BEIJING – With more than 1.3 billion people, China has a plethora of views on the United States and its influence on the global stage.

Some see America as over-controlling, trying all the time to force its influence across the globe, while others see it as a beacon of individual freedom unheard of in China. And many are in between those views.

Family photo

Photos of Feng Jianmei on her hospital bed after a forced abortion have been circulating on the web. The photos were taken by her sister who in turn contacted the media about the story. The photos originally appeared in a local newspaper report online and then they were picked by netizens and distributed online.

Updated at 10:33 p.m. ET: China state media says city officials have apologized to Feng Jiamei and suspended three officials, the BBC reported.

Xinhua news said the Ankang city government will urge the county government to review its family planning operations, according to the BBC report.

BEIJING – Feng Jianmei  says she was manhandled by seven people, some of them local family planning officials, some of whom she didn’t know. 

Feng, 22 years old and seven months pregnant, was dragged out of her relative’s home, carried and shoved into a van that headed straight to a hospital on June 2, she told NBC News in phone interview.

She was blindfolded, thrown on a bed, and forced to sign a document that she couldn’t read with the blindfold still on her eyes. Then two shots were injected into her belly. Thirty hours later, on the morning June 4, she gave birth to a dead baby girl.

Feng is one of the many Chinese women who have been forced to have abortions under China’s strict one-child-only policy started in late 1970s to contain the country’s fast growing population, which has now topped 1.3 billion people.

One-child policy
China’s long time Communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong originally encouraged women to have as many children as possible during the Cold War-era when human power was believed to be an important force if war broke out. But the country’s rulers soon found it too difficult to feed the huge population – so they adopted a harsh policy that allows urban citizens to have only one child, and rural couples to have two, if the first child is a girl.  

The policy has been carried out for more than three decades despite public opposition, from human rights activists to ordinary people. Thousands of years of Chinese culture fostered the belief that “more children is more blessing,” especially in remote and rural areas where the elderly lack adequate social benefits and depend on children as they grow old.

Government family planning officials are also under pressure to make sure their constituencies follow the quota of babies allowed. When there’s no clear law telling them what they can and cannot do, forced abortions, often on late-terms pregnancies, have become the norm, particularly for the poor who are unable to pay the hefty fines to have additional children.   

Advocates on behalf of these women are usually ignored or face government repression. For example, Chen Guangcheng, the famous blind lawyer and human rights activist, represented victims of family planning abuse in Shandong Province. Chen was jailed for four years for his advocacy and put under house arrest until he recently escaped illegal detainment and fled to the U.S. last month.

More on Chen Guangcheng

There are no official figures of how many women in China unwillingly terminate pregnancies every year. “All Girls Allowed,” an organized founded by former 1989 student protest leader Chai Ling, claims there are 1.3 million forced abortions annually. 

‘How can I agree to do that, as a mother?’
Feng Jianmei didn’t realize she wasn’t allowed to have a second child (her first daughter was born in 2007) since everyone else around her was permitted to have a second child. Both she and her husband Deng Jiyuan took for granted that they would have the same right.  But the family planning office in Zengjiazhen, a small town in Shaanxi province in the heart of China, thought differently.  

Through a rigorous and rigid household registration system designed to control population movement, the central government classifies all its citizens as either city dwellers or rural peasants.  The registration, also known in Chinese as hukou, determines not only a citizen’s residence but also what kind of social services individuals are eligible for.

It is very difficult to change one’s hukou although there are many ways, including marrying a person with a different registration status, applying for a new status through one’s job, or paying an enormous sum of money. 

The local family planning office decided that Feng wasn’t allowed to have a second child because she didn’t have the necessary permit – apparently she had failed to relocate her hukou to Zengjiazhen when she moved from her original province of Inner Mongolia.

But the couple says they had no idea their plan to have a second child was connected with Feng’s hukou.

They were given another option that would solve the problem: pay a fine of $6,400. But that was an impossible amount for the couple to afford – Deng is a migrant worker and Feng is a farmer. 

“I told you, $6,400, not even a penny less. I told your dad that and he said he has no money,” the family planning official wrote to Deng in a text message that has been made public. “You were too careless, you didn’t think this was a big deal.”

Feng’s sister received the same warning;  if they couldn’t afford to help pay the fine, it was only a matter of time before her sister had to get rid of the baby, whether she wanted to or not.

Things came to a head on June 2, but according to the local government, Feng agreed to the abortion.

The Zhenping Population and Family Planning Bureau released on June 11 an official stamped document, which says  that “after government cadre’s repeated persuasion, Feng Jianmei agreed to have an abortion at 15:40 on June 2.” 

“No, I didn’t agree to do it,” Feng told NBC News. “How can I agree to do that, as a mother?”

She sobbed when asked what happened next, and said she was too upset to think about it. She said all those officials who kidnapped her disappeared after the abortion, and she’s still suffering from a constant headache.

Two appalling photos of her were taken and posted online that show her lying in bed, looking weak and helpless, with a dead and bloody baby next to her. The photos were taken by her sister who in turn contacted the media about the story. The photos originally appeared in a local newspaper report online and then they were picked by netizens and distributed online.

‘If this evil policy is not stopped, this country will have no humanity’
Forced abortions in China are not new, but Feng’s story spread rapidly via social media, and outrage was immediate and unanimous. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging site, netizens left thousands of angry comments, although many of the posts were quickly deleted by government censors.   

“The purpose of family planning was to control population, but now it has become murder population,” wrote Li Chengpeng, a well-known Chinese writer. “It was a method to contain population, but now it is a way to make money. When you can make money by killing, what else are you afraid to do? A seven-month baby can think already. I want to ask the murderer, how do you face your own mother when you go home? If this evil policy is not stopped, this country will have no humanity.”

Zhao Chu, another writer, called it pure murder. “This is not about enforcing the policy, it is about depriving someone’s right to live. We avoid the nature of it by using a medical word ‘enforced abortion.’ For so long family planning seems like something completely irrelevant of human life. It’s like coal mining or digging mushrooms. Human life has become lifeless indexes, some cold, meaningless numbers.

“Also, pushed by heavy fines, the controversial policy has become profit-oriented activities that everyone hates. The worst victims are those of low-class rural people who have no power to fight. Their tears and cries are not heard by so called mainstream society and the victims become worse than the untouchables,” said Zhao.

Many called for the one-child policy to be outlawed. “We feel so sorry for the dead baby girl, we criticize those so-called law enforcers. But we should rethink the 30-year-long family planning policy. It’d be worth it if this could help to change the policy! We keep our eyes open!” commented user A-Kun on his Weibo page.

Even Hu Xijin, chief editor of Global Times, one of China’s most pro-government newspapers, criticized the forced abortion on his Weibo account.

“I strongly oppose the barbarous forced abortion to this 7-month-pregnant mother. Time has changed and the intensity of enforcing family planning has changed. We should promote civilized family planning,” Hu wrote.

But he added that he didn’t think the whole policy should be abolished. “Don’t use Hong Kong and Japan as an argument to deny China’s population policy. Those places are small and developed early, fed by the whole world’s resources. But the world resources cannot afford to feed a China with billions of people.”

‘This has damaged the image of family planning work’
NBC News tried to contact both town and city level family planning offices in Zengjiazhen and Ankang, but the calls went unanswered.  

A report from Xinhua, China’s official government news agency, released on Thursday said that the Shaanxi Provincial Family Planning Committee has sent an investigation team to Zengjiazhen and requested local government to have the responsible parties held accountable.

“This has damaged the image of family planning work, and had an adverse effect on the society. The committee will resolutely prevent such things from happening again,” the Xinhua news report said.

Feng’s conversation with NBC News was interrupted three times by what she said were government cadres entering her hospital ward to talk.

When asked what she would do next or whether they will seek legal help, she uttered an answer in a very low voice: “I have no idea.” 

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Tyrone Siu / Reuters

Thousands of protesters hold banners as they march along a street, to protest and urge the Chinese authorities to carry out a proper investigation into the death of dissident Li Wangyang, in Hong Kong on June 10.

BEIJING – “I will not commit suicide” has become a new mantra among China’s human rights activists. 

They are responding half-mockingly and half-seriously to fears that they could be “suicided” by the Chinese government for their activism.

The movement comes in response to the suspicious death of Li Wangyang, a Chinese dissident jailed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Li, 61, was found dead in a hospital ward on June 6 under what his family says were suspicious circumstances, just two days after the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He had served over 20 years in Chinese prison for his activism.  

Hu Jia, a high-profile HIV/AIDS activist who served three and a half years in prison for the same crime Li was jailed for, “subversion of state power,” recently tweeted about the need to counter any foul play by the government.

Tiananmen activist found dead under suspicious circumstances

“It looks like I should leave a notarized document with my lawyer, saying: ‘Citizen Hu Jia will never commit suicide at any time, because of anyone, in any situation, or for anything,’” Hu tweeted. “If you are a dissident, activist or political prisoner constantly detained by secret police, I suggest you make a declaration or notarize such a document. This country does not lack people who were “suicided.’”

Wu Gan, another outspoken dissident known by the nickname “super vulgar butcher” on China’s blogosphere, also tried to pre-empt any future suicide claims by the government for his activism. “Here’s my announcement,” he wrote on Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service. “I’m healthy (apart from fatty liver disease), optimistic, and have a lot of hope in the future. I wait for the day when the sky clears up and they are brought to justice. I will absolutely never commit suicide.” 

The movement didn’t take long to reach Twitter, where a "#Iwillnotcommitsuicide” hash tag was created on June 8, just two days after Li’s mysterious death, and has been widely re-tweeted over the last three days.  

Philippe Lopez / AFP - Getty Images

People take part in a protest for the cause of late Chinese dissident Li Wangyang in Hong Kong on June 10.

Another activist, Liu Ping, from the southern province of Jiangxi, wrote on her Weibo account:  “I solemnly declare, if I’m caught (by police) I will never commit suicide!” 

Wang Lihong, a former Beijing businesswoman, jailed for eight months for her activism, expanded on the theme on her Twitter account. “I, Wang Lihong, once tried to kill myself in prison. It wasn’t because I was weak. I was only defending my dignity. But I will never do that again, no matter how you lure, ask, or even force – I will not commit suicide, unless you do it.” 

Li’s body was found in the Daxiang District Hospital in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, where he was receiving treatment for long-term ailments related to the more than 20 years he spent in prison. He had been released on May 5, 2011. 

But he may have grown too confident in his new-found freedom. On June 4, the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown,  i-CABLE, a Hong Kong based news channel, broadcast an interview with Li in which he was extremely outspoken in his description of his torture during his time in prison.  

Two days after the interview, he was found dead in his hospital room.

According to the local government in Shaoyang, Li’s body was cremated on the morning of June 9 with his relatives’ consent. They also said an autopsy was conducted by four legal and forensic experts the day before, which was witnessed and filmed by local congressional representatives and journalists.  

NBC News could not verify the reports with Li’s sister or her husband because their cell phones remained off on Monday.  

Courtesy Of Li Wangling / Courtesy of Li Wangling

A recent photo of Li Wangyang, a former labor activist and Chinese dissident, with his sister Li Wangling. He who was found dead under suspicious circumstances on June 6, two days after the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and an outspoken interview he did with a Hong King based TV-network aired.

BEIJING – Li Wangyang, a former labor activist and Chinese dissident jailed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, was found dead in a hospital ward under what his family says were suspicious circumstances, just two days after the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. 

His sister, Li Wangling, and brother-in-law, Zhao Baozhu, found his body when they paid a routine visit to the Daxiang District Hospital in Shaoyang, a city roughly 1,000 miles south of Beijing, on the morning of June 6.

They found him dead in his hospital room, hanging by a security bar in a window with hospital bandages around his neck. (Disturbing photos of Li circulating on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, show Li’s feet on the ground, something that puts in doubt the idea that he hung himself).  

Security and hospital authorities said that he had committed suicide.  

But his family is not buying that. 

"I'd never believe Li killed himself,” his brother-in-law Zhao said during a rushed phone interview with NBC News on Thursday. 

Li had done a controversial interview with a Hong Kong-based TV channel that aired on June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, in which he detailed the torture he underwent during the more than 20 years he spent in Chinese prisons.When Zhao was asked if he thought that interview had something to do with Li’s death, he said, “Yes.”

Zhao then quickly hung up the phone, saying someone had entered his hotel room, "It's not convenient now, let's talk later." 

Over 20 years in prison
Li, 61, had worked as a glass factory worker before he took the position of Chairman of Shaoyang Autonomous Workers Federation in 1989. He was a supporter of the student protests in Beijing in 1989 before they were brutally suppressed by the government with hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed by the army. 

Li was first arrested on June 9, 1989 for the crime of "active participation in a counter-revolutionary group.” He spent 11 years in a local prison. 

Vincent Yu / AP

Protesters mourn the death of Chinese labor activist Li Wangyang, seen in picture at center, during a protest outside the Chinese central government's liaison office, in Hong Kong on Thursday.

When Li was released from that prison term in 2000, he was suffering from severe heart disease, hyperthyroidism, and cervical vertebra diseases, according to family and friends. He was extremely weak and lost most of his hearing and sight in his left eye.

His second arrest, just one year later, made him one of the longest-serving political prisoners in China. 

In September 2001, Li was sentenced to 10 more years in prison for the crime of "subversion of state power.” That sentence was a result of a 22-day hunger strike by Li as an effort to protest the continuous persecution he had been subjected to after his release. His medical treatment was terminated and his house had been demolished, leaving him in frail health with nowhere to go, according to media reports.

After he went back to prison, his sister, Li Wangling, was put in a forced labor camp for three years for accepting interviews with the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. 

Li was finally released from that prison sentence on May 5, 2011. Huang Lihong, a local teacher and Li’s friend, told NBC News that Li’s health was greatly damaged at the time. 

"He had lost his sight and hearing. He couldn’t walk, and suffered from diabetes and heart disease, due to longtime torture. His muscles contracted and he was in bed all the time,” said Huang.

However, Huang believed Li had been doing better in the past 12 months. "His health was improving and he remained hopeful. He was happy when we told him we believed the 1989 movement would be redressed soon." 

Too outspoken: ‘I’m not afraid of death’
But Li may have been too confident that past wrongs would be righted soon. In an interview on June 4, the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, with i-CABLE, a Hong Kong based news channel, Li was extremely outspoken in his description of his torture during his various prison terms. 

"The prison had their own tailored handcuffs, smaller than your wrists,” Li explained. “They used pliers to handcuff me, and that was almost like clamping my wrist bones with pliers. When they did that I almost lost consciousness and couldn’t see anymore." 

In the two-minute-long video interview, Li, who appeared physically deteriorated, said he didn’t regret what he did. "Every man has a share of responsibility for the fate of his country. I’m not afraid of death, if that would fasten China’s process to enter a multi-party and democratic society." 

When asked about the candle vigil on the night of the anniversary in Hong Kong, Li said, "I hope Hong Kong’s memorial will spread all over China," with his arm waving firmly in the air and a very thick Hunan accent, "I hope it’s remembered by all Chinese people." 

Two days after the interview he was found dead in his hospital room. 

‘Everything seemed fine’ two days before
Another longtime friend of Li’s also expressed disbelief that he would ever take his own life. 

"Everything seemed fine when I visited him on June 4," Zhu Chengzhi, a long-term activist and former school mate of Li’s, told NBC News in a phone interview Thursday. 

"We talked about many things, like Syria deporting foreign ambassadors. He was in a good mood, and seemed to be more open minded since last May,” said Zhu. “As a close friend, I don’t believe he would commit suicide." 

Zhu also said in another interview that just one day before his death, Li asked his sister to buy him a radio so he could listen to the news.

Zhou Zhirong, a local leader of China’s legal, but powerless, "Democratic Party", is organizing a "committee of investigation into the death of Li Wangyang," under the risk of being arrested himself for doing so. 

"I have no evidence whether [Li] was killed, but I think the long term persecution by the authorities led to Li’s death," said Zhou in a phone interview with NBC News Thursday. "Li Wangyang is Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela in China. I don’t believe our investigation will come to any fruition, but it will wake up the citizens and make them fight for their rights." 

NBC News calls to Shaoyang and Longhui police for comment on Li’s death went unanswered.  

As of Thursday afternoon 2,700 people, including prominent Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, scholars, lawyers and writers, had signed an online petition to step up pressure on China to investigate Li’s death, according to Reuters.  

Horace Lu contributed to this report.

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BEIJING – A stray dog has become China’s newest celebrity after latching onto a group of cyclists and traveling more than 1,100 miles over at least 12 mountains, some as high as 13,000 feet, in China’s southwestern Tibetan Plateau.

The homeless dog, nicknamed Xiao Sa, finished her 24-day journey from China’s Sichuan Province to Lhasa, Tibet on May 24.

“At first we didn’t think about adopting her at all,” said 22-year-old cyclist and college student Xiao Yong in an interview with China Central TV. “But we were shocked by her perseverance. She followed us [from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province] to Litang [a town in Sichuan province with a 2.6 mile altitude]. We then decided to make a cage for her when we had a steep road going downhill.”

The long march began with a chicken leg Xiao Yong tossed to the puppy when he started his bike ride in early May. The little mutt followed the cyclist team after that and became part of the cycling group.

They came up with the nickname “Xiao Sa” by combining the term “xiao,” which means “little,” with the last syllable of Lhasa, the administrative capital of Tibet and the cyclists final destination.

“She once ran 37 miles in one day, going uphill. We were very impressed by Xiao Sa’s persistence, that inspired us all the way till our destination, the Potala Palace [in Lhasa, Tibet],” said Xiao Yong. “I’ll take Xiao Sa back home. I think she’s taking me as her owner now.”

Lu Bo, another team member, said the little white fur-ball was an inspiration to the whole team. The dog “made us so happy. Once a few of our team members lagged behind, she ran from hill top to the bottom, to bring these guys to the rest of the team. She injected power into us,” said Lu. 

She is now with her new owner, Xiao Yong, in Wuhan, capital city of the southern Hubei province.

And like a true celebrity, Xiao Sa has even opened her own Weibo account, China’s most popular Twitter-like service. It is called “GoGoXiaoSa,” where fans can check out her latest photos and whereabouts. And she already has over 82,000 followers.

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Bo Gu/NBC News Beijing

Chinese blogger Fang Hong

BEIJING -- Westerners spreading Christmas cheer with their holiday lights last year probably didn’t realize that some of the warm glow came courtesy of a prison labor camp in China, and partially thanks to a former inmate named Fang Hong.

After serving a year making Christmas lights in grueling conditions, Fang Hong was released on April 24 from the Drug Rehabilitation and Re-Education-Through-Labor Center in China’s southwestern mega-city of Chongqing.

Fang’s crime? Before their fall, he criticized Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai, two formally powerful Chongqing officials, now with their own legal problems.

Wang is the ex-police chief of Chongqing, who fled to the American consulate in Chengdu for protection in February, allegedly after a fall-out with Bo.

Ed Flanagan / NBC News

A crowd gathers around Fang Hong in Chongqing to hear his story.

Bo is the former Party Secretary of Chongqing, who had been a hot contender for one of China’s most powerful political positions on the standing committee of the Communist Party's politburo, but is now under investigation for corruption. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Thin and energetic, 45-year-old Fang has never been shy about speaking out. Before his imprisonment, he worked at the Fuling District Forestry Bureau in Chongqing, but spent most of his spare time writing blogs that challenged wasteful public spending and criticizing government corruption.

It is unclear whether a post he wrote last April was the last straw. In it, he mocked a lawsuit that implicated Li Zhuang, a lawyer who defended a businessman during Bo’s controversial crackdown on gangs started in 2009. While defending the businessman, Li himself drew criticism and was accused of inciting perjury. 

“Bo Xilai took a dump, and asked Wang Lijun to eat it,” Fang wrote. “Wang passed the dump to the public prosecutor, and public prosecutor passed it to the court. The court then passed it to Li Zhuang. Li’s lawyer said, Li is not hungry. Whoever took the dump can eat it.”

City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy

The mocking scatological references obviously irritated someone within the police force, who then summoned Fang on the same evening that the blog post was published.

Fang was told by police to delete his post. He did, but his ordeal had just begun.

The next day, Fang received a summons again from the Chongqing police. He refused to go, but soon found his home surrounded by more than 20 policemen and a fire truck. The standoff lasted a whole day.

Fang was detained, and four days later received a written decision without trial, sentencing him to one year in a labor re-education prison for “spreading rumors and disturbing social order.”

Fang’s son and his girlfriend were also forced to “take a vacation” to prevent them from talking to lawyers and journalists.

Fang told NBC News he had to work about 10 hours every day, including weekends. He said he was locked in the prison along with about 1,000 other inmates. He shared a room with 11 others, most of whom were serving sentences for petty crimes such as gambling, fighting, stealing a neighbor’s chicken, or taking lewd photos.

Fang said his job was to weld Christmas light bulbs for a Shenzhen-based company called Kingland Lighting, and also screw in wires for notebooks for another company, Chongqing Baogen. He also made straws for Fuling Taiji Group for its health drinks. Kingland’s website says it exports its Christmas lights to Europe.

Fang made 8 Yuan a month, about of $1.27. He told NBC News he was not allowed to eat meat and had no connections with anyone on the other side of the iron bars. A chain smoker, Fang said he eased his nicotine withdrawal thanks to a cellmate who smuggled in cigarettes for him. Chinese prisons allow inmates to smoke, but Fang had been stripped of this privilege.

In February, a lawyer who came to see Fang told him Wang and Bo were in trouble.

“The whole labor camp was in ecstasy,” said Fang. “Everyone was jubilant and saying, the oppressive official is now a traitor! The red song singer is a traitor!”

On April 24, Fang was finally released.

What did it feel like to regain his freedom? Fang simply shook his head and calmly said: “Nothing. I have no feeling. Nothing is too shocking in this country. Unfortunately, I was born in China.”

With the help of a few lawyers, Fang is now suing the Education-through-Labor Office of Chongqing, demanding that his conviction be overturned and asking for compensation.

Whether his case will be heard by the Chongqing's Third Intermediate Court is uncertain. Pu Zhiqiang, one of the lawyers fighting for Fang, told NBC News he’s optimistic.

“If the court rejects his case, it shows its cowardice to the whole world. It tells people the court cannot meet a citizen’s expectations,” Pu said.

Fang and his lawyers hope that by making his case known to the world, China will one day abolish the decades-long re-education through labor system.

“We should pursue the answer to one question: Is a labor camp legal?” said Pu. “Is it based on laws? It’s so brutal and completely up to some individual’s decision to arrest anyone, without trail and any legal procedure. Victims have no way to help themselves. It’s against the Chinese constitution and international laws. The labor camp system should be permanently abolished.”

(NBC News contacted Chongqing Third Intermediate Court on May 15. The court confirmed Fang's case will be heard but declined to give more comments at the moment.)

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AFP - Getty Images

This image grab taken from a video which was released on Friday shows Chen Guangcheng, a blind Chinese lawyer, speaking following his escape from house arrest. Reuters reported that one person on a Chinese social-media site wrote that Chen "has escaped from the clutches of the devil."

BEIJING -- Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer who is also one of China’s best-known human-rights activists, has escaped after spending one-and-a-half years under house arrest.

Reuters reported that Chen, who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail.

Groups of local thugs watched him 24 hours a day and stopped anyone who tried to visit him, sometimes using violence, including scuffling with Hollywood actor Christian Bale.

He Peirong, an activist and longtime friend of Chen, said on Twitter that the lawyer fled on April 22.

Chen once tried to dig a tunnel in a bid to break out. However, his plan was discovered and the guards, allegedly appointed by the local government, paved cement over the ground outside his home to prevent any further attempts to flee.

Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight

He Peirong told Britain's Times newspaper that Chen had planned the escape for months. She said Chen climbed over a wall while a guard wasn’t paying attention, crossed a river, and then managed to meet a friend who picked him up and drove him to Beijing.

'100 percent safe'
Reuters cited Bob Fu, president of the Texas-based religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid, as saying that Chen was in Beijing and "100 percent safe."

Chen’s whereabouts remained unknown on Friday. Rumors swirled that he may be hiding inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, but officials said "no comment" when approached by media.

Boxun News, an overseas Chinese news website, uploaded a recorded video of a monologue by Chen early Friday, with a headline reading "Chen Guangcheng's three requests to Premier Wen Jiaobao."

The 15-minute video started with Chen’s brief statement: "Dear Premier Wen, it was very difficult but I made my escape. I am here to prove, all those allegations online and the accusations against Linyi (government)’s violence on me are true. And the fact is only worse."

His first request to the premier was a thorough investigation for his house arrest, and to severely punish the criminals in accordance with law. Chen claimed dozens of people had been sent to his house, violently beat up Chen, his wife and his mother on multiple occasions.

Chen named all the people who were allegedly involved, including the one who roughed up Christian Bale and CNN TV crew last winter.

Chinese hail 'Pandaman vs Batman'

Security cameras
Chen also gave details of how thugs were grouped to watch and patrol in and around his home, by roads leading to his home and the village, sometime even in neighboring villages. Security cameras were installed around his house and all connections between his home and the outside world were shut off.

Chen’s second request was to safeguard his family members' security: "I’m free now, but I worry about my wife, my child, and my mother. They’ve been persecuted for so long and I’m worried they will be victims of revenge." Chen says his wife has been beaten many times and was prevented from seeing a doctor.

Chen’s seven-year-old daughter was also constantly watched and sometimes even had her school bag searched. She wasn’t allowed to leave home after school. The electricity of Chen’s home was constantly cut off and his mother wasn’t allowed to go shopping. "I will keep on fighting if anything happens to my family," Chen warned.

Chen's last request will resonate with many Chinese citizens: to curb corruption. "When they were persecuting me last August in a Cultural Revolution style, they said, ‘we have spent even more than 60 million Yuan ($9.5 million) on you, but that doesn’t include the money used to bribe officials in Beijing!’…what a corruption."

'Abuse of tax money'
A huge amount of public money is used to crack down protests and human-rights movements, under the name of the "stability maintenance fund." In Chen’s case, he estimated millions have been spent just to keep him locked up. "The officials say they didn't get much and the largest share was taken by others. So, clearly, there is serious corruption and the abuse of tax money and power."

His escape was widely discussed on China's popular Twitter-like service Weibo, with users referring to him as "the blind man" or "Shawshank Redemption" to avoid censorship of his name.

"Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright," the line from the 1994 drama film "The Shawshank Redemption" has been forwarded many times on Weibo today.

"Every historial period has its own blind prophet. He speaks out the fear hidden in the hearts of those who can see," said a Weibo user by the name of "Zhang Wenwu."

Self-taught lawyer
Born in 1971, Chen became blind after suffering a fever when he young. He studied medicine and later turned into a self-taught lawyer, providing legal support for disabled people and other fellow villagers over their land dispute with local governments.

Since 2005, he campaigned against local family planning agencies on human rights violations including forced abortion, forced sterilization, beatings, fines and illegal arrests. He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison in 2006 for the crime of "deliberate destruction of property and disrupting traffic."

He had been under house arrest along with his family since his release in 2010.

He Peirong, the friend and possible collaborator who published the news, has not been heard from since this morning. Her phone was picked up by a man who told journalists "you’ve got the wrong number."

It is not known if Chen’s family has been subjected to reprisals at the moment.

Chen ended his speech with a question: "Premier Wen, if you continue to neglect this, what will people think?"

(Horace Lu contributed to this report.)

Bo Gu / NBC News

"Hand Shredded Ass Meat" is an unusual translation of an item at a Beijing noodle restaurant NBC's Bo Gu saw recently.

BEIJING – Overseas tourists often find the menus here befuddling, for good reason.

After all, what Westerner has experience with foods like these? “Cowboy leg,” “Hand-shredded ass meat,” “Red-burned lion head,” “Strange flavor noodles,” “Blow-up flatfish with no result,” or “Tofu made by woman with freckles.”

As proud as the Chinese people are of their thousands of years of gastronomic culture, even a Chinese native can feel disoriented when going to another province, given all the different styles of cooking. Many of the food names, often unique to different provinces, get lost in translation, especially in booming cities starting to embrace overseas tourists.

With few English speakers, restaurants usually translate their menus word by word directly from an English-Chinese dictionary. Or they just Google the Chinese characters. A photo that made the rounds online a few years ago got a chuckle from a lot of people: a restaurant with a large “page not found” sign above its door as its English name.

But the Beijing Municipal government hopes to end such unintended jokes with its new guidebook intended for the public and restaurants alike, “Enjoy Culinary Delights: The English Translation of Chinese Menus.”

The effort began in 2006 with a “Beijing speaks English” campaign. By the 2008 Summer Olympics, officials had created a draft guide with translations for major restaurants to meet the demand for arriving athletes and tourists.

“After 2008, we felt like the book was in a good demand, so we kept working on it and collected more menus. Finally we translated over 2,000 Chinese dish names,” said Xiang Ping, deputy chief of the “Beijing speaks English” committee, in an interview with NBC News.

The cover of the new guidebook, "Enjoy culinary delights: the English translation of Chinese menus," that hopes to make it easier for foreigners to make sense of restaurant menus in Beijing.

Some of the dishes kept their original names, which people familiar with Chinese food may understand: jiaozi, baozi, mantou, tofu or wonton.

Some more complicated dishes come with both Chinese pronunciations and explanations: “fotiaoqiang” (steamed abalone with shark’s fin and fish maw in broth); “youtiao” (deep-fried dough sticks); “lvdagunr” (glutinous rice rolls stuffed with red bean paste),
and “aiwowo” (steamed rice cakes with sweet stuffing).

Chen Lin, a 90-year-old retired English professor from Beijing Foreign Language University, was the chief consultant for the book.
He told NBC News that about 20 other experts – like English teachers and professors, translators, expats who have lived in China for a long time, culinary experts and people from the media – helped develop the final version.  

So next time you're in Beijing and you are confronted with a menu item like "hand shredded ass meat," hopefully you can crack open the book to get some guidance. It means "hand shredded donkey meat."

Jason Lee / Reuters

China's Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai waves a Chinese national flag during an event in Chongqing municipality in this June 2011 file photo.

BEIJING – It’s the biggest news in China in a long time – and China’s netizens are finding ways to get around censors to gossip and get the latest online rumors.

The scandal, which has spread to the New York Times front page and other Western news outlets, is centered on Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party secretary of Chongqing, China’s biggest municipality with 30 million residents, and his wife, Gu Kailai, who is a murder suspect in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Before the bombshell announcement from China’s official news agency, Bo had been considered one of the top contenders for the country’s highest echelon of power, the standing committee of the politburo of the Communist Party, in the upcoming power reshuffle this fall.
 
No further official information has been released since last Tuesday’s news, but it still seems as if China’s entire population of 1.3 billion people is talking about the scandal. And despite the government’s best efforts to squelch online chatter, the country’s savvy computer fans have come up with novel ways to circumvent Beijing’s watchdogs.  

Kyodo / Reuters

China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai in a January 2007 file photo.

Many in China have made use of VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent the Great Firewall to access these Western reports, as well as overseas Chinese websites like Boxun, or Hong Kong and Taiwanese media reports. 

Every time a new article comes out, it’s instantly translated into Chinese and posted on Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service, followed by tons of comments and re-tweets.

The foreign reports have delved into everything about Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife, from her business dealings to her friends and close personal relationship with Heywood.

The extravagant lifestyle of Bo Guagua, Bo Xilai and Gu’s only son, has also come under the spotlight in foreign news reports – from his hard-partying ways at expensive private schools such as, Harrow, Oxford and Harvard, to his penchant for fast cars.   

And on Tuesday Reuters added a new wrinkle to the story with a report that Bo initially agreed to a police probe of his wife's role in the murder before abruptly reversing course and demoting his police chief, which eventually led to the downfall of both men.

The government has applied every method possible to silence not just the local press, but the public passing along tidbits from the foreign reports.

Posts regarding the Bo scandal, defined by the official media as “rumors,” are usually deleted quickly after they show up online. Major web portals have been ordered to intensify their monitoring of allegedly scurrilous reports. And government mouthpieces like CCTV and Xinhua have appealed to the public to stop spreading rumors.

Chinese authorities do not issue empty threats – at least six people were recently arrested for posting gossip about a rumored military coup in Beijing.

Getting around the Great Firewall
But cracking down on gossip is an enormous project in China. The country’s sophisticated netizens – who now number up to an estimated 500 million – pass along rumors using puns, hints and words with different Chinese characters but similar pronunciation to key words.

For instance, the word “Bo,” which also means “thin” in Chinese, has been replaced by the term “not thick.” Many posts have called Bo “the not thick governor” in order to slide past censors.  

Meanwhile, some witty netizens have referred to the city of Chongqing as “tomato,” because tomato is pronounced “Xi Hong Shi” in Chinese, which sounds the same as “Western Red City.” That seemingly cryptic reference is to the “red revolutionary song” campaign initiated by Bo when he was governing Chongqing. As the son of a major leader of China’s Communist Revolution, Bo was also famous for promoting a campaign to revive Cultural Revolution-era “red culture.”

“This is the most remarkable event [in China] ever since 1976, when the Gang of Four was arrested,” said Yao Bo, a China-based Internet observer and blogger, in a phone interview with NBC News. He was referring to when the leaders of China’s disastrous Cultural Revolution were publicly purged from the Communist Party a month after Chairman Mao’s death – marking the end of one of China’s most turbulent political eras.

“When people used to talk about politics on forums or bulletins before, it was censored much more easily, since such discussion always had a topic. Weibo is like a virus, it can share information much faster and becomes uncontrollable,” Yao said.

‘We Firmly Support the Central Party’
The government has tried to introduce a counter-campaign of sorts by ordering all major newspapers and TV news channels to pledge their loyalty to the Communist Party. Within a few days after Bo’s scandal was exposed, a variety of publications had editorials with the same headline: “We Firmly Support the Central Party.”
 
Some leftist websites that openly supported a return to a Maoist-like regime have been mysteriously shut down in recent days – another signal suggesting its best time to stick to the party line. None of them has publicly stated that they are following an official order, but they all went into “maintenance-mode” simultaneously.
 
Over the last few days less gossip devoted to the Bo scandal has appeared online, which Yao attributed to both censorship and the political nature of the scandal. 

“What Bo did was to pull China in an extreme direction when nobody knew where it was going. The leftists say ‘it’s a red trial,’ the rightists say ‘it’s a disaster.’ Now he’s down, people have nothing to argue about. This is a signal sent by the highest leaders that they do not wish to go back to China’s past.”
 
“This has made netizens realize one thing: rumor is another name for truth,” said Yao.

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Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images

Chinese tourists pose for photos in front of a portrait of the late Chairman Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Feb. 27, 2012.

BEIJING – It can be exorbitantly expensive to travel in China – and Chinese tourists are fed-up.

For instance, Sanya, a big resort city on China’s southern tropical island province of Hainan, is usually a dream destination for winter holiday makers. But it is becoming a target of netizens complaining about being ruthlessly ripped off there. One irate tourist recently complained on Weibo, China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging site, that he paid almost $635 dollars for a meal of three dishes including one fish.

Tourists everywhere could complain about getting gouged.  But it seems that Chinese tourists truly are justified in their gripes.

For example, a recent study published by Netease.com, one of China’s biggest Web portals,  borrowed the concept of the Big Mac index from the Economist to compare the prices of tourist attractions in both China and overseas.

The Economist’s Big Mac index is based on the “theory of purchasing-power parity.” 

They use the cost of a Big Mac in the U.S. as a benchmark and compare it to the local cost of a Big Mac to create a comparison between the currencies.

The Netease.com article borrowed the Big Mac index idea to compare entrance fees charged at Chinese tourist attractions versus those overseas.

The statistics are eye-opening.  

Andy Wong / AP

Tourists visit Tiananmen Gate on China's National Day in Beijing on Oct. 1, 2011

For example, the cost of admission to Jiuzhaigou National Park in southwest China, a U.N. biosphere reserve famous for its shimmering turquoise lakes and snow-crusted mountain peaks, costs 220 Yuan ($35) to get in, or, 14.3 Big Macs.

In contrast, Yellowstone National Park costs an adult entering by foot or bike $12 dollars, the equivalent of 2.7 Big Macs. (It costs $25 dollars for one vehicle, including all passengers).

In Paris, the Louvre Museum costs 2.9 Big Macs, while a ticket to China’s Palace Museum inside the Forbidden City in Beijing is as much as 3.9 Big Macs.

The well-known Great Wall just outside Beijing also looks expensive – its cost is 2.9 Big Macs, compared to the Taj Mahal, which is a quarter of one Big Mac (for Indian tourists; foreigners are charged more).

No regulation
“There’s no government supervision of ticket prices,” said Wu Jingmin, a former tour guide who agitated the tourism industry in 2006 by publishing his book “How Can I Not Rip You Off? – A Tour Guide’s Monologue.” In the book, Wu exposed how the industry scams tourists, from tour agencies to restaurants and even local governments.

Besides high admission fees in China, travelers also often have to pay additional costs at tourist sites for such items as shuttle buses or cable cars.

At Changbaishan, the sacred mountain on the border of China and North Korea, a tourist must buy three different tickets at $16 a piece if they wish to take in the view from its three different peaks, and that doesn’t include the extra $14 for the shuttle bus. 

Chinese tourists also normally travel during one of the three one-week-long national holidays.  Even if that means going to Beijing’s Forbidden City with 130,000 more visitors than on a usual day, or slowly pushing their way forward on the Great Wall when it is as packed as a rush hour subway.

“The regulations for ticket prices are in complete disorder,” Wu, the former tour guide, told NBC News in a phone interview. “Local price regulators usually say ‘yes’ to tourist attractions, no matter what they want to charge. Then the tourist-trap managers give a big discount to tour agencies, who make the money from selling very expensive tickets to tourists.” 

Wu complained that little is being done to remedy the situation.  

“The natural resources belong to the people. They just build a wall around it and then charge a high ticket price to the people, who don’t really have a choice. This industry’s future is worrying,” added Wu.  

He’s says he’s planning to create his own tour packages to counter the notorious prices in Sanya.

BBC.co.uk

Ding Yu, the host of China's "Interviews Before Execution" TV show is seen conducting an interview with a convict on death row in a new BBC documentary.

BEIJING – "I went to see your brother and sisters. They all know that you are leaving this world. But, sorry, they didn’t want to see you."

"I don’t want to see them either. Let me die," the man said, wiping his teary eyes. Two policemen stood behind him while a microphone was pointed at him.

"Is there anything you want me to tell your brother and sisters?"

"No. I did something wrong. I killed my mother. "

This exchange was a conversation between TV hostess Ding Yu and Bao Rongting, a convicted murderer, just a few hours before he was executed on Nov. 20, 2008. It was broadcast on "Interviews Before Execution," a weekly TV program, that aired on the Legal Channel in China’s central-eastern Henan Province for over five years.

Starting in late 2006, the hour-long show attracted millions of viewers and ranked among the top-ten TV programs in the province. Every Saturday night, almost half of Henan’s 94 million residents tuned in to watch the show, which was not available to viewers outside the province.

The show has now gained international attention since the BBC aired a documentary, "The Execution Factor," on Monday. A Chinese production company, LIC, worked with the BBC and PBS International, which will soon launch its own documentary on the show and its host, Ding.   

A former law student, Ding’s journalistic style is similar to many female Chinese primetime news anchors: She has short hair, a patient-tone with her interviewees, is well-dressed – but not ostentatious – and her questioning style is straightforward, not dramatic 

She interviewed a husband who killed his ex-wife because he "was still in love with her," a teenage girl who ruthlessly strangled her best friend over a trivial quarrel, and a wife who burned her husband to death after suffering years of domestic abuse.

Ding was particularly blunt with one unrepentant interviewee, saying: "I’m glad you got caught. You are a scumbag." One episode featured a man yelping, "I’m sorry," and kneeling down on the ground hours before his execution. In another, right before his execution a convict asked her: "Can I shake hands with you?"

The producers say the aim of the show was to act as a deterrent to other would-be criminals. And while there are up to 55 crimes in China that carry a potential death penalty sentence, the show focused exclusively on cases of violent murder. The show also got Henan province’s High Court approval for each case that was featured.

"Many people say I’m an angel and devil. I never thought myself as an angel, because it’s work that puts me into contact with these people. I see myself more as a witness," Ding told the BBC in their 50-minute-long documentary.

While 58 countries in the world impose the death penalty, China is believed to have the highest number of executions annually. The exact number is considered to be a "state secret," but the government argues it’s dropped steadily since early 2007 when the Supreme Court took back the right to have the final say on all death verdicts from local courts. 

A 2011 report from Amnesty International indicates China executed thousands of people in 2010.

While it’s hard to determine the exact number, Ding’s show does offer some indication of how big they are, according to He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University. "Ding Yu interviewed 226 prisoners sentenced to death in five years. My guess is all these cases were tried in Henan Province and they only represent part of the whole situation. You can imagine how big the number is nationwide,” He commented on his blog.

Many scholars and lawyers have argued for the abolishment of the death penalty, but in a country with rampant corruption (which is also a capital crime over a certain financial amount), there seems to be little real movement to outlaw it.   

Backlash
With all the international attention on the show, there have been concerns about whether or not it would continue to air.

"We were very worried about the consequences after the documentary aired. Some media have distorted our program," Shirley Cheng, a producer from the Chinese production company LIC, told NBC News by phone. "We didn’t do it to discuss the death the penalty. We just wanted to record the process."

A BBC report on Monday claimed the show was taken off the air by Henan TV last Friday. When NBC News reached Henan Legal Channel and asked about it, we were told that was not the case.

The temporary "disappearance" of the show is apparently only making room for a new show, and "Interview before Execution" will come back on air in about six weeks.

However, on the channel’s official website, no links to Ding Yu’s program can be found, while information about other shows is available.  

Chris Trotman / Getty Images

Fans cheer on Jeremy Lin against the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

BEIJING — He means something to many people: Asian Americans, underdogs, geeks, Ivy Leaguers, sports fans, Christians, anyone who loves a great story.

But Jeremy Lin — the Harvard graduate of Chinese descent born in Palo Alto, California, to Taiwan parents — is not the same thing to all Chinese.

If ever there were one event that has the potential to show how fractured Chinese communities can be, "Linsanity" — or linfengkuang in Chinese — might be it.

For days now, we in Beijing have been fielding emails from our U.S. colleagues: “Hey, we hear Lin’s big in China now?  He’s on the cover of the New York Post!”  “The NY Knicks player is having a Cinderella week… he’s being noticed/watched in China….”

For the record, yes, he’s big in mainland China. 

It’s been widely reported that his Sina Weibo account (a popular Chinese version of Twitter) clocked more than a million followers as he led the Knicks to victory over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday — more than doubling the number he had the night he faced off with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers last Friday.

Perfect storm continues for Jeremy Lin

On Taobao, China’s leading e-commerce site, shoppers can buy copies of Lin’s Knicks jersey and t-shirts and sweatshirts bearing his number “17.”  A quick look suggests the merchandise isn’t moving as briskly as Weibo messages about the athlete, but it’s an impressive range of goods nonetheless.  In the brick and mortar world, however, his jersey — even counterfeit versions — is said to be selling out.

But mainland China is also very big.

Let’s go back to Weibo.  Lin’s following, large as it sounds, is still just a fraction of some high-profile mainland Chinese.  Pan Shiyi — a Beijing-based property mogul some people liken to Donald Trump — has 8.6 million followers.  Hong Huang — a publisher and commentator who is often described as the "Oprah of China" — has four million.  Lee Kai-fu, the former head of Google China, has 11 million.

The comparisons may be unfair since none of these Chinese are athletes and all have had profiles on Weibo for longer.  But high-profile mainland athletes like Yao Ming, Guo Jingjing (the glamorous Olympic gold-medallist female diver), Liu Xiang (the Olympic gold-medallist hurdler) don’t have a presence on Weibo.  Only Yi Jianlian has a profile; the mainland Chinese NBA athlete who plays for the Dallas Mavericks has 6.5 million followers.

In the offline world, Lin’s name is not on everyone’s lips the way it seems in the U.S.  It’s not perfect evidence, but a random sampling of Beijing taxi drivers, normally glued to radio news, this morning came up blank.  “We only know Yao Ming,” said one cabbie.

PhotoBlog: Lin leads Knicks to 7th win in a row

There’s been steady speculation about why China’s state-run media has been muted with its reporting on the Lin phenomenon and why CCTV — normally awash with NBA coverage — has not been broadcasting his games.  (New York City Time Warner subscribers, we share your pain.)

 “Mr Lin is a trickier fit for Beijing’s propagandists,” one Western report noted.  “His Christianity is perhaps more awkward for China’s atheist Communist rulers. While Beijing officially sanctions some churches, it frowns on the spontaneous professions of love for God that pepper Mr Lin’s postgame comments.”

Lin’s success has also raised the inevitable and perhaps unwelcome question (at least in the mainland) “Could China, an Olympic powerhouse and homeland of Yao Ming, produce such a gifted, confident point guard?”  As the journalist pointed out, not for now.  Not given the state-run sports industry or its rigid approach to training and talent-spotting. 

China's president-in-waiting returns to Iowa

Then, of course, there’s the fact Lin’s parents come from Taiwan, which has engaged in a fractious rivalry with mainland China for nearly 70 years.  Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province while the latter regards itself an independent nation.

Tug o’ war over the favorite son
Over the weekend, folks in China’s Zhejiang Province, the ancestral home of the athlete’s maternal grandmother, laid claim to him.   And today, a local newspaper re-posted photos from Lin’s visit to his mother’s hometown last May. 

The accompanying article opens with the following lines: “Lin Shuhao became famous overnight.  But what we here are more proud of is his roots here in Pinghu.”  It concludes with a quote from Lin’s mother saying the family might return to Pinghu again this summer.

The media in Taiwan — which has hailed Lin as one of their own — have taken notice.  Local newspapers on the island today went on a blitzkrieg to assert Lin’s Taiwan identity, quoting family relatives, and also claimed Lin might visit the island this summer.  The coverage followed a report in the New York Times, which quoted Lin’s uncle in Taiwan as saying about the Knicks player and his parents, “For sure, they are Taiwanese.”

Sam Yeh / AFP - Getty Images

Jeremy Lin featured on the front page of many newspapers in Taipei, Taiwan, on Sunday.

Since Lin’s debut for the Knicks on February 4^th, Taiwan’s local media have given the overnight sensation blanket coverage, and there has been no problem catching any of his games live on television.  “They’re broadcast live in the morning,” one of my uncles who has spent the past month in Taipei told me.  “And then they’re shown twice again later in the day.  And every newscast has packaged highlights of every game.”

And, yet, something still seems to ring hollow about the mainland's or Taiwan's scramble to call Lin one of their own.  One of the mainland Chinese readers who responded to the local Zhejiang newspaper report put it succinctly: "He's American.  You should be ashamed of yourself trying to dig up his maternal ancestral grave."  In fact, many Chinese--in dismissing comparisons between Lin and Yao Ming--have argued that Lin is distinctly American, has nothing to do with China, and didn't experience the cultural and language adjustment that Yao underwent when he moved to the U.S. to play in the NBA.

But then there are the American-born Chinese (ABCs).

'A watershed moment'
Judging by the flood of columns by Chinese-American commentators, Lin’s success means more to this cohort than any other community:

Eric Liu: “[The Knicks fans’] embrace of Lin has made millions of Asian Americans feel vicariously, thrillingly embraced. Not invisible. Not presumed foreign. Just part of the team, belonging in the game. It’s felt like a breakout moment: for Lin, for Asian America and, thus, for America.”

Jeff Yang: “It’s hard not to feel like this isn’t a watershed moment. Hard not to feel like this is historic. Hard not to think that we’re at the cusp of an actual tectonic shift in the culture, when an Asian American “kid” could be the unquestioned king of one of the most storied franchises in sports, the guy that every guy in the room wishes he could meet and every kid in the room wants to group up to be.”

Ling Woo Liu: “For those who've been following the campaign ad controversies as well as the [Harry] Lew and [Danny] Chen cases, Lin's meteoric rise has been a much-needed sign of hope.

Bryan Chu: “Some might say, why didn’t Yao Ming evoke this type of emotion in you?  The difference is that Jeremy is one of us. He was born in the U.S. He was that kid who got straight A’s in school. He was the one that worked at his high school student newspaper. He has a bit of an Americanized accent when he speaks Mandarin. He had a pipe dream of making it to the NBA. He’s humble and sometimes misperceived as a shy, Asian kid who shows flashes of brilliance and then finally explodes on the scene when he’s given a chance. He’s the guy friend who, if he needs a place to crash, will be thankful for a couch.”

With additional reporting by Bo Gu.