60 Facts About Chen Guangcheng

Chen Guangcheng was born on November 12,1971 and is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China.

Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy.

Chen Guangcheng's case received sustained international attention, with the US State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience.

Chen Guangcheng won the laureate of Ramon in 2006, is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.

In October 2013, Chen Guangcheng accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.

Chen Guangcheng is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres from the city of Jinan.

When Chen Guangcheng was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves.

Chen Guangcheng's father worked as an instructor at a Chinese Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually.

When Chen Guangcheng was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom.

In 1991, Chen Guangcheng's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled", which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.

In 1989 at the age of 18 Chen Guangcheng began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city.

Chen Guangcheng had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him.

Chen Guangcheng earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs.

Chen Guangcheng audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance.

Chen Guangcheng met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show.

Chen Guangcheng, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year.

Chen Guangcheng first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family.

The complaint was successful, and Chen Guangcheng began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities.

The family had been paying all of the regular taxes and fees, but Chen Guangcheng believed that, under the law, the family should have received government assistance and exemption from taxation.

In 1997 the leaders of Chen Guangcheng's village began implementing a land use plan that gave authorities control over 60 percent of land, which they then rented out at high cost to the villages.

In 2000 Chen Guangcheng returned from his studies in Nanjing to his village of Dongshigu in an effort to confront environmental pollution.

Chen Guangcheng organized villagers in his hometown and 78 other villages to petition against the mill.

In November 2004, Chen Guangcheng acted on behalf of villagers to file a lawsuit in the Qi'nan County Court against the local Public Security Bureau for negligence.

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng spent several months surveying residents of Shandong Province, collecting accounts of forced, late-term abortions and forced sterilization of women who stood in violation of China's one-child policy.

Chen Guangcheng's survey was based in Linyi and included surrounding rural suburbs.

Chen Guangcheng later recalled that his survey would have been significantly larger in scope were he not limited by a lack of financial resources.

Chen Guangcheng said she was later subjected to forced sterilization.

Chen Guangcheng solicited the help of prominent legal scholar Teng Biao, who conducted his own interviews in Linyi.

Teng and Chen Guangcheng later released a report claiming that an estimated 130,000 residents in the city had been forced into 'study sessions' for refusing abortions or violating the one-child policy; residents would be held for days or weeks in the study sessions, and were allegedly beaten.

In 2005 Chen Guangcheng filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city's family planning staff.

On September 7,2005 while Chen Guangcheng was in Beijing to publicize his class action lawsuit against the Linyi city family planning staff, he was reportedly abducted by security agents from Linyi and held for 38 hours.

Xinhua, the news agency of the Chinese government, stated that on February 5,2006, Chen Guangcheng instigated others "to damage and smash cars belonging to the Shuanghou Police Station and the town government" as well as attack local government officials.

Time reported that witnesses to Chen Guangcheng's protest disputed the government's version of events, and his lawyers argued that it was unlikely he could have committed the crimes due to his constant surveillance by police.

Chen Guangcheng was removed from his house in March 2006 and was formally detained in June 2006 by Yinan County officials.

Chen Guangcheng was scheduled to stand trial on July 17,2006 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, but this was delayed at the request of the prosecution.

However, Chen Guangcheng was convicted in a second trial on identical charges and given an identical sentence by the Yinan court.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton described the US government as "alarmed" by Chen Guangcheng's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path".

Under cover of darkness and with the help of his wife, Chen Guangcheng climbed over the wall around his house, breaking his foot in the process.

Chen Guangcheng was given refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing, though the embassy initially declined to confirm or deny reports that they were sheltering him.

BBC News described Chen Guangcheng's escape as coming at "an unwelcome time for China's leaders", who were still dealing with a high-profile corruption scandal that resulted in the removal of politburo member Bo Xilai.

However, soon after leaving the embassy, Chen Guangcheng feared that Chinese authorities would renege on their promises or take punitive actions against his family members.

Rumors emerged that Chinese officials had coerced Chen Guangcheng into leaving the embassy by threatening his family.

US negotiators stated that while in the embassy, Chen Guangcheng had been told by Chinese officials that if he sought asylum in the United States, his wife and daughter would likely remain under house arrest in Shandong.

The daily accused US ambassador Gary Locke of stirring up trouble by sheltering Chen Guangcheng, and questioned Locke's motives.

Chen Guangcheng was taken into custody and faces criminal charges for attempted murder.

In November 2012, Chen Guangcheng Kegui was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Chen Guangcheng reportedly began studying English for two hours per day, in addition to having regular meetings with American legal scholars.

On May 29,2012 Chen Guangcheng published an editorial in The New York Times criticizing the Chinese government and the CCP for the "lawless punishment inflicted on and family over the past seven years".

In October 2013 Chen Guangcheng accepted an offer from the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey.

Chen Guangcheng became a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as a visiting fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and a Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

On October 16,2013 Chen Guangcheng made his first public appearance in his role as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute.

Chen Guangcheng delivered a public lecture at Princeton University entitled "China and the World in the 21st Century: The Next Human Rights Revolution", which was co-sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.

The text of Chen Guangcheng's speech, translated into English, was then published online.

Chen Guangcheng began attracting international media attention for his civil rights activism in the early 2000s.

Chen Guangcheng's profile rose further in 2005 when he filed a landmark class-action suit taking on abuses of the one-child policy.

In 2006, Chen Guangcheng was named one of the Time 100, Time annual list of "100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world".

In 2007, Chen Guangcheng won the Ramon Magsaysay Award while still in detention.

Chen Guangcheng was one of seven Chinese lawyers and civil rights activists to be named as recipients of the award.

In 2012, Chen Guangcheng was chosen as the recipient of the Human Rights Award from the New York-based NGO Human Rights First.