The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2019 marked the 70th anniversary of its rule by deepening repression. Under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, the one-party Chinese government tightened its grip over sectors of society it found threatening, such as the internet, activists, and non-governmental organizations.
Credible estimates indicate that about 1 million Turkic Muslims are being indefinitely held in “political education” camps, where they are forced to disavow their identity and become loyal government subjects. Others have been prosecuted and sent to prison, and some have received lengthy and even death sentences for crimes that violate fundamental rights, “splitism” or “subversion.”
In a year in which the CCP has been especially keen to maintain a veneer of stability, Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that enjoys limited—but eroding—freedoms, exploded into open defiance. Beginning in June, at least 2 million people in a city of 7 million filled the streets to demand greater freedoms.
Speaking on these topics and more will be Dr. Wen Chen:
About Dr. Wen Chen:
Wen was born in China at the end of the Great Cultural Revolution. Being victims of the horrific atrocity that killed two million intellectuals and destroyed traditional Chinese culture, Wen’s parents had mixed feelings about her. Despite their discouragement, Wen eventually won
a national prize at a science competition when she was 16. Hence, she was accepted into a top university for undergraduate study.
Wen came to the U.S. for graduate school and received a doctorate in Biology at California
Institute of Technology in 2000. Because of her personal experience of being brainwashed in China, she decided to be a voice for the voiceless. Since 2012, she has given over 200 presentations to community organizations about Chinese culture, history, and human rights.