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Blind Chinese Dissident Who Escaped in 2012 Now a US Citizen

Associated Press

   A blind Chinese dissident who escaped to the United States in 2012 is
   now an American citizen.
   Chen Guangcheng, speaking through a translator, said in an interview
   with The Associated Press last week he was "very grateful that America,
   this free country, has welcomed us."
   Chen met with members of his legal team July 8 in Manchester, New
   Hampshire, to celebrate. He became a U.S. citizen in Baltimore on June
   21.
   "It's a long journey from being under house arrest in China to being a
   U.S. citizen. It took 15 years," said George Bruno, former U.S.
   ambassador to Belize and one of Chen's lawyers.
   An international symbol for human dignity after running afoul of local
   government officials for exposing forced abortions carried out as part
   of China's one-child policy, Chen was subjected to years of persecution
   and illegal detention for advising villagers on how to counter official
   abuses.
   After serving four years in prison on what supporters called fabricated
   charges, Chen was kept under house arrest until escaping in 2012,
   dodging a security cordon around his home in east China's Shandong
   province and placing himself under the protection of U.S. diplomats.
   Chen's 2012 flight to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing sparked a six-day
   diplomatic tussle between the U.S. and China, threatening to derail
   then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's strategic talks intended to
   build trust between the world's superpower and its up-and-coming rival.
   Last year, Chen addressed the Republican National Convention, where he
   called on other countries to support President Donald Trump in leading
   a coalition to "stop China's aggression."
   Chen, 49, a visiting fellow at Catholic University of America, said he
   hopes America "will stand by the Chinese people" against the Communist
   Party.
   "The human rights situation is getting worse and worse," he said. "As
   people in China are more aware of their rights as they get more
   information online, and have more demand for their rights, the
   Communist Party is becoming more and more worried about losing their
   control and power, and that results in them using more and more force
   to suppress the people to protect the control of the power."
   A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to
   a request for comment.
   Chen also said the United States needed to take a harder line with the
   Communist Party, or the CPC, and "give up on the appeasement policy."
   "If we only negotiate with the CPC, they will not be afraid. The CPC
   has always been unreasonable and arbitrary."