Forced Abortion Opponent's Wife Wants China to Stop Pre-Olympics Harassment

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Forced Abortion Opponent's Wife Wants China to Stop Pre-Olympics Harassment
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 28, 2008

Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) -- The wife of an attorney who is one of the most prominent Chinese activists against forced abortions is asking the government to end its harassment during the Olympics. Yuan Weijing has written to President Hu Jintao to end the harassment against her family and her husband, Chen Guangcheng.
Last year, Chen received a bogus four year and three month jail term on trumped up charges because he exposed a massive campaign of forced abortions in Linyi, China.
When he spoke to western media about the problems in his hometown, for which he had planned a class action lawsuit, local officials, with the aid of national government leaders in Beijing, turned on the prosecution.
Yuan has had police tailing her and has been confined to her home at time since Chen was apprehended and jailed.
The organization Human Rights in China obtained a copy of a new letter from her saying China should lighten up on Chen and her family with the Olympics getting international attention.
"I once believed the Olympics would give the people of China a sense of pride and happiness, and allow the world to see how greatly China has been transformed by its rapid economic growth. I now feel only extreme disappointment," Yuan wrote.

"Because of the Olympics' approach, people like me -- nothing but a rights defender's wife -- are being specially 'protected' by the government," she said.
Yuan said the number of guards surrounding her home make life impossible.
"I am hopeful that you, President Hu, along with our nation's other leaders, will be able to see the truth I have expressed in this pre-Olympics letter, and that you will gain an understanding of the humiliation and helplessness of my everyday life," she said.
"I, like the people of this nation, am looking forward to the Olympics' arrival, and I hope for their success. At the same time, however, I am even more looking forward to the Olympics' end," Yuan added.

Human Rights in China Executive Director Sharon Hom commented on the letter and said the government is increasing its crackdown on dissidents and those who stand up for human rights.
That's the opposite of the kind of free international community the Olympics support, he said.
"The rights of Yuan and her family, and countless other individuals like them, risk being overlooked and trampled upon amid the authorities' final dash toward the Beijing Games," he said.


Last week, a Congressional committee approved a resolution calling on China to end its policy of forcing women who violate its one-child family planning program to have abortions.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved legislation calling on the Chinese government to immediately “end abuses of human rights of its citizens."
Before that, a leading expert on the brutal campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations that accompany China's one-child family planning policy urged a boycott of the Summer Olympics.
Steven Mosher, of the Population Research Institute, says the games will legitimatize China's abhorrent human rights records.