(Chen Guangcheng) Chinese dissident’s fate in limbo as diplomatic deal appears to fray

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

As he left the protection of the U.S. Embassy in China early Wednesday, blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng startled his hosts with an unexpected request: He asked whether he could have a word with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose team apparently had just negotiated his safe reentry into Chinese society.

“I want to kiss you,” Chen, speaking in broken English, told Clinton after a phone connection was hastily made from the back of an embassy van, according to an account from senior State Department officials.

But just hours later, a friend of Chen’s tweeted a clarification of the dissident’s words. Chen, the friend said after speaking to him by phone, had tried to tell Clinton: “I want to see you” — suggesting not merely gratitude for the American intervention but also a desire to secure an even higher guarantor against possible mistreatment by Chinese authorities.

And so a remarkable drama, begun more than a week earlier when Chen escaped from house arrest in his provincial village and made his way toward the U.S. Embassy, culminated not in the diplomatic coup of an American-brokered deal but in confusion.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-dissidents-fate-in-limbo-as-diplomatic-deal-appears-to-fray/2012/05/02/gIQANXLmxT_singlePage.html

[Matilda]

1. Blind Chinese dissident pleads for refuge in US

Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Beijing and Washington, has told the ABC he now fears for his safety and wants to leave China.

It took many attempts to get through to Mr Chen at his hospital bed, with the phone mysteriously dropping out every time he answered, but finally he spoke to the ABC.

He said he was calling on the United States government to get him out of China because he feared for his safety

(snip)

It was my decision but at that time I didn't know everything. I didn't know outside there was going to be this danger my family faced.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-03/blind-dissident-pleas-for-help-from-obama/3987080

It's hard to believe that Chen wasn't aware of the danger to him and his family, and I can't help wondering whether he was pressured by the Embassy into leaving – the situation was an embarrassment to them.

It's hard for us to imagine the courage it took for him to speak out - I hope he may be allowed to leave with his family, but I fear for him.

[davidpdx]

3. The timing was really bad given the SoS was headed in to China

I think he should have been given more help, but we need to find out what really went on.

[Left Coast2020]

2. It won't be the police that brutalize him....

...it will be the hired thugs that are on the payroll of the corrupt police. That way no one can blame the police. But everyone in China knows the thugs are paid to do the dirty work.

Wo ba wang xiansheng Chen xing jiele zhou (I hope Mr Chen can come to United States).

[riderinthestorm]

4. Well there's a complete surprise....

NOT!

I don't think this is going to end well for Chen and his family dammit.

[alp227]

6. I'm starting to think this case is Obama's Iran hostage moment

then once Chen is locked up then Romney will repeatedly bring up Chen, then China will free Chen as Romney takes the oath. Similarly, iran freed the hostages on 1/20/81 as Reagan was being sworn in, and Reagan had sedated incumbent Democratic president Carter the year before with the hostage crisis AND a struggling economy as factors.

If the Chinese government kills Chen, the GOP willi make Chen a martyr.

Jon Huntsman, a former (R) candidate for president, was an ambassador to China. I wonder if Huntsman had any role in influencing the Chinese government in a dirty deal for political deal?

[Blue_Tires]

5. is there any precedent for this type of case?

it's one thing to sneak someone out under the cover of darkness with a fake identity, but a person who the whole country knows about?

[Cool Lee]

7. Lets Face it Chen Got the Bums Rush from the US

The situation boils down to a diplomatic solution in which the US tried to convince Chen that his government would allow he and his family to start a new life in a university town, safe from the rural authorities who had abused him in prison and house arrest for nearly seven years. That deal has fallen apart.

His response to his predicament: “I want them to protect human rights through concrete actions,” Chen Guangcheng told CNN from his hospital room in Beijing. “We are in danger. If you can talk to Hillary, I hope she can help my whole family leave China.” Good luck with that pal, cause the US simply don’t have the pull it once had. I am afraid Chen's rice is gonna be fried as soon as this story cools off!

[truthisfreedom]

8. Welcome to DU!

Enjoy your stay!

[IamK]

9. the obama administration totally got over on chen....

Politically well played I assume but kind of sad.... I expected more.

Obama: "Chen? Chen Who???"

[jeanmarc]

10. I'm having a disconnect here

When have the US, via the use of their embassy, when have they smuggled out a dissident from China during the last few decades? I've never seen a story like this one.

I'm not sure what one can do for him. Instead of trying through quiet negotiation, this is a big fiasco. How does Chen expect the Chinese gov't to just let him go, which would encourage everyone on house arrest to try the same strategy?