On June 3, Witherspoon Distinguished Senior Fellow Chen Guangcheng gave his first public address ever in English commenting on the 25th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chen’s speech recounted the student protests and other events preceding June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops killed unknown numbers of civilians demonstrating peacefully in the main square in central Beijing. Chen pointed out that despite great recent economic progress in China, there has been little political reform: the government continues to censor the flow of information into and within the country, arrests human rights lawyers and other human rights advocates, and violates the dignity of its own people in secret jails. Chen voiced optimism though in light of the growing opposition to the government and calls for reform. He called upon the United States and other democratic governments to support ordinary Chinese people by taking greater concern for their human rights and not condoning the behavior of their leaders.
You can read the whole speech here or watch the speech and the question and answer session here. The speech was hosted and recorded by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) of Washington, D.C. The President of the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Arthur Brooks, interviewed Mr. Chen after his speech.
