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. Hello Will, I’m so happy to talk with you today.
W: Yeah, and today in the aftermath of President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States, Guangcheng has some information to share concerning a lot of the protesters who came to raise awareness of the Communist Party’s human rights atrocities in communist China. Guangcheng, could you tell us a bit about what we’ve learned in the aftermath of the protests?
G: Yes, yes. I want to let our listeners know, you know, when Xi Jinping came here, a lot of protesters were allegedly beaten by the CCP’s thugs. And now Xi Jinping’s gone, but, you know, at the end of September, one protester, Jie Li Jian – J-I-E L-I-J-I-A-N.
W: Guangcheng, is this— this is the one we translated his video from the hospital, right?
G: Yes, yes. In Utah, you know, when he drove his car from New York to California, allegedly, the CCP’s spy drove a car to try to hit his car. Another is in New York, yeah, when he walked on the street, you know, 3 people allegedly followed him and attacked him and put him in the hospital.
W: And Guangcheng, those were just over the last summer, right?
G: Yeah, yeah, just happened this year. So he now lives in New York. And after the protest in Washington, D.C., nobody could reach him. So later, his friend came to his apartment and asked the landlord to open the door. And [he] saw him lying down on the bed, almost dead. So then they called the police, called 911, and just helped him to go to hospital.
After one day, he woke up, but now he has a lot of head and stomach pain. So now, you know, as of recording this, he’s still in the hospital. You know, the doctor said “You cannot leave [the] hospital now. You have to stay here. We don’t know how long.” They think maybe someone put the poison in his room, you know, put him to sleep. So we don’t know the truth, but the police are checking about this.
W: Yeah.
G: So this is so dangerous, you know. This is the 3rd time this year, he believes, the CCP has tried to hurt him.
G: Yeah, and Guangcheng, in your experience, this happens, right? Can you talk about how the CCP has hurt people or tried hurting people, including you in the United States?
G: Yes, the CCP did a lot like this, including to me. In 2015, I went to Paris. So when we came back to America, we found some mouse poison in our kitchen. On our flour bag. You know, at that time, my children were very young and my mom was here. Yeah, she didn’t know any English words. So they did not go out to buy anything. It is impossible they bought the poison and put it there. Somebody had to have broken in and put it there.
But we checked all the windows, no problem. But later, you know, I called the US police, and I called the FBI to check the poison, that it’s really mouse poison. So, but until now, yeah, we never found out who did this. Yeah. So the CCP has this history of targeting human rights activists in America.
W: So Guangcheng, returning to the protests in D.C., you know, you spoke about Jie Lijian.
Were there any other instances of suspected violence against protesters committed by the CCP?
G: Yeah, some protesters [were] outside the CCP’s embassy. Okay. And the CCP official came out from the embassy and allegedly used a special umbrella to poke them. And the umbrella had a very sharp tip. And the protesters called the police, but the police cannot come into the embassy to arrest the CCP officials. Yeah. And another thing that happened, somebody stole flyers from the protesters and ran away. Yeah.
Another thing is that the journalist interviewed the protesters. So later, you know, the CCP protesters surround her, try to attack the journalist. Then, you know, someone came there to help her, so they stopped. So every time when [the] CCP’s chairman visits the US, they will spend money to allegedly buy the people to welcome Xi Jinping in [the] airport or surround the building and attack the protesters.
Yeah, I believe in the future, if the U.S. still cannot do something to stop them, that will continue to happen.
W: Yeah. Well, we’ll continue to cover protests like these. It seems like violence at them is happening more and more. And we’ll especially keep updating you on Jie Lijian and provide updates on him. Guangcheng, thank you very much for all this information today.
G: Thank you, Will. Thank you, my friends.
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