Interview

Chinese Civil Rights Activist
Chen Guangcheng

The people of China suffer under the government’s oppression of human rights including freedom of faith and freedom of speech. Another denial of human rights under the Communist Party is the ‘one-child policy’ aimed at reducing the growing population. We interviewed the blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, whose passionate desire to rectify this problem forced his to flee his country.

360,000,000…..

This is the number of unborn children who were killed by China’s one-child policy instigated in 1979. That’s greater than the population of the U.S. 360,00 unborn lives were aborted, and just as many mothers were forced to undergo sterilization surgery.

One man, however, stood up against this inhumane policy: Chen Guangcheng. Chen taught himself law, and began to use that knowledge to help villagers suffering from governmental oppression of basic rights.

Chen was arrested in 2005 when he tried to file an accusation against the local bureau for the one-child policy. He was released in 2010, but immediately placed under house arrest before making a miraculous escape out of China in 2012. He was put under the protection of the American Embassy.

He currently lives in the U.S., and continues his work as a Chinese civil rights activist.

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–The Xi Jinping government is intensifying oppression against free speech. Do you think China will embrace a policy of extreme anti-free speech like Mao’s Cultural Revolution

Chen: The people of China have already been roused. They are gathering information in various ways such as through the Internet about the evil doings of the Communist Party. So something like the Cultural Revolution probably won’t happen.

Many of the people know that “the people who criticize the Communist Party are the good people”.

If Your Child Is Killed in Front of You

–Tell us about the cruelty of the ‘one-child policy’

Chen: The one-child policy is inhumane homicide. This cruel policy is what turned China into a wicked society.

All married women must have a permit for a child. Without a permit, the Communist Party forces an abortion, even for a first child. These mothers have their children killed right in front of them, and they are powerless to stop it. This is atrocious.

I once heard of a woman who had over-birthed and the government threatened to knock down her house as punishment. She refused to go out of her home because she thought if she were in her house she would be safe. But the government went and knocked the entire house down and killed her.

The Beijing central government issues to the local bureaus a quota for population restraint. Bureaucrats who fail to meet the quota will never get promoted. This leads them to resort to savage methods to fulfill it. Clearly this society is abnormal.

Before this policy, China’s most important value was “human life first”. But after the one-child policy began penetrating society, the Chinese people forgot the value of human lives. For example, there was a case in Zhumadian City, Hunan Province, where someone was injured by a car going across the street. The victim tried to get up but no one helped, and in a few minutes another car ran over and killed the person.

Two years ago the Communist Party amended the one-child policy into the ‘two-children policy’, but the idea is still the same: the third child is killed.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb “Who so ever wins the hearts of the people will control all under heaven “, but now the philosophy of justice is nowhere to be seen.

–The Communist Party is frightening especially because they uphold materialism. How then do the people see religion?

Chen: since ancient times, Buddhism and Taoism have been an influence on China. Despite the Communist Party’s materialism, there are many Chinese people who believe in a wide variety of spiritual practices.

Once when a Communist Party henchman tried to do evil, the villagers angrily warned him, “Don’t do bad things: Heaven will punish all evil doings”. I believe in natural forces outside the realm of humanity.

Japan Must Become a Human Rights Superpower Nation

–To end this interview, what would be your message to Japan

Chen: The Communist Party of China is evil. But for all we know, it may continue for a decade longer.

Japan is a democratic country with the world’s third greatest economy. Japan upholds the values of human rights, democracy and liberty. That’s why we’d like Japan to show more interest in China’s human rights problems and our democratization movements. We want Japan to become an influential human rights superpower nation.