Due to obstruction by the Chinese communist regime, the meeting to bring attention to the case of Mr. Chen Guangcheng, which was originally scheduled by volunteers for 2 p.m. on June 19 in Beijing, had to be cancelled. Then at 7:30 p.m. on the same day, Mr. Chen’s mother and son were abducted outside the home of Beijing-based lawyer Teng Biao’s in Huilongguan District.
Mr. Chen Guangcheng has been held in custody since March 11 of this year. On June 11, 2006 Mr. Chen’s wife, Yuan Weijing, received a criminal detention warrant from the Yinan County Public Security Department in Linyi City, Shandong Province. The warrant stated that Mr. Chen was currently detained in Yinan detention station for his suspected involvement in “willfully destroying property and disrupting traffic when organizing gatherings.”
The Abduction Process
During an interview with The Epoch Times, Teng Biao called for the immediate attention of people worldwide to the plight of Mr. Chen and his family.
Mr. Chen’s seventy-year-old mother and three-year-old son had broken through the blockade set up by the Linyi local public security authorities and had arrived at Beijing on June 17 to seek legal assistance in rescuing Mr. Chen.
At 7:30 p.m. on June 19, while Mr. Chen’s mother and son were taking a walk in the garden outside lawyer Teng’s home, approximately 10 people rushed out of an unlicensed car and forced the pair back into it.
Lawyer Teng tried to stall the vehicle but was encircled and beaten to the ground. After about twenty minutes of confrontation, Teng called his friends and some media outlets in Beijing for help.
However, the policemen who arrived after receiving a call from Teng’s neighbor did not make any attempt to stop the abductors. Instead, they assisted the abductors in their pursuit of Mr Chen’s relatives. Teng and his friends tried to stop them but they were all forcefully pushed to the ground.
Canceling the Meeting of Volunteers
Teng Biao, Xu Zhiyong and other law workers had originally planned to schedule a meeting regarding Mr. Chen on the afternoon of the 19th June in Beijing’s Jianguomen. They were prepared to relate in detail the incidents that happened to Mr. Chen and his family over the past year and Mr. Chen’s current condition in prison. They hoped that more people would be moved to help Chen Guangcheng to regain his freedom through a group effort.
Teng Biao said that because Mr. Chen Guangcheng’s family and friends and other volunteers have been subjected to different levels of interference and monitoring, they decided to temporarily cancel the meeting.
Some of the volunteers are now urgently planning their next move. Today the group of lawyers for Chen Guangcheng is inquiring after Chen Guangcheng’s family and requesting a visitation with him.
The Story of Chen Guangcheng
Mr. Chen is 35 years old this year. He is greatly detested by the local officials due to his constant work to protect human rights, cooperation with lawyers and reporters from abroad in the past year to investigate Shandong’s Linyi municipal authority’s plan in carrying out birth control, and the violent treatment of women in the area.
Last August he was confined to his home, and on June 11, his wife Yuan Weijing received documents from the local police station, stating that they had taken and imprisoned Chen Guangcheng the previous day. His crime was “Suspected involvement in willfully destroying property and disrupting traffic when organizing gatherings.”
Yuan Weijing has since been confined and isolated from the outside world. Cheng Guangcheng’s 70-year-old mother, three-year-old son and months old baby girl are left to fend for themselves and have suffered immense pressure under these circumstances.
Friends Read Free