Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Chinese state media fails to report escape of blind activist!
2 views
Skip to first unread message
Peter Terpstra
Apr 28, 2012, 4:31:17 AM4/28/12
to
Chinese state media fails to report escape of blind activist
How Chinese authorities barred my visit to Chen Guangcheng
Censorship of blind activist's story is consistent with China's policy of thuggery and intimidation during his long
imprisonment
There has not been a single line of news in the Chinese state-controlled media about the dramatic escape of Chen
Guangcheng.
But that is hardly surprising: the authorities here have been using censorship, thuggery and intimidation to stifle
news about the blind activist for the past six years.
I have had first-hand experience of this since 2006, when I first started covering a case that must rank as one of
the most egregious human rights violations of the past decade in China.
During the spring festival of that year, I and a another reporter tried to visit Dongshigu village, where the blind
human rights activist was under illegal house arrest because he had exposed forced abortions and other abuses of
China's one-child policy by over-zealous local officials.
As soon as we arrived, a burly man in a dark jacket told us we were not allowed in the village. "These are the
orders of the city government," he said. He refused to show identification so we carried on past him.
Further on, progress was blocked by four men who pushed and shoved us back where we had come. "You cannot
enter," they said. "Sorry." There was a brief standoff that attracted a crowd of curious villagers. Then Chen's
guards – by now numbering about 10 – manhandled us back into the van.
Locals had already grown used to such incidents. The previous year, three lawyers tried to sneak in by disguising
themselves in peasant clothes and riding in on bicycles. Not protected by a foreign passport, they were taught a
violent lesson about the limits of the law in China. Such beatings were to become all too common in Dongshigu as
bloggers, human rights activists and journalists attempted to interview Chen and his family.
There were few more glaring examples of the central government's inability or willingness to enforce promises of
"rule by law" and transparency.
In August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years in prison, ostensibly for disrupting traffic and damaging
property, but his family remained under tight surveillance.
The following year, I met his wife, Yuan Weijing, who had fled to Beijing and was staying in the apartment of
human rights activist Hu Jia. She clearly enjoyed being among friends and the opportunity to talk freely. But her
liberty was short-lived. The following day she was detained as she attempted to travel to the Philippines to collect
a human rights award on behalf of her husband. Police took her back to Shandong and a life of tight restrictions
and constant monitoring.
In 2008, I tried to visit her. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I was in the nearby county town of Linyi for a
story about organic farming but when that job was done, I caught a taxi to Dongshigu.
Little had changed. If anything, there seemed to be more thugs with just as little hesitation to rough up outsiders
who wanted to visit the family the authorities wanted the world to forget.
Many others tried and failed including a friend, Wang Xiaoshan and the writer Muron Xuecen, who vividly described
their brutal ejection.
The authorities have countered with a three-pronged strategy: security has been tightened, censors have choked
almost all news of Chen in the state media, and teams of local officials have tried to blacken his name among the
440 Dongshigu villagers with rumours that Chen is a liar and a traitor. Earlier this year, I heard similar allegations
from a central government official, who claimed to have been told that Chen had bought three homes with the
money he'd been given by foreign governments.
I asked for evidence. None has been forthcoming.
Those same officials have long poured scorn on microblog and foreign media reports of the beatings inflicted on
Chen and his wife, and the harassment of their child and wider family. How, I wonder, will they respond to the first
video made of Chen after his escape, when he said of his treatment: "The reality is even worse" than the reports.
His safety is not yet assured. Between 90 and 100 guards were involved in his detention, he said. Many will now be
trying to track him down.
But if he does remain at liberty, the question will then be whether the government machinery of denial and
violence is cranked up another notch to inflict retribution on the escapee's family, or whether the central
authorities will finally realise they have allowed an indefensible wrong to go on for too long. Or to put it in simpler
terms, Is China a country ruled by law or not?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/27/chinese-media-fails-report-escape-activist
How Chinese authorities barred my visit to Chen Guangcheng
Censorship of blind activist's story is consistent with China's policy of thuggery and intimidation during his long
imprisonment
There has not been a single line of news in the Chinese state-controlled media about the dramatic escape of Chen
Guangcheng.
But that is hardly surprising: the authorities here have been using censorship, thuggery and intimidation to stifle
news about the blind activist for the past six years.
I have had first-hand experience of this since 2006, when I first started covering a case that must rank as one of
the most egregious human rights violations of the past decade in China.
During the spring festival of that year, I and a another reporter tried to visit Dongshigu village, where the blind
human rights activist was under illegal house arrest because he had exposed forced abortions and other abuses of
China's one-child policy by over-zealous local officials.
As soon as we arrived, a burly man in a dark jacket told us we were not allowed in the village. "These are the
orders of the city government," he said. He refused to show identification so we carried on past him.
Further on, progress was blocked by four men who pushed and shoved us back where we had come. "You cannot
enter," they said. "Sorry." There was a brief standoff that attracted a crowd of curious villagers. Then Chen's
guards – by now numbering about 10 – manhandled us back into the van.
Locals had already grown used to such incidents. The previous year, three lawyers tried to sneak in by disguising
themselves in peasant clothes and riding in on bicycles. Not protected by a foreign passport, they were taught a
violent lesson about the limits of the law in China. Such beatings were to become all too common in Dongshigu as
bloggers, human rights activists and journalists attempted to interview Chen and his family.
There were few more glaring examples of the central government's inability or willingness to enforce promises of
"rule by law" and transparency.
In August 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years in prison, ostensibly for disrupting traffic and damaging
property, but his family remained under tight surveillance.
The following year, I met his wife, Yuan Weijing, who had fled to Beijing and was staying in the apartment of
human rights activist Hu Jia. She clearly enjoyed being among friends and the opportunity to talk freely. But her
liberty was short-lived. The following day she was detained as she attempted to travel to the Philippines to collect
a human rights award on behalf of her husband. Police took her back to Shandong and a life of tight restrictions
and constant monitoring.
In 2008, I tried to visit her. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I was in the nearby county town of Linyi for a
story about organic farming but when that job was done, I caught a taxi to Dongshigu.
Little had changed. If anything, there seemed to be more thugs with just as little hesitation to rough up outsiders
who wanted to visit the family the authorities wanted the world to forget.
Many others tried and failed including a friend, Wang Xiaoshan and the writer Muron Xuecen, who vividly described
their brutal ejection.
The authorities have countered with a three-pronged strategy: security has been tightened, censors have choked
almost all news of Chen in the state media, and teams of local officials have tried to blacken his name among the
440 Dongshigu villagers with rumours that Chen is a liar and a traitor. Earlier this year, I heard similar allegations
from a central government official, who claimed to have been told that Chen had bought three homes with the
money he'd been given by foreign governments.
I asked for evidence. None has been forthcoming.
Those same officials have long poured scorn on microblog and foreign media reports of the beatings inflicted on
Chen and his wife, and the harassment of their child and wider family. How, I wonder, will they respond to the first
video made of Chen after his escape, when he said of his treatment: "The reality is even worse" than the reports.
His safety is not yet assured. Between 90 and 100 guards were involved in his detention, he said. Many will now be
trying to track him down.
But if he does remain at liberty, the question will then be whether the government machinery of denial and
violence is cranked up another notch to inflict retribution on the escapee's family, or whether the central
authorities will finally realise they have allowed an indefensible wrong to go on for too long. Or to put it in simpler
terms, Is China a country ruled by law or not?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/27/chinese-media-fails-report-escape-activist
rst9
Apr 28, 2012, 10:23:44 AM4/28/12
to
Satish
Apr 28, 2012, 3:20:29 PM4/28/12
to
On Apr 28, 7:23 am, rst9 <rst9w...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Apr 28, 1:31 am, Peter Terpstra <peterterps...@versatel.nl> wrote:
>
rstx, I think you have been afflicted with senility. That would
> On Apr 28, 1:31 am, Peter Terpstra <peterterps...@versatel.nl> wrote:
>
account for your extremely short memory. You see a post by Peter
Terpstra on Tibet's plight under CCP dictatorship's colonial policy
and by the time you are ready to post a reply, you have already
forgotten what you are replying to !! Well, you are 74. It is not
surprising that you are down with senility.
But if you manage to recall what you have been posting, you might want
to reflect on the fact what you are risking by your anti-American
posts on the newsgroup. rstx, your gf is a patriotic
American. If she gets to find out that you have been been zealously on
the internet to make posts that badmouth your adopted country (USA)
and reflect propaganda material on behalf of CCP dictatorship in
Beijing, then, rstx, you will be in deep shit.
You have, no doubt, read the story of the woman in mainland China who
squeezed the testicles of a shopkeeper till he fell dead. Your gf will
no doubt squeeze your balls
well beyond pain threshold and serve you a dish cooked with your
shrivelled 74-year old balls instead of the 1000-year old eggs that
you had expected !!
Now here's rstx's sorry history of double dealing and outright
treason:
rstx was born in a village in China. He became a naturalized US
citizen and got a secret clearance from US government to work on
advanced weapons systems at Lockheed. It is clear that rstx had
thought it wise not to reveal that his heart was with the bandit
regime in Beijing when he applied for US citizenship, for a secret
clearance and for a job with Lockheed.
rstx has retired and continues to live with his gf in USA. He lives
off pensions from Lockheed and from US social security. But he has
chosen to to supplement his US pensions with an allowance of 50 cents/
post on the newsgroup from the CCP dictatorship in China.
But, of course, rstx is well knows which side of the toast is
buttered. For all his rantings about "evil USA" and "virtuous CCP-
dictatorship in China", he has stayed put in USA.
Chinese-Americans are by and large a patriotic lot. But there are a
few bad apples who go proactive with their bid to serve the colonial
agenda of CCP-dictatorship. These bad apples had often worked with
defense contractors like Lockheed, Boeing etc. but when opportunity
came they betrayed USA by selling company and US secrets to the CCP-
dictatorship. When caught, these bad apples inevitably landed in
jail.
rstx, USA respects your freedom of speech. Unlike the CCP-dictatorship
in China, the US government is not going to monitor your posts on the
newsgroup and go after you for your rantings on the internet. You can
bark with impunity without any fear of reprisal by the US government.
But you will make a grave mistake if you ever try to bite the hand
that feeds you by selling Lockheed and US secrets to the CCP-
dictatorship. You will be eventually caught and spend the rest of your
golden years inside jail cells.
Try to be like the normal Chinese-Americans. Ambassador Gary Locke is
a good role model. He has won nothing but admiration from the
ordinary Chinese under CCP-dictatorship.He is far more respected by
the ordinary folks in China than the stinking fat cats in the party
politburo.
As a retired 74-year old, you have ample time in your hand. Your idle
brain has become the devil's workshop. You are 24/7 on the internet
pushing the evil agenda of the CCP-dictatorship in China. But if you
have any brain, you will bark but not bite to avoid ending up in jail
like a few Chinese Americans have for selling US to the CCP-
dictatorship in China for pecuniary gains.
China-born aerospace engineer Dogfang Greg Chung is the same age as 74-
year old rstx. rstx would be wise to steer himself away from the path
of treason that has earned the 74-year old Dongfan Gref Chung a 15
year prison sentence. Here's his shameful story:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/09/local/la-me-chinese-spy9-2010feb09
9-2-2010
Chinese-born engineer gets 15 years in spying for China
Dongfan 'Greg' Chung, who worked with Boeing and Rockwell
International, was accused of providing information on the space
shuttle and Delta IV rocket.
By Patrick J. McDonnell
A Chinese-born aerospace engineer who had access to sensitive material
while working with a pair of major defense contractors in Southern
California was sentenced Monday to more than 15 years in prison for
acquiring secret space shuttle data and other information for China.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney in Santa Ana imposed a 188-month
prison term on Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73, a naturalized U.S. citizen
who lives in Orange.
Carney declared that he could not "put a price tag" on national
security and sought to send a signal to China to "stop sending your
spies here," according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Chung, who worked at Boeing's Huntington Beach plant, denied being a
spy and said he was gathering documents for a book, not for espionage.
His attorneys argued that much of the material was already available
on the public record.
At his sentencing, Chung professed his love for the United States,
even as prosecutors depicted him as a spy who would compromise U.S.
national security.
"Giving China advanced rocket technology is not in the United States'
national interest," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Greg Staples. "There is
a voracious appetite for U.S. technology in China."
Whether loyalty to his homeland or financial gain was Chung's motive
remained unclear. The case is one of a number of prosecutions that
have shed light on alleged Chinese efforts to gain access to U.S.
technology and research through espionage.
Chung was the first suspect tried with attempting to help a foreign
nation under the terms of the 1996 Economic Espionage Act, passed to
help prevent pilfering of sensitive economic information. Chung chose
to have the case heard by the judge rather than a jury.
Chung was convicted last year on charges of economic espionage and
acting as an agent for more than three decades while employed by
Rockwell International and Boeing Co.
When Chung was convicted, Carney said the case revealed Chung's
"secret life" as a "spy" for China. The case against him arose from an
investigation into another engineer, Chi Mak, who worked in the United
States and obtained sensitive military information for China. Mak and
several relatives were convicted of providing defense information to
China, the U.S. attorney's office said. Carney sentenced Mak to more
than 24 years in prison in 2008.
Federal authorities said Chung stole restricted technology and trade
secrets, including data related to the space shuttle and the Delta IV
rocket.
"This case demonstrates our resolve to protect the secrets that help
protect the United States, as well as the important technology
advancements developed by scientists working for companies that
provide crucial support to our national security programs," acting
U.S. Atty. George S. Cardona said Monday in a statement.
Chung held a "secret" security clearance when he worked at Rockwell
and Boeing on the space shuttle program, authorities said. He retired
in 2002 but the next year returned to Boeing as a contractor, a
position he held until September 2006, the U.S. attorney's office
said.
Between 1985 and 2003, Chung made trips to China to deliver lectures
on technology involving the space shuttle and other programs, the
government said. During those trips, Chung met with Chinese government
officials, including military agents, U.S. authorities said.
rst0
Apr 28, 2012, 3:22:09 PM4/28/12
to
Satish, you are the sorriest saddest stupidest filthiest ugliest
motherfucker SOB I have ever encountered that kept playing the same
old lousy tune from your broken 78 rpm record. Go get an education.
You're making a idiotic fool of yourself.
motherfucker SOB I have ever encountered that kept playing the same
old lousy tune from your broken 78 rpm record. Go get an education.
You're making a idiotic fool of yourself.
Satish
Apr 28, 2012, 3:53:28 PM4/28/12
to
rst0
Apr 28, 2012, 5:23:22 PM4/28/12
to
rst0
Apr 28, 2012, 5:22:29 PM4/28/12
to
Satish
Apr 29, 2012, 4:11:06 PM4/29/12
to
rstx, I think you have been afflicted with senility. That would
account for your extremely short memory. You see a post by Peter
Terpstra on a blind activist's under CCP dictatorship and by the time
account for your extremely short memory. You see a post by Peter
you are ready to post a reply, you have already forgotten what you are
replying to !! Well, you are 74. It is not surprising that you are
down with senility. When you see your gf you atrt to take off your
replying to !! Well, you are 74. It is not surprising that you are
clothes but by the time you are done you forget why you took them
off!!
If you manage to recall what you have been posting, you might want to
reflect on the fact what you are risking by your anti-American posts
on the newsgroup. rstx, your gf is a patriotic
American. If she gets to find out that you have been been zealously on
the internet to make posts that badmouth your adopted country (USA)
and reflect propaganda material on behalf of CCP dictatorship in
Beijing, then, rstx, you will be in deep shit. You have, no doubt,
read the story of the woman in mainland China who squeezed the
testicles of a shopkeeper till he fell dead. Your gf will no doubt
squeeze your balls well beyond your pain threshold and serve you a
on the newsgroup. rstx, your gf is a patriotic
American. If she gets to find out that you have been been zealously on
the internet to make posts that badmouth your adopted country (USA)
and reflect propaganda material on behalf of CCP dictatorship in
Beijing, then, rstx, you will be in deep shit. You have, no doubt,
read the story of the woman in mainland China who squeezed the
testicles of a shopkeeper till he fell dead. Your gf will no doubt
dish cooked with your shrivelled 74-year old balls instead of the 1000-
year old eggs that
you had expected !!
rstx, you are not a born citizen of USA. You became one on your own.
year old eggs that
you had expected !!
No one forced you to become a US citizen.
And you are living in USA with your gf even after your retirement -
you are not going back to the land of your birth. You have no illusion
about the CCP dictatorship. But you are dishonest and a traitor to
boot - that is why you have chosen to become a cheerleader of CCP
regimes's imperialist agenda. You have no morals.
Now here's rstx's sorry sorry history of double dealing and outright
rst9
Apr 29, 2012, 5:17:59 PM4/29/12
to
sadist, you are the sorriest saddest stupidest filthiest ugliest
Satish
Apr 29, 2012, 5:41:35 PM4/29/12
to
repeating the same meaningless shibboleth regardless of the subject
matter of the thread. Senility has no doubt affected your sex life as
well - on seeing your gf, you proceed to take off your friends. But
after lots of bungling when you finally manage to get disrobed, you
have forgotten why you wanted to take off your clothes !!
If you manage to recall what you have been posting, you might want to
American posts on the newsgroup.
rstx, your gf is a patriotic American. If she gets to find out that
you have been been zealously on the internet to make posts that
badmouth your adopted country (USA) and reflect propaganda material on
behalf of CCP dictatorship in Beijing, then, rstx, you will be in deep
shit. You have, no doubt, read the story of the woman in mainland
China who squeezed the
testicles of a shopkeeper till he fell dead. Your gf will no doubt
squeeze your balls well beyond your pain threshold and serve you a
dish cooked with your shrivelled 74-year old balls instead of the
1000- year old eggs that you had expected !!
rstx, you are not a born citizen of USA. You became one on your own.
No one forced you to become a US citizen.
And you are living in USA with your gf even after your retirement -
you are not going back to the land of your birth. You have no illusion
about life under CCP dictatorship.
rstx, your gf is a patriotic American. If she gets to find out that
you have been been zealously on the internet to make posts that
badmouth your adopted country (USA) and reflect propaganda material on
behalf of CCP dictatorship in Beijing, then, rstx, you will be in deep
shit. You have, no doubt, read the story of the woman in mainland
China who squeezed the
testicles of a shopkeeper till he fell dead. Your gf will no doubt
squeeze your balls well beyond your pain threshold and serve you a
dish cooked with your shrivelled 74-year old balls instead of the
1000- year old eggs that you had expected !!
rstx, you are not a born citizen of USA. You became one on your own.
No one forced you to become a US citizen.
And you are living in USA with your gf even after your retirement -
you are not going back to the land of your birth. You have no illusion
But you are dishonest and a traitor to boot - that is why you have
chosen to become a cheerleader of CCP regimes's imperialist agenda.
You have no morals.
rst9
Apr 29, 2012, 7:53:34 PM4/29/12
to
Satish, you are the sorriest saddest stupidest filthiest ugliest
motherfucker SOB I have ever encountered who kept playing the same
motherfucker SOB I have ever encountered who kept playing the same
0 new messages