Chen Guangcheng is a Chinese civil rights lawyer and activist who has been a persistent voice for freedom, human dignity, and the rule of law in his native country. Working in rural communities in China, where he was known as the "barefoot lawyer," Chen advocated for the rights of disabled people, and organized class-action litigation against the government's violent enforcement of its one-child policy. Blind since his childhood, Chen is self-taught in the law. His human rights activism resulted in his imprisonment by the Chinese government for four years, beginning in 2006; after his release he remained under house arrest, until his escape from confinement in 2012, whereupon he came to the United States, where he was a scholar at New York University in 2012-13. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Catholic University of America's Center for Human Rights. In March 2015, his autobiography The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China was published.
Talking about the rule of law in a place like China (more specifically, CCP-occupied China) is as absurd as talking about traffic regulations in the wilderness. The so-called law is the law of kings, wielded at whim. Only ending authoritarianism, establishing the balance of power, and respecting the rule of law will stop the government from being a tool of the CCP's desires and evil aims.
Date posted: 2023-04-22
In the first part of this essay, I showed how the CCP persecutes individuals, and discussed the CCP's structural control of the government and the nation. In this second part, I will compare the U.S. democratic system with the CCP regime to more clearly demonstrate how one-party rule results in authoritarianism.
Date posted: 2022-02-24
The CCP regularly employs violent tactics to persecute and silence its opponents and operates with impunity as a shadow power. China's political structures enable it to maintain monolithic control of the nation. By discussing my own experience under the CCP and shedding light on its opaque structures, I hope to show that comparing the CCP's authoritarian regime with democratic governance is like comparing barbarism with civilization: there is no comparison.
Date posted: 2022-02-24