London, Dec. 4 (ANI): US-based blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has urged China's new leader Xi Jinping to institute reforms and uphold human rights in the country.
In a video posted online, Guangcheng said that Jinping could 'carry out reform' or maintain Communist Party's power.
The appeal comes after a Chinese court sentenced Guangcheng's nephew to three years in jail for assaulting officials.
Guangcheng said that officials 'have enacted revenge' on his nephew and others because he fled the country, and that those who ordered his nephew's arrest have been promoted, the BBC reports.
"Dear Mr Xi Jinping, the whole nation is watching you. Whether you will follow the call of heaven and people to carry out reform, or kidnap the government and maintain the power of the Communist Party, it is a matter of whether China will have the transition in a peaceful way or a violent way," Guangcheng said.
In the video, he also cited examples of political changes happening in other countries like Burma.
"If Thein Sein can do it, yet Xi Jinping doesn't, obviously it's not that Xi couldn't do it, but simply that he wouldn't. And that will speak volumes to who he is as a person and as a leader," he said.
Guangcheng had escaped house arrest earlier this year and then took refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing, the report said.
His escape caused a diplomatic crisis and was later allowed to travel to the US for studies.
After he fled, his relatives' homes were raided and his nephew, Chen Kegui, was detained by police.
The nine-minute video was released on Sunday by US-based non-profit organisation ChinaAid to mark World Human Rights Day, the report said.
Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer, has campaigned against forced abortions under China's one-child policy and was jailed for four years in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property, the report added. (ANI)