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Subscribe to RSSBlind social activist Chen Guangcheng is starting a new life of freedom in the U.S. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
BEIJING -- The brother of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng who was reported to have gone missing has returned to his village in northeastern China, a lawyer said on Saturday.
The short disappearance of Chen Guangfu had sparked concerns he was the latest target of government reprisals against the family of the activist, who escaped from his village in late April after 19 months of detention at home.
Shandong-based lawyer Liu Weiguo told Reuters Chen Guangfu had returned to Dongshigu village. Liu earlier said the activist was "very worried" about his brother's disappearance and was contacting friends to look for him.
"Brother Fu is now home," Liu said, adding he had received a text message from Chen Guangfu on Saturday night.
Chen Guangfu had left his village on Tuesday and arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to seek legal help for his son who is detained on a charge of attempted murder. Friends and family had tried to contact him since Friday evening after it appeared he did not return to his hotel room in Beijing that night.
His son Chen Kegui, 32, was charged with "intentional homicide" for using knives to fend off local officials who burst into his home on April 27, the day after they discovered his uncle had escaped.
Blind Chinese activist Chen in US: 'Promote justice and fairness in China'
He could face the death penalty. His lawyers, denied access to him last week, said he did not kill anyone.
On Wednesday, Chen Guangfu had recounted to Reuters details of his own torture and reprisals by authorities since his brother's escape.
He said he was restricted from leaving his village, and police in Shandong warned him they would increase his son's sentence if he gave interviews.
Read more news about China on NBC's Behind the Wall
Blind social activist Chen Guangcheng leaves China to start a new life of freedom in the U.S. Angus Walker reports.
Activist Chen Guangcheng took refuge in the U.S. embassy last month, where he stayed for six days and sparked a diplomatic crisis between China and the United States.
That crisis, which overshadowed a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was finally defused last Saturday when China allowed Chen to fly to the United States to study.
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I guess authorities in America has never broken into anyone's house before and if that does happen the resident has every right to yield knives to attack the authorities and it would not be a crime. Right?
This is another example of why the Bible refers to governments of this world as beasts.
1st we should take care of our citizens first then help others! Since we kindly helped this gentleman why did we not get all of his family out not just his wife and kids. Are we that stupid that we could not figure out once the guy and his wife and kids were moved here that we did not think that the Chinese government would go after the rest of his family in revenge! The Chinese have a history of this.
Why is this our problem to begin with? We are not the keepers of the entire world population. We can't save everyone. I agree with your statement that we need to take care of our own. But we can't even do that anymore. Our country can no longer afford to do this.
And this is the country all you WalMart lovers support! Back in the 30's America turned a blind eye on what was happening in Germany until Hitler got so strong he invaded most of Europe. Are we waiting until the Red Bastards with their 1 Billion army overrun us?? There needs to be pressure on China, but that only works if we stop buying anything "made in China". May be hard at first but in the long run it will bring back production for those things and jobs for Americans.
Buy american made goods and stop buying things made in China this will definitely send these thugs a message. If you buy american made goods then they will soon have to stop producing over in this communist nation. I fill sad for the people who have to live under this dictatorship and we support it when we buy their sweatshop made products. They are now buying up american manufacturing companies that went broke over here in the US I wonder who they will fill them with. Probably cheap amercian labor. Thank the Republican party who came up with this free trade deal.
When someone trying to be intelligent by just watching TV and being influenced by Holywood idiots, the result is just like this maggie.
We are so pollitically correct in this country yet we continue to farm work and spend billions of dollars on manufacturing products in China. Enough is enough with this already. Its time to start focusing on the United States for a change. How does a country so worried about offending our own citizens continue to deal with a country of savages like China.
People here are as blind as this guy. If a guy who used a knife to fend off a policeman he will be killed in a blink in the USA. But if the same thing happened in China and this man was detained for the pending murder charges the entire world are accusing the crudity of Chinese government. Most of Chinese family has a single child but this blind guy has two children and the world is shouting that the one-child policy of Chinese government is not fair to Chen and his extended family. People usually fled to void to be noticed but he and his brother were "fled" from a countryside village to a world-known capital city to let everyone know where he is. If Chinese government wants to revenge his family why he fled to Chinese government's lap? How could this guy be “missing” when he is surrounded by foreign media crowds? Who knows if he is now hiding in the US embassy and waiting to be arranged for a free flight to US and get compensated for his heroic flee as his brother did. Give us a break! Actions and lies from this family are as disgusting as those of the communist government.
Why is this guy news? Americans can't even rein in our own political system run amok and we're supposed to get outraged over China? Where's the outrage over our govt? No jobs, housing collapse, Wall Street rewarded, politicians making money hand over fist while millions are falling into the poverty level daily.
So now our govt will support this stupid blind dude, pay for his education..everything and US citizens are still getting reamed.
F**K you blind China man. You're just another distraction designed to move attention off real American issues.
Yeah, let's spend another @!$%# load of money to find this guy. We can put him up with his brother. What's another freeloader today. Apparently I don't mind giving my money away. Maybe they will be able to vote to keep the Assclown in office.
China/USA ya cant get rid of them now, Think about it, If we stopped all trade coming from china 60% of all US would be running around naked, if not that, we would be getting our cloths from Mexico or India, and is just as bad as china, you just don't hear a lot about it, then which would raise the price till you cant afford it. (cost of Demand) At anytime china wanted to it could cripple the US and they know it. Its a shame that the US has sold out ,Sure it would be a good thing if it was possible to stop all their goods coming in, but they own to much of the US now,,it should have been done years ago before the company's got to big to do anything with and before we got into china for 15 trillion dollars.
Check out what you purchase. If the bar code # starts with 690-695, don't buy it. It's crap from china!!! Easy way to send them a message. Do not buy their products.
The solution is simple; remove the tax breaks and incentives from those American corporations who build their factories and offices in foreign nations and give the tax breaks and incentives to those who build and create jobs in our own country, eliminate the H-1B visa program, tax all foreign profits of American corporations and penalize them for parking their profits in foreign banks. In any event, you can't put all the blame on our corporations; our politicians have been in the back pockets of corporations for decades and once they accept the financial contributions from the lobbyists they will do as they are told. The majority of our politicians are nothing more than puppets and I don't have to tell you who is pulling the strings.
This guy should have gone missing before we brought him here.
traditionally the dictators and comunist goverments goes with theirs secret services overnight at the houses of the people that talk or spech against them and they kill them without going in the court.
mr chen not to wait to much from the chinese goverment for the missing people from his family.
i had 2 from my family that was taken that way 1970`s
and 2 that escaped to italy 1950`s they knew what was waiting from the comunism hey have big families today in Italy
Before he gets to waste any more of our tax dollars, it is too bad that Chen Guangcheng is not the one who went missing.
FedUp, are you referring to Presidents G.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, the two whose policies, along with Wall Street and the financial industry, put us in this economic mess?
I still don't understand why our stupid gov't caused diplomatic problems by getting involved with this to begin with. We need to stop being the world cop and start taking care of our own interests, which does not include angering a powerful country who is most definitely NOT friendly to us, all over ONE lousy guy who is not even a US citizen. What is so special about this guy that he needs our help (read "free education, medical care and money") when our gov't leaves others to rot, like the guy who actually helped find bin laden? I don't get it one bit. This guy must poop golden eggs or something.
China has never been a democracy. It is not consistent with their culture. We should keep out of their political
disputes. Most of the blubbering over this idiot come from obummer (the dictatorwannabe) supporters.
How about a prisoner exchange 300,000,000 Americans to China and 3,200,000,000 Chinese to America.
Then we get the jobs!
The US should have stayed out of it. Chen is a coward for leaving when he knows that China will punish anyone he is related to for his actions. Chen has no rights under the US law because he isn't a citizen.
Correct! Their citizen, their problem. We should keep our nose out of other country's internal problems. We are not the policeman of the world.
Stop calling him a BLIND activist! His disability doesn't define him. Here we are in the year 2012 and this ignorant phrasing is still being used, and by the media no less.
Do we say, "Blind singer, Stevie Wonder, ........" ????????????
Shame on you!
YES IN DEE DEE! Here we have a typical example of the US and China negotiating!
You the US get the Blind Guy, and his family, and then we get the SCAPE GOAT,the blind guy's Brother!
You people don't think this went on? All bets are on it did!
That way China's lap bitch the United States,comes out like smelling Rose and the GREAT HUMANITARIAN, and China still gets to keep a Victim,the Blind Guy's Brother,just to satisfy their Disgusting sense of Authority!
You people better get your Ipad,Cell Phone, and Face Book, heads out of your asses,and realize that in increments the US government is becoming a Clone or a Clown as I like to call it,of China's Authoritarian Style of government, and you people haven't the foggiest idea as to what the Hell is really going on here.
This poor Blind Guy is a PROPAGANDA PIECE! GET THE HINT!
Gloria, what most Americans fail to understand and admit is that the U.S. is slowly but surely becoming a police state. I'm as much a patriot as any other American but I refuse to stick my head in the sand and ignore that fact.
Exactly Sichuan,it is slowly and methodically being shoved down their throats and they can't even see this.
If somebody says something like what I just said above,these people call you a Conspiracy Theorist,or something to that effect!
I understand fully as to where you are coming from,we are both patriots, and can not ignore the fact! This country is in danger,big time!
people this is a no brainer, we do have a vote still, just stop buying anything produced in China, maybe we concentrate on one company at a time, and the Chinese may understand what a gloabl economy is, or crap they hold how many trillons of our worthless dollar
The day we get any alliance fromChina will be when the Chinese flag is any color but red! Beyond that is their forgetful ness about how we helpped them against Japan. On this Memorial Day, lets reflect onwhat we did for China, and then remember what they have done against us!
Yeah and remember all those Bogus Trillions we supposedly owe these Clowns and ALL WE GAVE AWAY AND DID FOR THEM FOR FREE!
We have to increse security of Embassy gate not to pass even one blind ant.
Mr Chen can be a citizen in our country cause if goes back to china hi can die cause hi talked i see against the one and only freaking comunist party.
"Hasn't seen his brother in years" how are you being an activist in China for Democracy when you come to the United States??? He sounds a lot like the Cuban's in Miami, Alpha 66 is still practicing in the everglades to take back Cuba, they are still here doing nothing and have never and will never leave!!! Neither will this Chinese activist...