Chen Guangcheng

Chen Guangcheng (born November 12, 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China.

Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor.

In 1989 at the age of 18 Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city.

In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled", which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.

In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998.

He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him.

Chen first petitioned authorities in 1996, when he traveled to Beijing to complain about taxes that were incorrectly being levied on his family (people with disabilities, such as Chen, are supposed to be exempt from taxation and fees).

The complaint was successful, and Chen began petitioning for other individuals with disabilities.

With funding from a British foundation, Chen became an outspoken activist for disability rights within the China Law Society.

He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs.

They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll.

He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage—the only programs available to the blind.

Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance.

After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.

Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show.

Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute.

Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year.

Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him.

The couple eloped in 2003.

Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year.

Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.

In 2005 Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy.

As a result of this lawsuit, Chen was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006, with a formal arrest in June 2006.

In 2005 they had a second child—a daughter named Chen Kesi—in violation of China's one-child policy.

On 24 August 2006 Chen was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic."

Chen is a 2007 laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award and in 2006 was named to the Time 100.

He was released from prison in 2010 after serving his full sentence, but remained under house arrest or "soft detention" at his home in Dongshigu Village.

Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten shortly after a human rights group released a video of their home under intense police surveillance in February 2011.

Chen's case received sustained international attention, with the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International issuing appeals for his release; the latter group designated him a prisoner of conscience.

In April 2012 Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States, Beijing.

After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy for medical treatment in early May 2012, and it was reported that China would consider allowing him to travel to the United States to study.

On 19 May 2012, Chen, his wife, and his two children were granted U.S. visas and departed Beijing for New York City.

In October 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.

Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Linyi, southern Shandong Province, approximately 200 km from the city of Jinan.

When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves.

In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture—that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism."

His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level.

"When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat", he recalled.

Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually.

When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom.