While the help of human rights activist supporters in the escape of Chen Guangcheng has been documented, the possible help of one of his security guards has not received as much attention.
According to an Apple Daily report: “The guards’ attitudes vary. Some guards were sympathetic to Chen Guangcheng, while others thought that he had gone to the extreme and made the China’s government passively subject to the foreign media.”
The possibility remains that one or more of the guards may even have been sympathetic to Chen’s plight, and turned a blind eye.
Apple Daily says in its April 30 report: “The guards were constantly threatened with death by authorities. One guard with a conscience is alleged to have secretly told Chen Guangcheng several times, ‘If you want to run away, we will pretend to have seen nothing. In any case, we are all doomed.’” The esoteric remark “we are all doomed” was not explained by Apple Daily.
Jiang Tianyong, in the same Apple Daily article, said that “While there is no firm evidence, there are people who were watching him that sympathized with Chen, so they would swap people, and get people from far outside the village to watch him. The guards also have a conscience. The government was always saying how bad Chen was, but once you get to know him you see what he’s like. There was someone willing to help him, and from this you see how people’s view can change, and how what the authorities are doing completely loses the confidence of the people.”
Read original Chinese article.
