Chinese legal activist speaks out in NY

Chen Guangcheng said Thursday in New York that he thinks China is moving toward becoming a more democratic society, but he said it will only reach its potential when his fellow citizens stop tolerating lawlessness among their leaders.

The legal rights activist was imprisoned for seven years by provincial officials until a dramatic escape from house arrest in his rural village last month.

His talk at the Manhattan headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations, an international affairs think tank, was his first extended public appearance since arriving in the United States on May 19 following delicate U.S.-China negotiations that secured his freedom.

The blind 40-year-old said his lengthy detention demonstrates that lawlessness is still the norm in China. The constitution and legal statutes may promise strong protections, he said, but in practice powerful officials still routinely ignore the law when it suits them.

He noted that even after the central Chinese government promised to investigate the circumstances of his captivity and let him leave the country to study at New York University, a mob of "thugs" working for local officials severely beat relatives who stayed behind, and jailed his nephew for attempting to defend himself.

"Is there any justice? Is there any rationale in any of this?" he said through a translator.

Chen, though, also sounded a note of optimism. He said the era of cover-ups of illegal behavior, or uneven enforcement of the law, by government officials is fast coming to an end. Modern-day communications systems, he said, simply make it impossible for anyone to keep a secret.