Western news outlets became fascinated with Chen Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer who advocated for human rights inside communist China. When Guangcheng escaped house arrest and fled to the US in 2012, he was held up as a symbol of freedom and democracy. But in the subsequent years, observers were puzzled when Guangcheng re-entered the public sphere as a Trump supporter, repeating right-wing talking points. And the humble dissident who stood up to China’s authoritarian government was spotted in Washington on January 6th.

The podcast “Dissident at the Doorstep” from Crooked Media looks at Guangcheng’s story, tracing his early advocacy for reproductive freedoms and disability rights, to the diplomatic crisis caused by his flight from captivity, and his latter day emergence as a right wing darling. Hosts Alison Klayman, Colin Jones, and Yangyang Cheng ask if the man known as “the barefoot lawyer” changed his political stripes…or was he misunderstood from the beginning?

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "DISSIDENT AT THE DOORSTEP" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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