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. The deadline to submit has been extended to July 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, Will. Thank you. Hello everyone. I’m glad to see you here again today. Today is a special day, right?
W: Well, as of recording this, yeah, it is June 4th.
G: Yeah, that’s 37 years ago, the massacre happened in Tiananmen Square. The CCP killed a lot of people there.
W: Yeah, how many people, Guangcheng?
G: The US government said more than 30,000 people died.
W: 30,000!
G: Yeah, England showed the number around this, but in mainland China, some people who joined Tiananmen Square told me more than 50,000 people died. So no one knows the precise number.
W: Yeah. Guangcheng, according to the CCP, how many people did they kill?
G: The CCP said no one.
W: Zero?
G: Yeah, zero died. I still remember at that time I lived in the village. The CCP leader, his name is Yuan Mu, he used the TV, [and] said, “Oh, no one died. We just used the tanks to block the street.” Of course, no one believed them.
W: Right.
G: But the CCP always says no one died there.
W: Right, right. And later this summer, we’re going to have a little bit more information in an in-depth podcast about specifically what happened on Tiananmen Square. Guangcheng, I know we like to cover this every year because we discuss how people are remembering Tiananmen Square. What’s going on in China there? What’s June 4th like?
G: Before June 4th [is] coming, the CCP is already prepared to prevent the people to come to Tiananmen Square to remember the massacre. And the CCP forces the activists, like my friend Hu Jia, to travel to other provinces. And online, when it is the “sensitive time,” every year, we all have some sensitive words. For example, you cannot write “June 4th,” you cannot write “6/4,” or “8964.” 89 because the massacre happened 1989, June 4th. And you cannot write “the candle.”
W: Why “candle?”
G: “Candle” because a lot of people burn the candles to try to remember the people [who] died in Tiananmen Square or in Chang’an Street. So this is why, you know, a lot of netizens use the code words. For example, you know, they cannot write “June 4th,” so they can say “May 35.”
W: Huh.
G: Yeah.
W: Because that’s 4 days after, that would be like 4 days after the beginning of June, right?
G: Yes, yes. So if the netizens saw the word “May 35,” all the people in mainland China, they understand “May 35” means June 4th.
W: Right.
G: But now the CCP, you know, the censorship system [is] much stronger than before. So even [if] you try to use May 35, the censor system still can censor them.
W: Wow. So they just keep banning more and more words?
G: Yes, yes. More and more sensitive words.
W: Guangcheng, despite this, are people still talking about it or learning about it in China? How successful is the Communist Party in preventing people from remembering?
G: Of course, the people still remember June 4th. And I saw one person, his name is Chen Yunfei. When I was under house arrest, Chen Yunfei flew to my hometown and talked to the CCP’s police [and] asked them, “Why is Chen Guangcheng under house arrest?” Of course, the CCP, you know, forced him to leave. And this year, before the sensitive time [came], he tried to hide.
W: Why did he try to hide Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, because every sensitive time, the CCP will force him to relocate away from his home so he will not protest. So of course he didn’t want to do that. So he tried hiding.
W: How did that go?
G: In the beginning it worked, but later the CCP found where he is because he’s tweeting. This means his phone is on, which means he’s no longer trying to hide.
W: So they found him, probably.
G: Yeah.
W: Okay.
G: So the CCP found him.
W: Guangcheng, despite all this censorship, do you think young people are still learning about Tiananmen Square or…?
G: I think the young people know, but maybe their parents always remind them, “Don’t talk about this publicly.”
W: But you think they still know, Guangcheng?
G: I think more and more people know. Of course, not all the young people know that, but I believe the internet [is] very useful to let them know. Yeah. If the people know how to climb the firewall before June 4th, of course, it’s very easy to read the information about Tiananmen Square.
W: Right. And Guangcheng, do you think a lot of young people are climbing the firewall?
G: Yeah, I can be sure of that. That I can be sure. Yeah. So, you know, every year the people travel to other countries. So if they arrive there – no censorship, no Great Firewall. So they can get the information. And when they come back, they will try to find a way to climb the firewall to get the free information. Yeah. The problem is not [that] the people don’t know, the problem is [that] the people are scared to bring justice and to oppose the CCP. Yeah. That is a problem. And another problem is, they don’t have tools. The CCP can use any tools to pressure the people, but the people only [have] the cell phone. The CCP asks all the people to use their real name to register their cell phone.
So the CCP can easily track them.
W: So there’s no anonymity there.
G: Yeah, only Apple iPhone is okay. You know, if they use like Huawei, like Android, the CCP can use the backdoor to control your phone.
W: Right, but not iPhone?
G: No iPhone until now.
W: Yeah, we should get our podcast sponsored by Apple, right?
G: Yeah! So yeah, that’s happening.
W: Well, like I mentioned, we’re planning on releasing more in-depth analysis about Tiananmen Square in the coming weeks, so we encourage our listeners to keep an eye out for that and follow our work on humanrights.catholic.edu. Guangcheng, thank you very much for all the information about what’s going on.
G: Yeah, 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. The deadline to submit has been extended to July 15th. For more information, visit humanrights.catholic.edu.
