Posted on 05/04/2012 3:43:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
It's hard to know which is worse: one's grief over Chen Guangcheng's fate or the fury over the Obama administration's abandonment of him to that fate.
Chen was already an internationally known human rights activist when he remarkably showed up at the U.S. embassy in Beijing last week seeking refuge. A blind, self-taught lawyer from Shandong province, Chen had been held prisoner for 19 months for the crime of publicizing Chinese atrocities by those enforcing the "one child" policy. Chen had chosen a moonless night (his captors were not blind) to scale several high walls and stumble his way to a predetermined meeting place where Christian friends would help him make the harrowing 300-mile journey to Beijing. He told supporters that he fell 200 times that night -- breaking a foot in the process.
At some point, it's not clear exactly where or when, U.S. officials did help Chen get to the embassy -- which is gratifying. What happened next was not.
Four days of negotiations with the Chinese government followed. The State Department was gearing up for the visit of Secretary Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and other top officials. Chen's presence in the embassy would cast a pall over the diplomatic niceties. So while U.S. officials held discussions with the Chinese about Chen's future, it's clear that they did so with the usual disregard for the nature of the regime they were confronting.
When, for example, the Chinese rounded up Chen's friends and accomplices in Shandong, U.S. officials asked China to "investigate" these "extralegal" activities by local authorities, as if they were dealing with a government that enforces the rule of law rather than a criminal state that flouts the law.
Throughout the tense days of talks, Chen's spirits sometimes flagged, understandably. There are reports that the Chinese threatened his family. He asked, the Washington Post reported, about other human rights heroes -- Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. "'Does she ever feel low? Did she ever question her choices?'"
State Department officials claim that Chen repeatedly expressed a desire to remain in China and continue his human rights work. American officials supposedly worked out an agreement with the Chinese that Chen, his wife and children would be permitted to move to a small city near Beijing to continue his legal studies, free from persecution. Secretary of State Clinton issued a statement that Chen was leaving the embassy in accord with "his wishes and our values."
The State Department released cheery pictures of Chen being wheeled into the hospital. Then the rosy facade crumbled. Chen was surrounded by plainclothes police, and the U.S. officials abandoned him. "No one from the U.S. embassy is here," Chen told a British broadcaster. "I don't understand. They promised to be here."
As Melinda Liu of The Daily Beast reported, Chen felt pressured by the U.S. to take the deal. He spoke to Bob Fu of the China Aid Association from his hospital bed: "He was very heavy-hearted," Fu said. "He was crying when we spoke. He said he was under enormous pressure to leave the embassy. Some people almost made him feel he was being a huge burden to the U.S." According to Fu, Chen was told that "he would have no chance of reunification with his wife and children if he didn't (leave). The choice presented to him was walk out -- or stay inside and lose his wife and kids."
Chen told Liu, through tears, that it was his "fervent hope" that he and his family would be permitted to leave China on Hillary Clinton's plane.
It is sad when the most charitable possible interpretation of a diplomatic episode is that the Obama administration was rolled. Even supposing the administration to have been acting in good faith, Obama set the table for this sucker punch from the Chinese long ago. In 2009, Secretary Clinton signaled the administration's weakness by saying that human rights concerns would not be permitted to interfere with cooperation "on the global economic crisis (and) the global climate change crisis." Prior to his 2009 visit to China, Obama declined to meet with the Dalai Lama to avoid offending his hosts. And while in China, he permitted the regime to stage manage his appearances and effectively censor his remarks.
The Chinese appear to have taken Obama's measure. They think they have nothing to fear from flagrantly reneging on a deal to offer humane treatment to a human rights hero -- thus openly expressing their contempt for Obama and the United States. Obama has suffered a loss of face. Chen stands to lose everything.
nobama has more in common with the dictators of china than with Chen. nobama sooooooo wants to be like them. Freedom? Screw freedom. nobama wants to turn (is turning) out the light of ffeedom.
Very well said. He does indeed
They also turned away a police chief who would have been an amazing source of insight to the inner workings of the modern Chinese Communist party. Nobody could be that stupid. This is the work of people hostile to our government.
Isn’t Mona Charen one of those inside-the-beltway Conservatives who slobbered over Obama in 2008?
Hillary and Obama would glady throw any anti-communist to the wolves. He was just a PITA to them.
They could not care less about him, his family, or any Chinese outside of the Communist Party.
. The conservatives on television based out of New York and DC as well as the Republican establishment are exactly like the opposing basketball team for the Harlem Globetrotters. They have a steady job and put on a nice show. But it's all a scam. Just a way of keeping the masses in line while they steal our money running their con job.
Even Jimmy Jackass Carter wouldn’t have acted like Obama on this one.
Somebody please explain to me why this is probably not an accurate statement of his dilemma.
If he got his wife and kids into the embassy too there might be reason for a claim of abandonment. But he apparently wasn't thinking that far ahead.
The US realistically has no way to force the Chinese government to let his family go.
Of course the US officials may not have been as supportive as they could have been. But there is very little they can actually do.
Do you have a source for that? You wouldn't thinking of Peggy Noonan perhaps?
Is there any Doubt as to where Democrats Loyalties are?
Coddling Muslim Murderers...
Kissing Oil Shieks Hands....
Caving to Communists in China and Russia?
Obama and Hillary are traitors.
Any one remember Ellian Gonzallez?...
Clinton Sedition...and betrayal...
You Cubans in Florida still remember?
Hillary Clinton...
The New Jane Fonda....
You Vietnam Vets Know what I am talking about?
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