8 Sunday, April 29, 2012 Work is usually from BRIEFS 7pm to 7am. Many US$15b worth of contracts people do it this way PAN JUAN, THE WIFE OF A LOCAL MINER, ON HOW signed with Russia ILLEGAL RARE EARTH MINES OPERATE > PAGE 9 Vice-Premier Li Keqiang announced the signing of contracts between China and Russia worth US$15 billion. At a trade and investment forum in Moscow, attended by hundreds of Chinese HUMAN RIGHTS businessmen, Li said he and one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s top deputies witnessed the signing of contracts for transport, energy, communications, high technology and investment projects. Among the specific projects named, he said Russia and China were considering CHEN RAN FOR 20 HOURS TO FREEDOM the joint design of a wide-body long- range passenger plane. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told Supporters helped blind activist friend succeed the forum that Russia was working to improve its investment climate. in his ‘impossible mission’ to find a safe haven AP in Beijing, but now face police reprisals Beijing ...................................................... escaping from Dongshigu, Hu Verna Yu Visit to Auschwitz leaves quoted Chen as saying. The activist, [email protected] deep impression on Wen who lost his eyesight as a child, fell Shandong over “at least 200 times” but forced Linyi Prime Minister Wen Jiabao Blind legal activist Chen Guang- himself to get up and continue his Yellow said a visit to the Auschwitz death cheng ,who made a dramatic journey. Sea camp where Nazis gassed to death escape from house arrest last week, “After his escape, he got in touch 125km 1.5 million people had left an endured a dangerous 20-hour or- with his supporters and they went to indelible impression, and reinforced deal before reaching supporters pick him up. It took 20 hours for him SCMP the importance of learning the who spirited him away to Beijing, fel- to get out of that dangerous environ- lessons of history. “This is an low activist Hu Jia said. ment,” Hu said. “He was physically unforgettable, dark page in the Hu met Chen at a secret location weak, but in good spirits. He gave me history of humankind and cannot be in Beijing last week. He told the Sun- a firm handshake and I could feel his Case that forgotten,” Wen said after touring day Morning Post yesterday that on determination.” the former death camp in southern the night of April 21, Chen sneaked The whole journey from Chen’s Poland that is now a museum out of his village home in Linyi , home in Shandong to Beijing took will test containing gas chambers and Shandong province, where he him three days, Hu said. crematoria, as well as personal items had been under round-the-clock Chen had long planned to escape like shoes and even hair of those detention with his family for the past his captors and had made several commitment who perished there. “Only those 19 months, and spent hours fum- unsuccessful attempts, Hu also told who remember history can build a Plain-clothes security forces monitor the entrance to Dongshigu village, where Chen Guangcheng was kept under bling his way out of the heavily Cable Television. on rights good future,” Wen said. Reuters house arrest with his family before his escape. A more obvious police presence keeps an eye on the roads. Photo: AFP guarded village. Hu said Chen once dug a two- He climbed over a wall, crossed metre-deep tunnel, which he cov- ditches and a river in the dark before ered with dried leaves, but the es- ...................................................... cape was foiled. Verna Yu Bomb threat delays Hu said he was certain that Chen [email protected] Shanghai-Chengdu flight had taken refuge at the US embassy, which he believed Chen entered on A bomb threat delayed an Air China Thursday afternoon. Beijing’s handling of blind legal activ- flight from Shanghai to Chengdu on He was physically The US embassy refused to com- ist Chen Guangcheng’s pur- Friday, airport authorities said. ment yesterday. ported escape to the United States Shanghai Pudong International weak, but in good Shortly after the telephone inter- embassy in Beijing will test its com- Airport received an anonymous spirits. He gave me view, Hu was summoned by police, mitment to improving human rights phone call at 6.36pm on Friday said his wife, Zeng Jinyan , and adherence to the rule of law, ac- saying that a bomb was onboard a firm handshake who was also summoned but later tivists and lawyers say. flight 406, according to police. The released. Yang Jianli, a US-based mainland police evacuated passengers and and I could feel his Two supporters who helped dissident, said Chen’s ordeal was a inspected the plane, but no bomb determination Chen flee, Guo Yushan and typical case of human rights abuse was found. The flight, scheduled to He Peirong , were also be- and violation of the law. take off at 6.30pm, took off at ACTIVIST HU JIA lieved to be in police custody yester- After Chen escaped from his 11.23pm. Xinhua day, fellow activists said. house arrest, he appealed to Premier He, a supporter from Nanjing Wen Jiabao in an online vid- , said earlier that she picked eo to punish officials responsible for More channels promised Chen up and drove him to a “safe assaults on him and his wife. Chen Activist once lauded by state media place”. also asked for his family to be protect- for capital outflows Guo told a reporter on Friday that ed from abuse by officials angered by ...................................................... he was under police surveillance his escape. China will widen channels for knowledge and, despite having no three months in August 2006 by and was likely to be detained. “Now this case is put in front of Priscilla Jiao capital outflows and work towards formal legal qualifications, offered Yinan county people’s court. The Both their mobile phones re- Wen Jiabao and he is put on the spot,” [email protected] CHEN’S HISTORY making the yuan convertible on the free legal advice to villagers and the following year, Chen was awarded mained switched off yesterday. Yang said. “It is a very decisive and capital account, according to a disabled in land disputes. He also the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his On Friday, Guo said it was “a mir- critical moment, a watershed event.” summary of a central bank report Chen Guangcheng had been campaigned for improved treatment “irrepressible passion for justice in November 12, 1971: Born in acle” that Chen managed to escape. Wen has often spoken publicly on posted on the website of its under house arrest since September of the disabled. leading ordinary Chinese citizens to Dongshigu village. “It was an impossible mission but he the urgency of enacting political re- Shanghai branch. The nation would 2010 at the time of his escape from Initially hailed by state media, assert their legitimate rights under 1976: Loses sight when five years old succeeded ... He said he would stay forms and the importance of univer- also increase the yuan’s role in Dongshigu village in Shandong Chen soon irritated the government the law”. due to a serious fever. in China and continue to speak out sal values such as democracy and the cross-border trade and investment, province. when he took on the cases of thou- Following his release in 2010, 1994-1998: Attends Qingdao High and seek justice.” rule of law. according to a brief summary of the The 40-year-old self-taught legal sands of women who had been forc- Chen and his family continued to School for the Blind. In a video posted online yester- Yang said if Beijing chose to re- People’s Bank of China’s annual activist had earlier completed a pris- ibly sterilised in the city of Linyi suffer detention and beatings, cut off 1998-2001: Studies at Nanjing day, Chen said he and his wife had solve Chen’s case in a humane way, it report on international financial on sentence of more than four years . He was arrested in 2005 and from the world, their home sur- University of Chinese Medicine in been severely beaten in their home would indicate its willingness to im- markets. The report forecast that the imposed for exposing local author- placed under house arrest, then tak- rounded by guards and surveillance Jiangsu province. Graduates last year by local officials, who de- prove on the human rights situation global economy would recover ities’ use of forced abortions and en away and charged with deliberate cameras. Nevertheless, he was able and returns home to work as a nied them medical treatment. on the mainland. If not, the opposite slowly this year. Bloomberg sterilisation to meet targets under destruction of property and assem- to get around the tight security, and masseur in Yinan county hospital He said hundreds of guards had would be true, he said. the one-child policy. bling a crowd to disturb traffic. succeeded in slipping out a video last 2005: Exposes illegal forced at times been hired to stand outside Pu Zhiqiang , a prominent Although he earned much ac- He was jailed for four years and year showing the situation he and his abortion measures taken by local his home and around the local rights lawyer, said the local govern- claim online, many of his supporters family faced: no one bar his mother authorities enforcing the one-child neighbourhood. ment in Linyi , Shandong China Eastern in US$6b had never met him, but only heard of was allowed to fetch food for the policy.