The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) Advisory Board member Reggie Littlejohn reported that blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has escaped house arrest. Reggie Littlejohn, who is president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, has received the news about Chen Guangcheng’s escape from leading Chinese activist He Peirong and other human rights defenders in China.
Blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng was reported “disappeared,” by a reliable source who contacted Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, Reggie Littlejohn told CUSIB. Yaxue Cao, a key Chinese human rights activist who has been advocating on behalf of Chen Guangcheng, told WRWF that she spoke with Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui. Kegui’s mother overheard guards saying that Chen Guangcheng had “disappeared” from his home, where he had been under strict house arrest. Neither villagers nor family members know where he is. Yaxue Cao posted the recording of her conversation with Chen Kegui here. http://www.freecgc.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_27.html
He Peirong just told WRWF that she helped Chen escape to an undisclosed location outside of Shandong. She said that his health is stable, but she fears he is in danger. She also stated that the fate of Chen’s wife, mother, daughter and son may be in jeopardy as well.
A further alarming development is that on the night of Thursday, April 26, Chen’s brother (Kegui’s father) was also seized by a band of thugs, led by Zhang Jian (张健 the head of the township). Kegui defended his parents using kitchen knives and injured the thugs, who ran away. Kegui then walked outside the village to surrender himself to the police. As he was standing outside the village, he told Cao that he fears for the lives of Chen Guangcheng and his family, and for his own life.
Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, said, “We are grateful that Chen is no longer under house arrest, but we are concerned about his safety and that of his family. We call upon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton specifically to raise Chen’s case during her visit to Beijing May 3-4. Indeed, we call upon the entire international diplomatic community to make urgent, official interventions on behalf of Chen with the Chinese government. We call upon NGOs and concerned citizens the world over strongly to support this great hero during his hour of need.”
Kegui also told Cao that he has seen Chen Guangcheng only twice since Guangcheng was put under house arrest. When Guangcheng’s other brother died in February of this year, Chen burst out of the house but was forcibly returned by dozens of guards. Also, early in 2011, several relatives were allowed to visit Chen briefly during the Chinese New Year.
View a video and sign a petition to free Chen Guangcheng here. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/

As a member of CUSIB’s Advisory Board, Reggie Littlejohn has been actively campaigning for saving Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China and Tibet from being silenced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a U.S. federal agency which manages Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other U.S. government-funded international broadcasters. In response to protests from Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and other human rights groups, the BBG has decided to restore some of the VOA and RFA broadcasts that were to be terminated. Reggie Littlejohn has stated that these radio broadcasts from the United States are vital for human rights activists in China like Chen Guangcheng and his supporters.

Before the news of Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest, Reggie Littlejohn published this op-ed:
 
 

The REAL War Against Women –

Forced abortion and Gendercide in China

 
 
SAN JOSE, CA. The real war against women has nothing to do with the morning-after pill or insurance coverage. This war transcends the debate between pro-life and pro-choice. It is not even being waged on U.S. soil.
The real war against women is forced abortion and gendercide in China.
As the U.S. debates Obamacare and the contraceptive mandate, Chinese women are being dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables and forced to abort babies that they want, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Sometimes the women themselves die, along with their full term babies. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, no one supports forced abortion, because it’s not a choice. Watch this 4-minute video to learn the brutal truth about forced abortion in China.
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion
Equally appalling, baby girls are being selected for termination. According to one UN estimate, up to 200 million women are missing in the world today due to gendercide, the sex-selective abortion of baby girls, mostly in China and India. Anyone who cares about women’s rights must be heartbroken and incensed by this massive attack against females.
China’s One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth. It is systematic, institutionalized violence against women:
· Forced abortion is violent. It is official government rape.
· Forced sterilization is often done without anesthesia and may cause infection, which can ruin a woman’s reproductive and general health.
· Infanticide – the killing of newborns – is a human rights atrocity. Read “Best Practices – Infanticide” here. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=congressional
· Because of gendercide, there are now approximately 37 million more males living in China than women.
· This gender imbalance is driving sexual slavery not only within China, but from the surrounding countries as well.
· China has the highest female suicide rate of any nation in the world. An estimated 500 women a day end their lives in China.
The women of China cannot fight this war, or they risk being imprisoned, tortured and denied medical treatment, like blind forced abortion opponent, Chen Guangcheng.
Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Stand with our sisters in China. Sign a petition to end forced abortion in China.
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition
Help free Chen Guangcheng.
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=chen-guangcheng
—
Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY