Who's Chen Guancheng and Why Did He Speak at the GOP Convention?

“The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is an enemy to humanity,” escaped activist Chen Guancheng stated at the Republican National Convention. The blind man, wearing dark sunglasses and reading his speech in Braille, continued, “Religion, Democracy, and human rights can lead to prison.”

He knows.

Chen first came into the public spotlight in 2006 when he was arrested for organizing a campaign against the forced abortions inflicted by China’s one-child-policy. After his 2010 release from prison, the CCP placed him under extralegal house arrest, where he was held for two years. The government attempted to keep Guancheng hidden. He was held captive in the remote village of Dongshigu, where security guards in civilian clothing stood guard even though he had no outstanding legal charges against him.

The entire time he was threatened by the CCP. He recounted their abuse to the Wall Street Journal.

“When we were under house arrest, the party was always alternating threats with enticements, sticks with carrots. First it was the threats. They said if I didn’t listen, they’d ruin my family, my wife and kids would leave me. Next they’d say if I listened to them, they’d give me a great life, a house, a car. But I didn’t want to be bought. And I realized, this money wasn’t coming from Communist Party dues. It was being squeezed from common people.”

Chen planned his escape. He laid in bed for days, tricking the guards into thinking he was too sick to walk. The activist managed to climb out of bed (surrounded by glass bottles) over a wall in the dead of night. The darkness played to the blind man’s advantage, since he was accustomed to maneuvering in this way. The plan seemed to be going smoothly, until he fell and broke his leg.

“Why did heaven take one of my legs away at this moment?” Chen thought. “But there was no way for me to go back. I could only go forward, I had to succeed.”

Chen pushed on with a broken leg, somehow avoiding lines of guards before being met with his activist friends who secretly transported him to the US Embassy in Beijing.

After his arrival, Chen’s supporters and those who helped him escape went missing one by one. His wife recounted being chained to a chair for two days while being forced to ask Chen to leave the embassy by threat of beatings. Chen’s nephew went missing after a violent encounter with men in civilian clothes who broke into his home.

Thankfully, we live in America, where information about this man’s life is actually available. In China, there were no mentions of him in the news except to criticize the United States for holding him in our embassy.

Now, he powerfully speaks out from the highest stage in the land.

“The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop the CCP,” he said. “Standing up to fight unfairness isn’t easy… I know.”

What a powerful moment — and a powerful reminder. The United States needs to do all it can to make sure this barbaric, muderous treatment of Chinese citizens stops. Watch his speech below: