News

By Terry Vanderheyden

DONGSHIGU, April 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chinese human rights activist, Chen Guangcheng, has not been heard from in the 24 days since his arrest on March 11. According to Chen’s wife, Yuan Weijing, he was arrested after his brother Chen Guangyu was beaten by guards who keep continual watch at the home. Local authorities deny having any knowledge of his whereabouts, his arrest, or the beatings.

After the beating, Chen Guangcheng tried to pacify the guards without effect, according to an Epoch Times report. After taking their complaint to police in a neighbouring village, Chen Guangcheng was arrested along with his brothers Chen Guangyu and Chen Guangjun.

Police have substantially increased their presence and surveillance inside the village since the disappearance. Some have paraded through the village with loudspeakers announcing, “Anybody disclosing information about Chen will meet the same fate as Chen Guangcheng and those arrested.”

Chen, who is blind, was under house arrest since August in his home in Dongshigu, a farming village in Shandong province. Chen is well known in China and abroad for his work defending people with disabilities and for his campaign against China’s brutal One Child policy and aggressive birth control program.

The arrest came at the same time as the annual meeting of China’s ceremonial parliament, a time when authorities are sensitive to public criticism and often detain activists.

Despite claims by some Chinese authorities that forced abortion and sterilization are illegal, a massive program underway since March in China’s Shandong province still goes on unabated.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
  Forced Abortion Continues in China at Alarming Rate says Latest Report
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05102602.html