Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng said his return to China is “inevitable,” just two months after he arrived in the U.S.
Chen, whose civil rights activism put him under the watchful eye of the Chinese government, escaped house arrest in April and sought asylum at the U.S. embassy in Beijing.
He initially hoped to stay in his native land, but fearful for his safety, he asked to leave for the U.S. He is currently a visiting scholar at New York University Law School.
In a radio interview with The Takeaway, Chen said his return to China was “just a question of when, and I can’t say exactly what time it will be.”
A self-taught lawyer who has been blind since childhood, Chen angered the Chinese government by advocating for the rights of the disabled.
He was arrested in 2006 after leading a protest against excessive enforcement of the country’s one-child policy.
“I think people like us who are involved in rights action have raised certain issues which make the government feel very uncomfortable,” Chen told The Takeaway. “And that has made them very angry.”
He also noted that New York City “isn’t perfect in terms of accessibility” for the disabled.
“For wheelchair users, very often the raised pavements or the slopes provided for wheelchairs are not perfect, and there are still obstacles, so I think much more can be done to improve it,” he said.
