Trial Postponed For Advocate Who Challenged China's One-Child Policy

Human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng's trial has been postponed, his attorney, Li Jinsong, said on Thursday, Reuters AlertNet reports (Beck, Reuters AlertNet, 7/20). Chen on July 17 was scheduled to go to trial in Linyi, China, county court in the country's Shandong province, Li said earlier this month. Chen is scheduled to face charges of "willfully harming public property" and "gathering masses to disturb traffic order" after attempting to expose alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement of the country's one-child-per-family policy. The policy seeks to keep China's population -- now 1.3 billion -- at around 1.7 billion by 2050. Ethnic minorities and farmers are the only groups legally exempt from the rule. Chen recorded testimony from men and women in communities in and around Linyi who have experienced forced abortions and sterilizations, as well as had family members captured and tortured after they tried to hide or run from authorities. He was attempting to bring a class-action lawsuit against the Chinese government for alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement. Chen in September 2005 was placed under house arrest for speaking with journalists, government officials and other advocates about the one-child policy. Chinese police formally arrested Chen in June for his attempts to challenge the policy (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/11). According to Li, the county court judge postponed Chen's trial because prosecutors demanded more evidence, Agence France-Presse reports (Agence France-Presse, 7/20). "This shows the Yinan county prosecuting court already realizes the evidence in the existing suit against Chen Guangcheng ... is not enough and needs supplementing," Li said (Reuters AlertNet, 7/20). He added that a new court date has not been scheduled (Olesen, AP/Boston Globe, 7/20). Authorities in Shandong have declined to comment on Chen (Agence France-Presse, 7/20). The U.N. Population Fund has raised Chen's case with the Chinese government several times, and senior U.S. officials also have urged the government to release him (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/10). The New York Times on Thursday profiled Chen and his legal struggle (Kahn, New York Times, 7/20).

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