Chen also has been providing commentary for Radio Free Asia since 1997,[2] and had regularly appeared on Voice of America's weekly Pros and Cons show.

As a postgraduate student in 1985, he submitted a joint letter calling for political reform to former Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang.

In 1985, as a graduate student in Tongji University of Shanghai, Chen wrote a letter to then General Secretary of Chinese Communist Party Hu Yaobang, a known reformist in CCP, calling for political reform to build up a democratic China.

After the nationwide protests were cracked down by the CCP and its army PLA, Chen was wanted and subsequently arrested by the Chinese government for his leading role in the movement.

It also claimed that heavy labor was performed during the daytime, including the transportation and loading of stones from a quarry to a boat; at night, prisoners were forced to make artificial flowers for export.

The food supplied to prisoners by camp authorities was often insufficient and consisted of "coarse rice and rotten vegetables," according to Amnesty International.

1 Reform Through Labor, Quarry 1, Company 9 in Chini Town, Hua County, was the "most vicious," and that he was sent there so the Guangdong authorities could "vent their bitter hatred on me.

[9] [8] Chen was reportedly the first person and the first political prisoner to provide the United Nations with evidence that the Chinese government and its agencies used forced labor to manufacture products for sale overseas.

Chen regularly appears as an analyst on Chinese current affair programs, including Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, New Tang Dynasty Television, SET Taiwan, Radio Los Angeles 1300,[10] Hong Kong Open Magazine, Beijing Spring,[11] and others; speaking at news conferences,[12][13] panel discussions,[14] and other events;[15] and offering commentary to media.

[18][19][20][21][22][23] Topics of Chen's analysis include a range of contemporary issues involving modern China and its relationship with the US and the rest of the world.

Other topics discussed include human rights, minority issues, official corruption, social instability, economic inequality, military expansion, and cross-strait tension.