Tactics and tools for the protection
of Human Rights Defenders

20 June 2011

In a letter smuggled out of their home and which only surfaced on 15 June 2011, Ms Yuan Weijing describes in detail the savage beating that she and her husband, human rights defender Mr Chen Guangcheng, received following the online circulation of a video documenting their ongoing house arrest in February 2011. Front Line issued an appeal on the beating on 11 February 2011 - see http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/14432. Chen Guangcheng is a blind, self-taught human rights lawyer who served four years imprisonment as a result of his work exposing human rights abuses in Linyi City, Shangdong Province. Chen Guangcheng was released from prison on 9 September 2010, and since then he and his wife have been subjected to strict house arrest.

Further Information

The letter, which was received by the US-based China Aid organisation on 15 June 2011, describes how on 18 February 2011, over 70 unidentified people stormed their home and beat and tortured the couple for over two hours. Yuan Weijing alleges that the group was led by Zhang Jian, the vice-secretary of the Communist Party in Shuanghou Town, Shangdong Province. She writes that she was wrapped in a blanket and kicked by more than ten men for half an hour, leaving her unable to see in her left eye for five days, and with what she thinks is a cracked rib. At the time of her writing the letter, she was still unable to stand up straight as a result of the attack. Yuan Weijing also describes how Chen Guangcheng was beaten unconscious following two hours of physical assault. The following day, Yuan Weijing was permitted to receive a once-off intravenous injection from the village doctor. Other than that, the couple were not allowed to receive any medical attention.

Before the unidentified men left on 18 February, they confiscated a computer, a video camera, an audio tape recorder, chargers and flashlights. Yuan Weijing writes that on 3 March metal sheeting was placed over the windows in their home. On 8 March she alleges that Zhang Jian once again led over 40 men into their home and confiscated more equipment. When she confronted Zhang Jian demanding to know why they were being robbed, Yuan Weijing writes that she was punched in the head by Zhang Jian. She reports that their home was stormed again on 17 March when up to 50 men took a large amount of their remaining possessions away, including Chen Guangcheng’s blind cane and pictures of their children on the wall.

Since 24 February 2011, the couple’s five-year-old daughter has not been permitted to step outside the house. Yuan Weijing also writes that Chen Guangcheng’s mother is physically monitored by three men everyday and since mid-March, she has not been allowed out of the home even to buy vegetables. She says that as a result their daily lives have become a struggle to survive and that Chen Guangcheng’s health has deteriorated greatly. Yuan Weijing finishes her letter by appealing to four well-known human rights lawyers to take legal proceedings on their behalf. Two of the lawyers mentioned, Teng Biao and Jiang Tianyong, were themselves disappeared for two months earlier this year, and have not re-engaged publicly either online or with the media since their reappearance.

Various attempts by the media, foreign diplomats and fellow human rights defenders to visit Chen Guangcheng and his family have all been unsuccessful and sometimes met with violence, allegedly by hired thugs who surround his house and cut off the entrances to his village.