In China, an awakening civil society and less fear

Although Chen Guangcheng has been fighting for human rights in China for years, especially as an activist for issues concerning the rural zones in his country, he reached global notoriety in April 2012 after escaping house arrest under which he was subject, seeking refuge in the United States Embassy in Beijing from where after a difficult diplomatic negotiation, he was grated permission to travel to New York, where he current lives.

Chen, blind since early childhood, is a self-taught lawyer who issued a lawsuit that challenged the repressive practices in his communist country, such as the one-child per family policy. As a result of these challenges, he was incarcerated for public disorder and placed under house arrest.

Chen, who is 42 years old, is currently a Visiting Professor at New York University´s law school and he maintains his activism through continuing to denounce the political situation in his country. EL PAÍS had the opportunity to speak with him in Oslo, where he participated in the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual conference that brings together global activists who address the increasing presence of global repressive regimes. The influential Oslo Forum is becoming known as the Davos of human rights.

Question: In what way do you remember your escape from house arrest and your refuge in the Embassy?

Answer: It was terrifying and emotional at the same time, but the truth is that today I remember it more as an emotional episode.

Q: What details marked you the most from this event?

A: That is something that I prefer not to address in this moment.

Q: How is everything going for you in the United States?

A: Everything is going well. Society is very diverse here.

Q: How do you make a living?

A: From the advance payments that I receive from several books that I am in the process of writing, including my memoirs, an autobiography.

Q: In the past, you have faced health problems. How are you feeling?

A: I continue to have some difficulties, but nothing that I am too worried about.

Q: Do you receive threats from the Chinese government?

A: Authorities continue to threaten my family. My nephew was recently incarcerated and in this capacity he contracted a virus and they refused to bring him to a hospital. My brother has been beaten and hit. They have entered my home and destroyed my family´s property. They continue to scare and intimidate my family.

Q: That must weigh on your conscience.

A: Yes, that is true. But I also believe that it is an obligation to act to stop these treatments.

Q: Are you convinced that you did the right thing? Some consider that the one-child per family policy is a form of controlling overpopulation in China, and its function is logical.

A: It is clear that forcing people to have abortions is an illegal act, and I do not have any doubt that it is my obligation to act against this.

Q: Is your point of view religiously motivated?

A: No, I do not have any religious affiliation at this time.

Q: Is China changing in any way since you left?

A: There have been many changes, mostly societal. There is a gradual civil society awakening. Society is less fearful of government persecution. People are beginning to understand that they need to defend their rights. The regime does not have it as easy as before.

Q: Have there been changes at the government level?

A: The new leaders are trying to implement more rigid control methods. They have established seven issues that cannot be published in the press: universal principles, freedom of the press, civil society, civil rights, errors committed by the communist party, aristocratic capitalism – because the party leaders are beginning to be viewed as a form of aristocracy, and the seventh, judicial independence.

Q: Do you think that China should receive more global pressure regarding human rights issues?

A: The global community has been working on this issue with China for decades. There have been dozens of closed-door meetings in which this topic has been addressed, none of which have produced results. It is necessary to change this strategy. The world has to openly create dialogue that clarifies to the international community that pressure has been placed on the Chinese government to create change and terminate its current practices.

Q: Do you hope to return to China someday?

A: Yes. I am confident that my return to China will be soon and I am confident that in the future my country will not be governed by only one political party, and that it will cease to be a system in that only a few make the decisions as to who will have to leave the country and who can return. I hope that I will return to a more open and just society. Most important is not the possibility to return to China but yet the right to enter and leave each time that one wishes.