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Blind Chinese Human Rights Activist To Take Up Post At D.C. University

By: Kavitha Cardoza
October 3, 2013
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A Chinese activist who sparked a diplomatic crisis last year when he fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from house arrest says he has new affiliations with three U.S. institutions, including one in D.C.

Chen Guangcheng will serve as a distinguished visiting fellow at Catholic University of America in the District for the next three years. He also has appointments at the Witherspoon Institute, a conservative think tank in New Jersey and the Lantos Foundation, a human rights organization in New Hampshire.

The activist, who is blind, says that will allow him to continue speaking out against what he says is the “inhumane brutality” of the Chinese government.

Since last May, Chen has been a special student at New York University. He says that NYU forced him to leave because of pressure from the Chinese government. The school denies that.

He’s expected to move with his family to D.C.

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