub- months old he suffered a severe fever C lic attention in 2002 when Newsweek that destroyed his optical nerves, caus- International featured the thirty-year-old ing him to go blind. It wasn’t until 1989 Chen in its cover story about a new that a school for the blind was opened in Chinese phenomenon—“barefoot law- his region, and Chen at last started yers.” The story focused on how, in some school at age eighteen. From 1994 to 1998 parts of rural China, people with no for- he attended high school, and in 1998 he mal legal education were beginning to enrolled in the Nanjing University of play roles traditionally associated with Traditional Chinese Medicine, where, at lawyers, negotiating with government that time, acupuncture and massage agencies and even representing people were the only specializations accessible in court. Chen, Newsweek noted, was to the blind. After graduating in 2001, especially striking because not only was Chen, who had encountered many • 48 • 004_chen-guangcheng.indd4_chen-guangcheng.indd PagePage 4949 7/30/157/30/15 8:088:08 PMPM f-479f-479 //203/BER00069/work/indd/C203/BER00069/work/indd/C • 1979–Present • • Chén Gua ˉngchéng • Chen Guangcheng and his family in their hometown, Dongshigu village. From left to right: Eldest brother, father, Chen Guangcheng, mother, wife (Weijing) and their daughter (Chen Kerui), eldest brother’s wife. Photo by Joan Lebold Cohen. instances of offi cial discrimination “barefoot lawyer” in Dongshigu, the against himself and others, decided that dirt-poor village where he had grown a career representing people as a social up. His local “clients” were underprivi- activist would be more satisfying for leged, often disabled, farmers who him than one as a masseur. needed help in dealing with problems Because Chen’s many unhappy such as unfair taxation, arbitrary denial experiences as a disabled person had of a business license, and mistreatment made him familiar with the national leg- by local police. In order to help them, islation promulgated to protect the dis- Chen used legal texts that were read to abled, he was increasingly attracted to him by his wife and eldest brother. Chen the prospect of using the law as an not only helped in legal matters but had instrument to correct abuse. Despite his also persuaded the British embassy in lack of formal legal education, Chen Beijing to arrange fi nancing for an elec- began his informal activities as a tric water well system for the village. • 49 • 004_chen-guangcheng.indd4_chen-guangcheng.indd PagePage 5050 7/30/157/30/15 8:088:08 PMPM f-479f-479 //203/BER00069/work/indd/C203/BER00069/work/indd/C • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 4 • Chen often discussed with foreign Although he had grown up in a very guests how to train the two hundred col- poor, isolated village of only fi ve hun- leagues he estimated would be required dred people and started his education at to meet the demands of the poor for legal a late age, Chen proved to be a charis- services that Yinan County’s few licensed matic personality and highly intelligent. lawyers had ignored for fi nancial and He spoke Mandarin clearly and well. political reasons. At the time, Chen, an Moreover, he radiated confi dence and optimist, thought that the rural govern- conviction from behind the dark glasses ment would not interfere with the train- that seemed to enhance rather than ing of a large number of “barefoot diminish his good looks. Here was an lawyers,” even though they would authentic son of the Chinese soil who surely complicate the work and lives of had known and overcome extraordinary local offi cials. hardships, unlike so many offi cially sponsored Chinese visitors who hailed from intellectual, bureaucratic, or even Connecting with the World bourgeois families. And he was evi- The Newsweek story of 2002 led Ame- dently eager to reveal the many injus- rican diplomats based in China to tices of the Chinese countryside and to • offer Chen an opportunity to join the seek help in curing them. United States government’s Interna- Two months after his visit to the 䰜ܝ䆮 tional Visitor Leadership Program, United States, while I was teaching at • which invites foreign nationals identi- Tsinghua University Law School in fi ed as possible future leaders of their Beijing, I invited Chen and his wife for a countries to tour the United States for visit and introduced them to two senior several weeks in order to become Tsinghua University scholars as well as acquainted with American life and to to a prominent Chinese lawyer. Chen meet professional counterparts. In the spoke eloquently, urging them to sup- summer of 2003, the State Department port the selection and training of many contacted my (Jerome A. Cohen, the more “barefoot lawyers.” Except for the author of this essay) law school offi ce at law school’s dean, however, he received New York University (NYU) in an effort a surprisingly frosty reception, appar- to set up an appointment for Chen and ently because of the hostility that many his wife, Yuan Weijing, to meet me. Chinese lawyers and scholars have Despite my initial reluctance to meet for their less well-educated, unlicensed him because of his lack of any formal countryside counterparts, who, they fear, legal training, once I learned more about will damage the Chinese legal profes- him I agreed to do so and was impressed sion’s efforts to improve its traditionally by his story. poor reputation. • 50 • 004_chen-guangcheng.indd4_chen-guangcheng.indd PagePage 5151 7/30/157/30/15 8:088:08 PMPM f-479f-479 //203/BER00069/work/indd/C203/BER00069/work/indd/C • 1979–Present • The Barefoot Lawyer in dire situation in Yinan County. Soon after, Shandong Province police kidnapped Trouble Chen off the streets of Beijing and forced Before a program to train more “barefoot him and his family into illegal captivity lawyers” could be instituted, however, in their own farmhouse, cutting off Chen ran afoul of the local authorities on all contact with the world. There they unforeseen ground—their lawless deten- were kept prisoner for almost six months tion and abuse of the families of thou- until the Linyi municipal authorities sands of women who had gone into responded to domestic and foreign pro- hiding to avoid compulsory abortion or tests against the Chens’ confi nement, not sterilization. Chen, who in the early days by releasing them but instead by prose- of his untutored lawyering had achieved cuting and convicting Chen on fabricated some success with the county courts, charges. He was sentenced to four years was totally unsuccessful in obtaining and three months in prison after a farci- judicial relief for the persecuted families, cally unfair trial. Nor did Chen’s night- since the local Communist Party and mare cease when he completed his government offi cials dominated the sentence in mid-2010, since the authori- • Chén Gua courts and were determined to meet the ties then imposed on the entire family an strict birth control quotas imposed on even stricter house arrest than before the them by higher levels of government. prosecution. This time they deployed up ˉngchéng • Frustrated by his inability to help the to two hundred men to maintain the many victims, Chen decided to resort to Chens’ around-the-clock detention and less conventional means to expose the total isolation from the world. situation and obtain help. He pursued two tracks—domestic and international— in the hope of attracting the concern of Escaping China the central government. That remained the situation until late The domestic track involved enlist- April 2012, when Chen stunned the ing the help of Beijing law professor Teng world by miraculously escaping from his Biao, and other human rights activists, captivity and, although injured in a fall, who made a video about the lawless making his way to Beijing with the help detentions taking place in Yinan County of courageous activists. After three days and managed to post it briefl y on the evading detection in the nation’s capital, Internet. The international track involved he obtained refuge in the American enlisting the attention of the foreign embassy, thereby precipitating a major press, an even more dangerous course. In dispute between Washington and Beijing August 2005, the Washington Post pub- just as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lished a front-page story revealing the was en route to Beijing for the annual • 51 • 004_chen-guangcheng.indd4_chen-guangcheng.indd PagePage 5252 06/08/1506/08/15 2:172:17 AMAM F-0017F-0017 //203/BER00069/work/indd/C203/BER00069/work/indd/C • Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography • Volume 4 • • Chen Guangcheng (middle) counseling disabled villagers.