On The Front Lines
John W. Whitehead Calls on President Bush to Personally Condemn China's Practice of Forced Abortions and Imprisonment of Blind Activist
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- In a letter issued today, John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, has called on President Bush to personally condemn China's practice of forced abortions and its imprisonment of civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng. Chen has been vocal about his opposition to the methods employed by Chinese authorities to force compliance with China's "one-child policy," which limits urban--and sometimes rural--couples to having one child in an effort to control China's population growth. A copy of Whitehead's letter is available here.
"While officials within the Bush Administration have condemned Chen Guangcheng's imprisonment and called on Chinese authorities to release him, their timid rhetoric has failed to communicate a sense of urgency in keeping with the severity of Chen's situation," stated Whitehead. "Clearly, the time for diplomatically speaking through representatives has passed. The urgency of Chen's plight demands that President Bush personally speak up for Chen and others like him who are being persecuted for daring to speak truth to power. Chen should not, and must not, be the lone voice in the wilderness speaking out against such acts of injustice and wrongdoing."
On August 24, 2006, Chen Guangcheng, a blind civil rights activist in China, was sentenced by Chinese authorities to four years and three months in prison for the alleged crime of "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic." Human rights advocates familiar with the case have reported that the charges against Chen were fabricated in order to retaliate against him for his vocal opposition to China's inhumane practice of forced abortions and sterilizations. Chinese authorities have been accused of attempting to control China's population growth through bribery, coercion, forced sterilization, forced abortion and infanticide.
According to published reports, 34-year-old Chen was placed under house arrest after talking to Time magazine about some forced abortion cases he was investigating in the Shandong Province of China. Within hours of meeting with Time, Chen was placed under a house arrest that lasted from September 2005 to March 2006, during which time it was reported that "thugs routinely showed up at Chen's house to rough him up." Chen was later formally arrested in June 2006. On the eve of his trial, according to news reports, all of Chen's lawyers were detained and barred from the courtroom, leaving Chen to contend with a government-appointed public defender who did little to protect his client.
In his letter to President Bush, Whitehead called on him to personally speak out against the egregious human rights abuses presently taking place in China, especially as they relate to the issue of forced abortions. Whitehead also commended the president for his administration's decision to withhold U.S. funds from the United Nations Population Fund to China as a result of forced abortions. "However," he added, "more must be done by you personally. You have a moral duty to raise your voice loudly against injustice and wrongdoing, whether it takes place within the United States or beyond our borders. We are a world in need of a leader with the moral courage and strength of his convictions to take a personal stand against injustice and for what is right." In closing, Whitehead urged President Bush as he considers his presidential legacy to follow Chen's example of "speaking truth to power by taking a vocal stand now for the dignity of all humans and the sanctity of human life."
