The 2026 Human Rights Essay Contest is open to students of all ages and offers $4,000 in prize money. The focus for this contest is on the sentencing of human rights activist Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison and how this sentencing should impact US-China relations. Essays must be submitted by June 15th. For more information, visit humanrights.catholic.edu.
Will Deatherage: Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of the Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China. My name is Will Deatherage, the producer. Joining me as always is Chen Guangcheng.
Chen Guangcheng: Hello everyone, I’m glad to see you here again.
W: And in the month of May 2026, a big part of the news these days is that President Donald Trump is visiting China right now with President Xi Jinping. Guangcheng, tell us a little bit about what’s going on over there.
G: Yeah, that’s very different. The whole world focuses on it. A lot of Chinese netizens [are] comment[ing] about this on [the] internet. And before Trump arrived in Beijing, the Communist Party requested all the Chinese people – the companies, the government – to stop criticizing the US.
W: Gotcha. Interesting.
G: Yeah. They said you still can criticize Japan, but stop criticizing the US. You know, the CCP’s internet police focuses on it. If you find some [comment] criticizing against the US, they will delete it immediately.
W: Interesting.
G: Yeah. So of course, when Donald Trump arrived in Beijing, the CCP ordered a lot of people in the airport to welcome Donald Trump’s visit [to] mainland China. And of course, the CCP prepared the people, the girls hold the flowers to give to him. And a lot of people applauded. And the CCP used the fireworks to welcome Donald Trump.
And Donald Trump still says, “Oh yeah, Xi Jinping is a good leader. He is my good friend. We will join hands to make better relationships.” Yeah. So of course Xi Jinping is happy to listen to that, right?
W: Right, yeah.
G: And another thing is very interesting, you know, because Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the Communist Party’s human rights abuses. The CCP said they will punish Marco Rubio. “And we will not give him [a] visa. We will not let him visit mainland China. We will freeze his assets. And we will not give him permission to buy property in mainland China.”
But now, you know, Marco Rubio came with Donald Trump to visit Beijing. And even Xi Jinping shook hands with him, right? And now a lot of netizens ask [the] CCP, “Why’d you let him visit mainland China? You forgot who he is?”
W: Yeah, yeah.
G: “You think he is a different Marco Rubio?” I think the CCP just [wants to] keep quiet about this. Yeah, a lot of people hope the US can help pressure the CCP to stop the persecution against human rights activists and release the activists in prison. And of course, you know, before Donald Trump said he will ask Xi Jinping to release Jimmy Lai, right?
W: Yeah, yeah, that’s a big topic.
G: Yeah. And of course, we hope he can talk about Attorney Gao Zhisheng, right? The CCP kidnapped him almost 8 years and 9 months ago. So yeah, a lot of people hope that will happen. And I believe Donald Trump tried to understand more about [the] CCP, about Xi Jinping. He is thinking [about] how to do something to help China to change this totalitarian system.
Yeah, so now they are discussing in Beijing and we can see Elon Musk went with him.
W: And a lot of other CEOs.
G: Yeah, yeah, a lot of other CEOs. Donald Trump said, “I brought the best CEOs in America.” I know, because mainland China’s economic situation [is] getting worse and worse, the CCP wants the US to help them. Yeah. So they want the US government and the US companies to spend money in China or to invest in mainland China more and more in future.
But for me, I think that is not good.
W: Right, of course.
G: If the US companies invest the money to mainland China, that is the same as helping the CCP.
W: Yeah. So Guangcheng, is this visit by President Trump — you mentioned that they seem to be making a big effort to make him feel comfortable and make him feel welcome. Is this similar to the way they’ve treated other U.S. presidents in the past?
G: I think it’s very different, very, very different. The CCP, you can see, [is] very careful with Donald Trump’s administration. I remember before, you know, Obama visited Shanghai. When the plane landed, the CCP kept them inside the plane for a long time. Yeah, that is very different.
W: Right. Yeah. So why do you think that is, Guangcheng?
G: Sometimes if you are very soft, the CCP, maybe they say some good words [about you], but they never respect you. Yeah. But now you can see that’s very, very, very different. The CCP [is] very careful to make the visit better. Yeah.
W: Why is that? Why do you think they’re making it better this time?
G: I think because Donald Trump [will] not just say something [flattering]. The CCP knows they need the U.S. and they know Trump will pull his support from them. So the CCP wants to make him feel welcome, very important, right?
W: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And we’ll continue reporting on this situation, you know, the US-China relations, on our website at humanrights.catholic.edu. Guangcheng, thank you very much for the updates on President Trump’s visit in China.
G: Thank you, Will. Thank you, everyone.
The 2026 Human Rights Essay Contest is open to students of all ages and offers $4,000 in prize money. The focus for this contest is on the sentencing of human rights activist Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison and how this sentencing should impact US-China relations. Essays must be submitted by June 15th. For more information, visit humanrights.catholic.edu.