China: child of blind activist barred from school

Chen Guangcheng

The six-year-old daughter of a blind Chinese activist under unofficial house arrest has been barred from leaving her home and is unable to attend school, another activist has said, said an Associated Press report in The Guardian.

Chen Guangcheng and his wife have been confined to their home by authorities in their village in Linyi city in eastern China's Shandong province since he was released from prison last autumn.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer who was blinded by a fever in infancy, angered authorities after documenting forced late-term abortions and sterilisations and other abuses in his rural community.

The report adds that in February, Chen was beaten unconscious by local authorities and denied medical care about nine days after the US-based China Aid Association, a Christian rights group, released a video of him describing his house arrest.

Since 24 February, the couple's daughter has not been allowed to leave the house and her books and toys have been taken away, according to He Peirong, a rights activist who has been detained in the past for trying to visit Chen.

"I was told by local officials … that the girl has a right to an education and they would give us an answer by 1 September as to whether she will go to school," He told the Associated Press.

"Now that school has started, it is obvious she has not been able to attend. Her education is the most important thing right now to her parents and they are very concerned."

He, who has kept in contact with Chen through sources close to the family, said Chen's son moved away from his parents at a young age to live with his grandmother and is now enrolled in fifth grade.

Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper also reported that Chen's daughter, Chen Kesi, had not been allowed to attend school.

Source: UCAN