Chinese to Prosecute Blind Peasant/Activist Who Resisted One-Child Policy

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Chinese to Prosecute Peasant Who Resisted One-Child Policy
Decision Reveals Growing Clout of Beijing Hard-Liners
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 8, 2006; Page A12


Chen Guangcheng, a blind Chinese farmer who exposed authorities in eastern China for severely enforcing population control, listened last August as women in Linyi described how family planning officials took their relatives hostage. (By Philip Pan -- The Washington Post)

BEIJING, July 7 -- The Chinese government is preparing to prosecute a blind peasant who exposed excesses by authorities in enforcing the one-child policy in eastern China, where local officials were accused by residents of forcing thousands of people to undergo sterilization or to abort pregnancies. The decision, disclosed by court officials Friday, follows a prolonged bureaucratic stalemate in the ruling Communist Party over how to handle the allegations in the city of Linyi, and it highlights the growing clout of hard-liners in the party since President Hu Jintao took office three years ago.

Chen Guangcheng, 34, the blind rural activist who drew international attention to a violent crackdown on unauthorized births in Linyi last year, is scheduled to be tried July 17 on charges of destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, according to his attorney, Li Jinsong.

The charges stem from an incident in March in which Chen is accused of leading a protest against local officials who had illegally confined him to his house and who were beating villagers who tried to help him, Li and residents of Chen's village said.

Chen's trial could renew international scrutiny of China's population-control practices, and it represents a major setback for reformers in the government who have been trying to soften the one-child policy and eliminate the abuses long associated with it.

"There isn't much hope," said Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, by telephone from the family farmhouse, where she has been detained. "Everything that has happened runs counter to Hu Jintao's talk of democracy and governing by law. We live in a nation without law, a nation without morality."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701510.html

[WhiteTara]

1. signs of our future?

not necessarily this issue, but this result? We can be detained in our houses, and anyone who comes to help will be beaten. Quite direct, no? saves on prison space and allows the bullies to work out their agressions.

""There isn't much hope," said Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, by telephone from the family farmhouse, where she has been detained. "Everything that has happened runs counter to Hu Jintao's talk of democracy and governing by law. We live in a nation without law, a nation without morality."..."

and of course, Mann Coulter is leading the way with the verbal attacks.

[liberal N proud]

2. His defense: Didn't know he had 2 kids already because he never saw them

[BreweryYardRat]

3. Great. First mobile execution chambers and now this.

Such lovely people in the Chinese government.