The health of blind Shandong activist Chen Guangcheng is worsening rapidly as he continues to be held under house arrest alongside his family with no access to medical care, one of his key supporters said on Thursday.
Chen, who has been held under house arrest for nearly 18 months after his release from a four-year jail term, has suffered from chronic diarrhea, and is now voiding blood, according to Nanjing-based rights activist He Peirong.
"Chen Guangcheng's diarrhea is extremely bad, there is blood in his stool, and he can't stand up straight after visiting the lavatory," said He, who has long campaigned for Chen's release from confinement in his home village of Dongshigu under 24-hour guard.
"He has lost a lot of weight since he came out of prison," she said.
Chen's jail sentence came after years of legal advocacy on behalf of women who suffered abuse at the hands of family planning officials desperate to keep birth quotas low.
His wife, Yuan Weijing, and the couple's young daughter Chen Kesi, together with Chen's mother, have been held with him since his release in September 2010.
The family have been denied visits from hundreds of friends, relatives, and concerned netizens who have tried to visit them over the past year.
"His situation is very serious, because he has no guaranteed access to normal food, hygiene, or medication," He said.
Abuses exposed
Chen had exposed abuses like forced abortions and sterilizations by local family planning officials under China’s “One Child” policy, as well as official harassment and attacks on families who exceed local birth quotas.
He served a four-year, three-month jail term for "obstructing traffic," which ended in September 2010, but has never regained his freedom.
He Peirong said Chen's supporters had asked a doctor about his symptoms, and had been told that the activist's situation sounded "dangerous."
"Chronic diarrhea leads to dehydration, and there is a risk to life," she said. "We also asked some doctors whether they could write a prescription in the patient's absence for diarrhea."
"There wasn't a single one who was prepared to do that," she said. "They said that there were too many factors that could be causing [the diarrhea]."
Post deleted
He, who posts on Twitter with the nickname @pearlher, said a post she had made on a Chinese microblogging site about Chen's situation was deleted within a few hours, and her account closed.
She said it had apparently also sparked a visit from China's state security police, who warned her to "keep in mind the big picture."
But He said she would continue her activism on Chen's behalf until there was an improvement in his situation.
"I told the state security police today that if Chen Guangcheng died, I wouldn't accept it."
She said the police had told her to call off a planned May 1 protest in Chen's home county of Yinan.
"I told them that if Chen's basic right to existence had been respected by then, and if he had been given medical treatment, then we wouldn't go."
But she added: "I have been contacted by a lot of netizens, who have shown very strong resolve [to support Chen]."
Chen, a self-taught lawyer who campaigned for the rights of rural women under China's draconian family-planning regime, was jailed for more than four years for “damaging public property and obstructing traffic” in August 2006.
Following his release, he made a daring video, smuggled to the US-based group ChinaAid in February 2011, in which he said police threatened to beat him or throw him back in jail if he spoke out.
Activists say he and his wife were severely beaten up for the video action.
Chen and his family have been confined to their home and denied access to books, paper, or pens and electronic equipment, they said.
Reported by Grace Kei Lai-see for RFA's Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.