This is the remarkable story of Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights dissident who has sparked a diplomatic crisis between China and the United States. It's a bizarre and terrifying story that involves everything from daring escapes to Batman.
The Dissident
Chen Guangcheng is a 40-year-old human rights activist known for campaigning against abuses of corrupt government officials in rural China.
Chen has fought everything from unfair taxation to environmental pollution, but is particularly known for his efforts to halt forced abortions and sterilizations in the name of China's strict family planning policy, commonly known as the "one-child policy."
(Reuters / Handout)
Blind And Illiterate
Chen has been blind since he was a child, the result of a severe fever.
Although he wished to become a lawyer, the blind were prohibited from earning college degrees.
Despite that discrimination, and despite being illiterate until 1994, Chen learned enough through auditing law classes that he was able to advise fellow villagers on matters of law in his hometown of Dongshigu.
(Reuters / Handout)
The Barefoot Lawyer
Since he has no law degree, Chen is technically not a lawyer. He studied acupuncture and massage and was for a time a practicing masseur.
Chen is known in China as a "barefoot lawyer," meaning he is a self-taught legal activist from the country.
(AP / Handout)
Forced Abortions And Sterilization
In 2005, government agents began brutally enforcing the one-child policy in Chen's province. Regional authorities forced thousands of women to undergo forced abortions and sterilizations. There were reports of captivity and torture for those who tried to evade the family planning measures. At least two women were forced to abort their children just days before their due date.
With nowhere else to turn, distraught villagers turned to Chen, their blind barefoot lawyer. "Someone has to fight for people with no voice," Chen later said to Time Magazine. "I guess that person is me."
(AP / Handout)
