Chen Guangcheng is a Chinese civil rights activist who worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer." In China, he against CCCP policies.In 2005, Chen organized a class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. He and his family were placed under house arrest for several months, and Chen was formally arrested in June 2006. He served over four years in prison and was returned to house arrest when he was released in 2010. After he smuggled a video of his imprisonment in his house in 2011, Chen and his wife were reportedly beaten.Chen's situation received sustained international attention, and the U.S. State Department, the British Foreign Secretary, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all issued appeals for his release. In 2012 Chen escaped his house arrest and fled to the Embassy of the United States in Beijing. After negotiations with the Chinese government, he left the embassy in May 2012 and immigrated to the United States. In 2013, Chen accepted a position with the conservative research group Witherspoon Institute, and a position at the Catholic University of America.