'Let Chen go!'

"Due to laws of the People's Republic of China, the search result cannot be shown." This is the message that appears on the screen when one types in the name of rights activist Chen Guangcheng into Weibo – the Chinese version of Twitter. The Chinese government has been vigilant in blocking his name, especially since Internet users have started demanding the authorities end the rights activist's house arrest.

Chen Guangcheng was one of the state's foremost opponents of the one child policy. The blind civil rights activist is a self-taught lawyer who counseled the rural poor in his home province of Shandong. Also known as a "barefoot lawyer," Chen helped defend people's rights against forced sterilizations and forced abortions, and thus made himself an enemy of the state. In the year 2005 Chen was put under house arrest and in 2006, he was sentenced to over four years imprisonment by a Chinese court for supposedly disturbing public order and destroying public property. He was released in 2010 and, as no further charges have been brought against him, he is technically a free man. Yet he and his wife and their six-year-old daughter are now under house arrest and have no contact to the outside world. His daughter is not even allowed to go to school.

Protests for Chen's freedom

In spite of his complete isolation, Chen is receiving an increasing amount of support from Chinese Internet users. Some are posting videos on the Chinese platform Youku and YouTube in a show of support and others are posting pictures bearing the statement "free Guangcheng" on other websites.

The Chinese government censors this kind of content to the best of its power. But they have not been able to prevent dozens of activists from Chen's hometown Linyi from protesting on his behalf fast daily. One of the demonstrators is Peng Zhonglin. He says there are violent attacks against the protesters. He told Deutsche Welle a group of over 50 men in plain clothes started hitting and robbing demonstrators. "They stole mobile phones and cameras. When one of the activists tried to call the police and started taking pictures of the scene, the beatings got worse." According to Peng, "demonstrators were surrounded by the goon squad and many people were injured in the attack."

A spokesperson of the Shandong Public Security Department told Deutsche Welle he didn't know of any such goon squads in Linyi. But activist Sun Jianmin is convinced Beijing was behind the attack on the demonstrators. He was a witness of the violence and told Deutsche Welle, "They were prepared. It was an attack which was surely organized by the government. What other enemies does he have here?"

Support from the US

What started out as a grassroots Internet movement is now being talked about in Washington. Chris Smith, member of the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), said at the beginning of November that he has put together a delegation which is expected to travel to China this Thursday, November 10 to visit Chen Guangcheng.

Smith told Deutsche Welle he sees this as a very important trip but that whether or not the trip will take place depends on whether or not Beijing gives them visas. "This is a very focused trip – I have a lot of concerns about human rights in China, but this is an emergency trip…We stand in solidarity with the Chinese people - the oppressed, who yearn for freedom…forced abortion, forced birth control…These are internationally recognized crimes against humanity and anyone who perpetrated these crimes ought to be at the Hague."

A number of Chinese activists have sent in petitions to the Public Security Bureau in Beijing, asking for the government to improve conditions for Chen. But whether or not the bureau will accept the petition remains to be seen.

Author: Christoph Ricking / sb

Editor: Arun Chowdhury