NEW YORK, December 3, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has said violence and coercion are still widespread in the nation’s enforcement of its “one-child” policy and that popular resentment against the practice has the potential to ignite the country in a full-fledged popular upheaval.
“The violence in maintaining China’s One Child Policy still extensively exists,” Chen says in a new message. “It is a sin, because life is sacred.”
The video, recorded for Human Rights Day on December 10, contradicts Chinese government musings that Beijing may abandon the practice of forced abortion and would crack down on the more corrupt applications of the law.
Chen also recounted numerous human rights violations he witnessed in China, including the disappearance of a family, including an eight-year-old boy. However, another case hit closer to home.
“The Chinese government made a promise to me, the United States, and to the world ‘To have a thorough investigation of those persecuting me and my family in Shandong for the past several years and to make the decisions public.,’” he said. “Yet, they have not kept their word.”
Instead authorities sentenced his nephew, Chen Kegui, to three years in prison for defending himself against “thugs” the Chinese government sent to find his uncle. Kegui’s family had only a few hours’ notice before the trial commenced.
Chen Guangcheng urged China’s new leader to “follow the call of Heaven” rather than “maintain the power of the Communist Party.”
“It is a matter of whether China will have the transition in a peaceful way or a violent way,” he said. “Dear Mr. Xi Jinping, the whole nation is watching you.”
After citing the Arab Spring uprisings, Chen told the people of China, “we are capable and ought to join together to work for our own rights.”
“Don’t expect some good emperor to bestow the right upon us,” he said. “Do not hope for upright officials to defend your rights for you.”
“Our fate is actually in our own hands,” he said.
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Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights without Frontiers, said the one-child policy “is the cause of deep social unrest simmering just beneath the surface of Chinese society. No policy this unjust can last forever.”
However, that transition may require a change in Western foreign policy, away from borrowing to finance bloated federal deficits and importing cheap Chinese consumer goods.
Bob Fu, president of China Aid, said Chen’s arrest “and the 12-year imprisonment for Christian democracy activist Li Bifeng should alarm the Obama administration and international community and put them on alert that it is time to set a new course for human rights and trade with China.”
“The leaders of the United States should join Chen in calling for a peaceful transition away from policies that are oppressing and terrorizing the people of China, who are one fifth of the population of the earth,” agreed Littlejohn.
If the leaders fail to make the proper decision, Chen called on Western voters to stand up for his country’s human rights.
“Citizens of the world, let your voice be heard in support of justice,” he said.
You may sign a petition to end forced abortion in China here.