Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's tribal name "Rolihlahla" means "to stir up trouble." He lived up to his name by becoming South Africa's first democratically elected president and ushering out apartheid, which treated blacks, Asians and other people of color as lesser than European-heritage people.
Chen Guangcheng is not from South Africa, but he has stirred up trouble in his native China. Guangcheng became internationally known for filing a 2005 law suit against a local government for forced abortions and forced sterilizations practiced as part of China’s one-child policy. Later he endured physical and psychological abuse in jail and in house arrest. Eventually he escaped to the United States through negotiations between the US State Department and Chinese authorities.
Chinese authorities are still upset about the trouble Guangcheng has continued to stir up. On April 9, 2013, Guangcheng testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee On Foreign Affairs about his family's and other people's persecution in China and other ongoing human rights abuses in China. Guangcheng gave Congress a list of Chinese officials involved in forced abortions and forced sterilizations. Some testimony is still being translated from Chinese to English.
Pastor Bob Fu, founder and president of China Aid, also testified at the subcommittee hearing. He cited some cases of forced abortion and forced sterilization in China. Fu said:
"On March 13, a woman Henan province (Daxuzhaitown, Taikang county) who had had a forced abortion was found hanged at the local family planning office with suspicious injuries all over her body. On March 19, a mother of two in Hubei province (Tongshan county) named Shen Hongxia was forced by local family planning officials to have a tubal ligation against doctors orders that led to her death. On March 22, a woman in her seventh month of pregnancy in Anhui province (Chuzhou, Fengyang county) was kidnapped by family planning cadres and taken to a hospital where a lethal injection was given that killed her seven-month-old unborn baby and caused her to deliver a dead fetus. China Aid has interviewed the husband of this woman and has offered to help them."
In October 2012 Actor and Activist Christian Bale presented Chen Guangcheng with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First. Bale said, "He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong. A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will. They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term -- imagine that -- with some women reportedly dying in the process. Now this is true horror. And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women -- who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values -- values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man -- for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years."
China does not operate by rule of law. Chinese authorities do what they like irregardless of laws. Guangcheng's nephew, Chen Kegui, has been in jail after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into Kegui's home after Guangcheng's escape. Kegui is married to Liu Fang. The couple have a young son, Chen Fubin. An April 29, 2013, letter by Freedom Now to the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture says in part:
"Chen Kegui is currently suffering from appendicitis, and although prison authorities may have administered intravenous antibiotics, he is in severe pain, has been denied access to a doctor, and has not been taken to a hospital despite reports that his appendix has begun to rupture.
Chen Kegui, 33, was detained by Chinese authorities shortly after his uncle, a prominent human rights advocate, escaped from illegal house arrest and sought refuge at the United States Embassy in Beijing. On April 27, 2012, police, local party officials, and government thugs stormed the family's home and arrested Chen Kegui's father, Chen Guangfu, beating and interrogating him about Chen Guangcheng's whereabouts. Authorities returned to the home and savagely beat Chen Kegui and his mother, Ren Zongju. When Chen Kegui attempted to defend himself from the intruders, a local party official was injured. After disappearing Chen Kegui for a number of days, the government formally arrested him in early May and ultimately sentenced him to three years and three months in prison on November 30, 2012, after a trial that failed to meet international standards for due process."
Luke 1:37 Complete Jewish Bible says, "For with God, nothing is impossible.” God impregnated a virgin without using male sperm. Since God did this, surely He can answer prayers for Chen Kegui, the Chen family and for the end to China's one-child policy which includes forced abortions and forced sterilizations and for an end to abortion everywhere.
According to Financial Times, the Chinese Health Ministry reported that since 1971, 196 million sterilizations and 336 abortions have been performed in China. Many of these are involuntary. In the January 2011 document, “Abortion Statistics: United States Data and Trends,” National Right to Life Committee Education Director Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon estimates that there have been 54,559,615 abortions since the January 22, 1973, Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion based on data from both the Centers for Disease Control and the Guttmacher Institute, a former Planned Parenthood research arm. The analysis also found that the best estimate for the current number of annual abortions in the United States — involving both the surgical abortion procedure as well as the abortion drug RU 486 — is 1.2 million. Adding another year of 1.2 million abortions to the 2011 total National Right to Life estimated based on Guttmacher and CDC figures, there have been 55,772.015 abortions in America since Roe v. Wade. Another way to look at the statistics is to say that in America every 30 seconds a baby loses his or her life through abortion.
Former Mexican President Benito Juarez said, "The respect for the rights of others is peace."
The rights of the unborn and the born of all ages are not being respected in China or America. Don't agree to be silent and slack about fighting to end abortion, involuntary sterilization and other human rights abuses. A Japanese proverb says, "Do quickly what is good." The US negotiated a deal with China to get Chen Guangcheng out of China. The US can negotiate with China to get Chen Kegui to a hospital to treat his appendicitis and to free him from jail. Write to:
Secretary of State John Kerry
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
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