Coming soon, a new documentary follows Chen Guangcheng as he travels to California to meet artist Chen Weiming at Liberty Sculpture Park, where powerful works of art confront the reality of human rights abuses under the Chinese Communist Party. Through their encounter, the film highlights the cost of speaking truth under authoritarianism and the enduring role of art and witness in the fight for freedom. Stay tuned for its release, coming soon.
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 today we’re covering a fairly important story about a fellow human rights activist. Can you tell us who it is, Guangcheng, that we’re talking about today?
G: Yeah, yeah, today we will talk about Joshua Wong. In Chinese, we call him Wong Chi-fung.
W: Gotcha. And you met him, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, yeah, I met him in 2015.
W: Here in the United States?
G: Yeah, in Washington, D.C., you know.
W: So how old was he? Like around what age was he when you guys met?
G: I met him 2 times. First, I met him in London and then later, you know, he came here in Washington, D.C., so we met again. At that time, he was around 19 years old.
W: Wow. And he was a leader in…
G: Yeah, yeah. At that time he was a leader in the young people in Hong Kong.
W: Oh my gosh, at 19, crazy.
G: You know, he is smart and he is very brave.
W: Yeah. What happened to him?
G: At that time, you know, in 2015, he could travel to different countries.
W: Okay.
G: But later, you know, around 2018, the CCP tried to make a new law: If the CCP wants, they can extradite Hong Kong citizens to China for trial.
W: Gotcha, okay.
G: Yeah, but of course Hong Kong people disagree about that, right?
W: Right, yeah.
G: So a lot of people protested on the street. The biggest protest was more than 2 million Hong Kong people on the street.
W: Wow.
G: And the CCP sent the police to Hong Kong to beat them. The CCP’s military disguised themselves as Hong Kong police.
W: Okay.
G: So of course, the young people like Joshua, they tried to encourage the people [to] stand up to stop the CCP. And later, the CCP illegally added a security law to punish Hong Kong citizens for protesting.
W: Right. Yeah.
G: So yeah, at that time, you know, that is 2020, that year the CCP arrested Joshua and later sentenced him [to] 4 years and 8 months in prison. And 2 years later, the CCP said that they found more proof about Joshua to try to punish him more. And now on November 5th, the CCP sentenced him again and added 10 years to his sentence.
W: Gotcha. Guangcheng, so you mentioned that you met him when he was 19. When he was first imprisoned, he must have been around 25, is that right?
G: Yeah, at that time, yeah, like 25 years old.
W: You’re saying he’s already been in prison for 5 years?
G: Yes.
W: And he’ll be in prison until he’s 40 then, right?
G: Yeah.
W: Wow.
G: So now the CCP tried to hold him until 2036, November. But you know, the CCP is so evil, they’re still thinking [about] how to punish him. For example, now, you know, according to the sentence, the CCP should release him next January. But just 2 months before his release, the CCP extended his sentence. So who knows [if in] 2035, the CCP will have another extended sentence or not.
W: Right.
G: So don’t believe [the] CCP will obey the law.
W: Yeah. So where is he currently imprisoned, Guangcheng?
G: In Hong Kong.
W: In Hong Kong? Okay. Have any countries spoken out about this?
G: Yeah, now different countries talk about this, like France and the US too. Of course, some US congressmen talked about this and of course asked the CCP [to] release him. But we all know about this: Just asking doesn’t work. That’s our experience. So we should think [about] how to punish the CCP.
W: Right. So Guangcheng, what law do they claim that he broke, right? Because he was a protester, right?
G: Yeah. You know, at that time when they first arrested him, he was the leader of the protest.
W: So Guangcheng, when they arrested him the first time, what did they charge him with? What did they accuse him of doing?
G: They said Joshua didn’t get the permission to protest. Oh, and that’s a 5-year?
G: Yeah, 5 years. And now the CCP said “colluding with foreign forces.” Of course, that’s just according to the evil law, you know. Yeah, we all know the evil law is not law, right? But the problem is now how we can punish them. Hong Kong used to be free, but now the CCP has turned it into one of its cities.
W: Right. They basically lost their own control, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, yeah. [The] CCP controls everything now.
W: And we know they probably want to do the same thing to Taiwan, right, Guangcheng?
G: Of course, the CCP never stops. So if you believe the CCP, look at Hong Kong. [In] 1997, the CCP said they would not change Hong Kong’s law for 50 years. But now, 10 years ago, the CCP destroyed the city.
W: Yeah. Well, I can tell we’re going to follow this story a lot, just like we’ve been following Jimmy Lai. So we encourage all of you to keep up to date what’s happening with Joshua Wong on our website at humanrights.catholic.edu. Guangcheng, thank you very much for sharing all this information as always.
G: Thank you, Will. Thank you, everybody.
The Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China invites you to check out the Center for Human Rights website at humanrights.catholic.edu There you can find our latest episodes, articles about human rights in China, important events, and information about our annual essay contest for students. Go to humanrights.catholic.edu.