Chen Pokong

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen.
Chen Pokong
Chinese: 陳破空
Born December 1963 (age 52)
Santai, Sichuan, China
Residence United States
Other names Chen Jinsong (birth name)
Education Hunan University, Sun Yat-set University, Tongji University, Columbia University
Occupation Author, commentator
Known for Chinese political and current affairs commentary

Chen Pokong (born 20 December 1963) is the pen name of Chen Jinsong, a Chinese author and political commentator based in the United States. Born in Sichuan Province, Santai County, Chen is a graduate of Hunan University and Tongji University in China, and Columbia University. As a postgraduate student in 1985, he submitted a joint letter calling for political reform to former Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang.

In 1989, he initiated, organized and participated in a student movement in Guangzhou, and also established a "democracy salon" in Sun Yat-sen University in January. On April 22, 1989, he joined Chen Wei, Yu Shiwen and other student leaders in launching a democracy movement in Guangzhou Province in support of the student protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He was arrested for his activism and spent the years between 1989 and 1993 in prison and forced labor. In 1994, he furnished evidence to the United Nations and other international bodies that China was exporting goods produced in labor camps for sale, a contravention of international law and a breach of human rights. Chen came to the United States in 1996, where he attended Columbia University as a visiting scholar and later obtained a master's degree.

In the U.S., Chen Pokong regularly appears as an analyst on Chinese current affair programs, including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, New Tang Dynasty Television, BBC Chinese, and others.[1] He frequently writes political columns for Radio Free Asia, Hong Kong's Open Magazine, and other publications. He is also an author of several books on Chinese political culture, including "The Unwelcome Chinese," “A Hundred Points of Common Sense on China," "A Thick Black Theory of Zhongnanhai," and others. In 2007, Chen was awarded the "Prominent News and Culture Award."[2] He currently resides in New York City.

Biography

Chen Pokong was an Assistant Professor of economics at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, when the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations began in China. He co-organized the protests and was arrested in 1989. After nearly five years in prison on two separate occasions, Chen was exiled to the United States in 1996. There, he became a visiting scholar at Columbia University, and then obtained MPA from there. Chen later built a career in the United States as a Principal of a Business School located in Manhattan, New York.

At the same time, he has been writing for Chinese pro-reform or pro-democracy publications, As a talented writer, he has published a number of influential books in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan:

Power Struggle behind Red Wall, 2014,; Japan, US and China, Coming War in Asia, 2014 ;Inside Story of Red Paper Tiger, 2013 ; If U.S., Japan, and China Go to War, 2013 ; Zhongnanhai's Thick Black Theory, 2010,; One hundred points of common sense about China,2007,.

As a prominent critic and writer, Chen has been writing and speaking on a number of media, including Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, Hong Kong Open Magazine, Beijing Spring,[3] and others; speaking at news conferences,[4][5] panel discussions,[6] and other events;[7] writing books;[8] and offering commentary to media.[9][10][11]

Topics of Chen's analysis include a range of contemporary topics involving the People's Republic of China and its political system, including: democracy, freedom of speech, instability, corruption, economic affairs, military affairs, foreign relations, cross-Strait affairs, political reform, and strategic affairs.

Prison time

Chen Pokong was sent to prison or forced labor on two occasions:

Chen had resumed political activities after his release from prison in July 1992, and was wanted by the government by 1993. He fled to Hong Kong and applied for political asylum, but was rejected. After being repatriated he was sent to forced labor.[12]

In a letter to the international community in 1994, Chen alleged that prisoners in the Guangzhou No. 1 Reeducation-Through-Labor-Center were often beaten and "subjected to conditions which amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Chen had the letter was smuggled out of the camp in the latter half of 1994, when it was reported on by international human rights groups. He said that production quotas force prisoners to work over 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, with only 3 days of holiday per year. Heavy labor is done during the daytime, including transporting and loading stones from a quarry to a boat. At night, prisoners were forced to make artificial flowers for export, according to Chen's letter. The food supplied by camp authorities was often insufficient and consisted of "coarse rice and rotten vegetables," according to Amnesty International.

Part of Chen's letter said: "Inmates who labour slightly slower are brutally beaten and misused by supervisors and team leaders (themselves inmates). Inmates are often beaten until they are blood-stained all over, collapse or lose consciousness (shortly before I was sent here, one inmate was beaten to death.)... Many inmates, including myself, their hands and feet squashed by big stones, stained with blood and pus, have to labour as usual. As a consequence, many inmates were crippled for life."[12] In his letter, he said the Guangdong No. 1 Reform Through Labor, Quarry 1, Company 9 in Chini Town, Hua County, Guangdong was the "most vicious," and that he was sent there so the Guangdong authorities could "vent their bitter hatred on me."[13]

In a House Congressional testimony on the subject of Chinese forced labor, Nancy Pelosi characterized Chen's letter as "a compelling appeal for help, relating the terrible tale of ill treatment and slave labor" in Chinese prison camps.[13] Chen was reportedly the first person to provide the United Nations with evidence that the Chinese government and its agencies used forced labor to manufacture products for sale overseas.[9]

Publications

Books, monographs, and studies which Chen has authored or contributed authorship of include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chen Pokong's appearances in Voice of America, Chinese edition. Accessed June 30, 2013
  2. ↑ Chen Pokong biography and commentary, Radio Free Asia. Accessed June 30, 2013
  3. ↑ Beijing Spring, Brief of No. 198, November 2009. Accessed June 31, 2013
  4. ↑ Getty Images, Activist Chen Pokong speaks during a news conference, June 4, 2009
  5. ↑ Human Rights in China, 17 prominent Chinese dissidents living in exile in the U.S. - demand the right to return to China, October 12, 1997
  6. ↑ International Tibet Network, Implications of the Gongmeng Report on Tibet, June 25, 2009. Accessed June 31, 2013
  7. ↑ PEN America, Bringing Down The Great Firewall Of China - Chen Pokong, 2008. Accessed June 31, 2013
  8. ↑ Chen Pokong, Zhongnan hai hou hei xue, Xianggang: Kai fang chu ban she, 2009
  9. 1 2 Tzou Jing-wen, INTERVIEW: Chinese dissident urges caution on cross-strait ties, October 23, 2008. Accessed June 30, 2013
  10. ↑ Louisa Lim, "China Leader's Absence Could Spell Political Trouble", National Public Radio, September 14, 2012. Accessed June 31, 2013
  11. ↑ Matthew Robertson, "In Shift, Snowden Now Said to Reveal US Monitoring of China," Epoch Times, June 23, 2013. Accessed June 31, 2013
  12. 1 2 3 Amnesty International, Chen Pokong (30) and other prisoners at Guangzhou No. 1 Reeducation-Through-Labour CenterAmnesty International information note on Chen Pokong, 7 December 1994, accessed June 31, 2013
  13. 1 2 Full text of Chen Pokong's letter, submitted by Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 5, 1994), House, Chinese Forced Labor.
  14. ↑ "全世界都不了解中國人". 博客來. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  15. ↑ "田園書屋". www.greenfieldbookstore.com.hk. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  16. ↑ "赤い中国の黒い権力者たち｜幻冬舎ルネッサンス". www.gentosha-r.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  17. ↑ "文春新書『日米中アジア開戦』陳 破空 山田智美訳 | 新書 - 文藝春秋BOOKS". 文藝春秋BOOKS (in Japanese). Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  18. ↑ "赤い中国消滅|書籍詳細|扶桑社". www.fusosha.co.jp. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  19. ↑ "香港二樓書店 > 假如中美開戰：二十一世紀的戰爭". 2-floor.dyndns.org. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  20. ↑ "中南海厚黑學 - 香港書城網上書店 Hong Kong Book City". www.hkbookcity.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  21. ↑ "《关于中国的一百个常识》 - 禁书网". www.bannedbook.org. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  22. ↑ Chen, Pokong (October 2003). "Toward the Republic: A Not-So Distant Mirror" (PDF). Human Rights in China.
  23. ↑ "Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  24. ↑ "Selective anticorruption in China - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  25. ↑ "China’s expansion, risky trajectory - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  26. ↑ "Strong chain to contain dictatorship - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  27. ↑ "Activist pessimistic on reform in China - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  28. ↑ "Chinese dissident urges Taiwan to push democracy - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  29. ↑ "Dissidents warn ‘Beijing Model’ could harm Taiwan - Taipei Times". www.taipeitimes.com. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  30. ↑ Feiyang Bookhouse, A Non-governmental White Paper on the June Fourth Massacre, 2009
  31. ↑ "Chen Pokong | Radio Free Asia | ZoomInfo.com". ZoomInfo. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
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