[Epoch Times, July 14, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Zhang Ting comprehensive report) Chinese blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng finally obtained US citizenship in June after nine years in exile in the United States. While thanking the US government, he urged a stronger stance against the CCP.
Chen Guangcheng said in an interview with the Associated Press through an interpreter last week, “Thank you very much, the United States, a free country, for accepting us.”
Chen Guangcheng became a US citizen in Baltimore on June 21. On July 8, he met with his legal team in Manchester, New Hampshire, and celebrated together.
George Bruno, former US ambassador to Belize and part of Chen Guangcheng’s lawyers’ team, said, “(Chen Guangcheng) has been a long journey from being placed under house arrest in China to becoming a US citizen. It took 15 years in total. time.”
Chen Guangcheng from Shandong is blind. He was hailed as a “barefoot lawyer” and a “blind lawyer” by the media because he taught himself legal knowledge to help villagers and the disabled defend their rights. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison and placed under house arrest by the CCP for disclosing that the Linyi government of Shandong had barbaric behavior in family planning work.
In April 2012, Chen Guangcheng and his family fled to the US Embassy in Beijing. A few weeks later, he and his family left China and arrived in the United States. This incident once caused a diplomatic turmoil between the United States and China.
Chen Guangcheng, 49, is a visiting scholar at the Catholic University of America. He expressed the hope that the United States will stand with the Chinese people against the CCP.
“The human rights situation (in China) is getting worse and worse.” He said, “As the Chinese people get more information on the Internet, the awareness of rights is getting higher and higher, and the demand for rights is increasing. The loss of their control and power (the Chinese Communist Party) has caused them to use more and more force to suppress the people in order to protect their control of power.”
Chen Guangcheng also stated that the United States needs to take a tougher stance against the Communist Party and “abandon its policy of appeasement.”
“If we only negotiate with the CCP, they will not be afraid. The CCP has always been unreasonable and bossy.” He said.
Editor in charge: Lin Yan#
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