Harassment of New University in Exile Consortium Member Teng Biao Must Stop

Endangered Scholars Worldwide calls attention to and condemns in no uncertain terms the daily public harassment of the courageous and repeatedly attacked Chinese human rights activist and professor, Dr. Teng Biao, who is a currently Grove Human Rights Scholar at Hunter College and Pozen Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago.

Professor Teng Biao | Photo Credit: Teng Biao

According to the Washington Post, since December 1, 2020, a vocal group of Mandarin-speaking protesters has arrived every morning at Teng Biao’s family residence in West Windsor, NJ, screaming expletives chants and carrying signs emblazoned with false accusations.

Teng Biao, a highly respected Chinese human rights activist and scholar, fled China with his family in 2014 after being imprisoned and tortured for his human rights activities and repeatedly clashing with the authorities over his human rights work.

According to Teng Biao and other Chinese dissidents also under attack in the United States and Canada, the person behind these mob-like protesters is a person accused of immense corruption Guo Wengui— a Chinese businessman based in New York who has worked on various projects with ousted White House strategist Steve Bannon. Guo fled China in 2015, ahead of accusations by Chinese authorities of bribery, fraud, rape, and other crimes. FBI and SEC have investigated Guo’s multiple crimes committed after 2015. Teng Biao and several other Chinese dissidents have publicly criticized Guo. In 2018, Guo Wengui filed a defamation lawsuit against Teng Biao for a column he wrote in 2017. A judge in Trenton denied the defamation suit in September 2020.

Protesters in Princeton Junction | Photo Credit: Teng Biao

Since late September 2020, Guo has repeatedly called for his followers to harass and attack his critics. Guo names more than 20 targets, among them at least 16 have been harassed.

In a similar instance of harassment, the Washington Post reports that Bob Fu, a Texas-based pastor whose ministry provides aid to underground Christians and human rights lawyers in China, filed a lawsuit last month in federal court alleging that Guo was unlawfully targeting him with “online death threats” and intimidating protests at his home in the West Texas oil town of Midland. At one point, Fu’s family was evacuated by local and federal authorities in response to a credible bomb threat, Fu said in an interview.

Protesters in Princeton Junction | Photo Credit: Teng Biao

In Vancouver, a Chinese blogger, Benson Gao, was harassed for 75 days. Louis Huang, a Chinese rights activist, was punched and kicked by Guo’s followers. Huang was taken to hospital for his injuries, a broken bone under his right eye and a broken tooth.

These repeated instances of public harassment must be stopped.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide deplores the harassment of Teng Biao and other Chinese dissidents in the US and Canada,（also in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Germany） and we call on Guo Wengui and his followers to stop harassing these brave Chinese dissidents by sending mob-like protesters to their homes.

We ask the readers of Endangered Scholars World Wide to sign their names to this statement, which will be posted on our website and circulated as widely as possible.

[If you wish to add your name to the letter, you may do so HERE.]