Chinese dissident receives human rights award

Blind dissident Chen Guangcheng on Tuesday urged China's people to end the communist-governed nation's "leadership of thieves" and for Washington not to "give an inch" on human rights in its relations with Beijing.

Chen made the comments as he received an award from a human rights group in a ceremony attended by several US lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

He spoke in Mandarin, and his comments were then repeated in English by Hollywood actor Richard Gere, who co-presented the award to Chen on behalf of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

Gere, best known for speaking out for the cause of Tibetan struggling under Chinese rule, led the tributes to Chen, calling him a "kind and gentle troublemaker, a man that China should be proud of instead of arresting and torturing."

Chen's speech was a stinging rebuke to authorities in China where he had faced years of persecution for his legal activism against forced abortions and for citizens' rights.

"Who can know how many seekers of justice and human rights will suffer persecution, destruction or even death at the hands of dictators if we are idle even for just one moment," Chen said.

"We must not only remember the atrocities of the fascists, but also recognise that today, authoritarianism is firmly entrenched," he added.

The 41-year old self-taught lawyer, who was blinded by fever in infancy, caused a diplomatic crisis last April when he fled house arrest in rural China and sought refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing.

China subsequently allowed him to come to the US to study law.