{"id":3796,"date":"2022-06-06T04:23:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T04:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=3796"},"modified":"2022-06-06T04:23:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T04:23:06","slug":"congratulations-to-human-rights-hero-chen-guangcheng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/congratulations-to-human-rights-hero-chen-guangcheng\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations to Human Rights Hero Chen Guangcheng!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chen Guangcheng receiving the Bradley Prize, May 17, 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

May 19 marked the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of Chen Guangcheng\u2019s arrival in the United States.\u00a0 It was also one of the most memorable days in my life, as I spent years campaigning<\/a> internationally for his release. \u00a0You can learn more about Guangcheng\u2019s incredible bravery by watching our historic \u201cFree Chen Guangcheng\u201d video (3 minutes) HERE.<\/strong> <\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guangcheng was blinded in early childhood from a fever, but he did not let this disability stop him from teaching himself law.  He then became an acclaimed disability rights \u201dbarefoot lawyer\u201d in China, but the Chinese Communist Party turned against him when he started exposing and opposing late term forced abortion and sterilizations perpetrated under China\u2019s brutal One Child Policy.  For this he was jailed, tortured and finally placed under house arrest.  His deteriorating health due to torture and malnutrition made us worry that he might die, but he escaped \u2013 nothing short of a miracle!  You can read his astonishing account in his book,<\/a> The Barefoot Lawyer:  A Blind Man\u2019s Fight for Justice and Freedom in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if to mark the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of Guangcheng\u2019s arrival in the United States, Chen received the prestigious Bradley Prize<\/a>, for his tireless and effective advocacy for human rights and against the atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reggie and Chen Guangcheng after his arrival in the United States<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Chen and his brave wife, Yuan Weijing, touched down in New York, it was one of the most thrilling moments of my life.\u00a0\u00a0 I went from being wracked with worry about them to being able to embrace them as dear friends.\u00a0 When I was able to sit down with them in New York, it felt almost surreal to be able to show them the video<\/a> we had created for them, as well as our Sunglasses Campaign<\/a> collecting 500 self-portraits of people from all over the world wearing sunglasses to express their support of Chen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congressman Chris Smith participated in this campaign as part of his massive effort to free Chen.  Then, after Chen arrived in the United States, the three of us took a photo together after speaking at Heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
Left:<\/strong><\/em> Rep. Chris Smith participated in the Sunglasses Campaign. Right:<\/strong><\/em> Rep. Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie after speaking together at The Heritage Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations, Guangcheng and Weijing.\u00a0\u00a0 You are people of heroic bravery.\u00a0 The United States is blessed that you are here!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 19 marked the 10th anniversary of Chen Guangcheng\u2019s arrival in the United States.\u00a0 It was also one of the most memorable days in my life, as I spent years campaigning internationally for his release. \u00a0You can learn more about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[326,240,231,239,236,221],"class_list":["post-3796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bradley-prize","tag-chen-guangcheng","tag-china","tag-one-child-policy","tag-reggie-littlejohn","tag-womens-rights-without-frontiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3796"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3810,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions\/3810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}