Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 5:44am

Has the U.S. Government Betrayed Chen Guangcheng?

Matthew Archbold as well as the folks at Hot Air have done a fantastic job covering the story of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng.  Matt discussed this story a few days ago.

Chen Guancheng is a blind human rights activist who has protested his country’s forced abortions and sterilizations. After months of beatings at the hands of his guards, Chen pretended to be sick and laid up in bed. He and his wife studied the movements of the guards, according to ABC News. In the middle of the night, Guancheng slipped past nearly 100 guards stationed around his home and escaped into the night.

Matt detailed the U.S. government’s less than enthusiastic embrace of Chen, and today we have learned more troubling details that indicate that the administration has betrayed Chen.  Ed Morrissey relays this:

Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng says a U.S. official told him that Chinese authorities threatened to beat his wife to death had be not left the American Embassy.

Speaking by phone from his hospital room in Beijing on Wednesday night, a shaken Chen told The Associated Press that U.S. officials relayed the threat from the Chinese side.

Chen, who fled to the embassy six day ago, left under an agreement in which he would receive medical care, be reunited with his family and allowed to attend university in a safe place. He says he now fears for his safety and wants to leave.

Chen says that the U.S. government lied to him.

An American official denied that account. The official said Mr. Chen was told that his wife, Yuan Weijing, who had been brought to Beijing by the Chinese authorities while Mr. Chen was in the American Embassy, would not be allowed to remain in the capital unless Mr. Chen left the embassy to see her. She would be sent back to Mr. Chen’s home village in Shandong, where no one could guarantee her safety.

“At no time did any U.S. official speak to Chen about physical or legal threats to his wife and children. Nor did Chinese officials make any such threats to us,” Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesperson, said in an e-mailed statement. “U.S. interlocutors did make clear that if Chen elected to stay in the Embassy, Chinese officials had indicated to us that his family would be returned to Shandong, and they would lose their opportunity to negotiate for reunification.”…

“At no point during his time in the Embassy did Chen ever request political asylum in the U.S.,” Ms. Nuland said. “At every opportunity, he expressed his desire to stay in China, reunify with his family, continue his education and work for reform in his country. All our diplomacy was directed at putting him in the best possible position to achieve his objectives.”

As Allahpundit says, this is a distinction without a difference.  One way or the other Chen was led to believe that his wife’s life was in danger, or at the very least was threatened with physical harm.  Either way, Chen was clearly upset.

“The embassy kept lobbying me to leave and promised to have people stay with me at the hospital,” he said. “But this afternoon, as soon as I checked into the hospital room, I noticed they were all gone.”

He said he was “very disappointed” in the U.S. government and felt “a little” that he had been lied to by the embassy.

At the hospital, where he was reunited with his family, he said he learned that his wife had been badly treated after his escape.

“She was tied to a chair by police for two days,” he said. “Then they carried thick sticks to our house, threatening to beat her to death. Now they have moved into the house. They eat at our table and use our stuff. Our house is teeming with security — on the roof and in the yard. They installed seven surveillance cameras inside the house and built electric fences around the yard.”

At this point it’s impossible to determine exactly what has happened, and whether or not the State Department and the Obama administration sold Chen out just to remain in China’s good graces.  One would like to think the best of this president and assume that he would not betray a heroic dissident in order to keep an evil,authoritarian government happy.  One would also have to be hopelessly naive to blindly make such an assumption.

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Clinton
Clinton
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 12:44am

Well, the ChiComs are one of the biggest owners of our national debt. Who
pays the piper calls the tune– we’re going to have to learn to do what our
overlords want…

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Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 6:00am

[…] Has the U.S. Government Betrayed Chen Guangcheng? – Paul Zummo, The American Catholic […]

Ike
Ike
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 7:24am

Well, you know, as Sec. Clinton said, we can’t let these human rights issues destroy our national security interests or financial interests or ENVIRONMENTAL interests……silly human rights.

Dale Price
Dale Price
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 7:42am

That would be the second dissident asylum seeker betrayed this year.

It’s fascinating: we won’t turn over Uighurs designated as enemy combatants because we are afraid for their welfare, but we’ll chuck back two men who share the values of this nation (albeit not the current occupants of Washington) without a second thought.

Now I’m going to stop because otherwise I’m going to make several intemperate references to the sexual practices and dubious parentage of said occupants.

Maybe I need to vote for Romney after all.

Donald R. McClarey
Admin
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 7:51am

And if Obama were to gain a second term Dale, imagine how much more “flexibility” he would have to betray this nation’s ideals, beliefs and interests. He is beginning to nudge James Buchanan for top spot on my presidential list of shame.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 8:07am

“One would like to think the best of this president . . .”

One would like $2 steaks and for all teenagers to respect and heed thier parents’ wisdom. One would like self-mowing lawns and 200-mpg cars possessed with zip and style. One would like his wife to budget before she spends.

And all of that is more likely than anything resembling “best” to ever be found in “this president.”

Michael P
Michael P
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 8:17am

How can we assume that the US government just left Chen at the hospital? I mean maybe they went to get coffee er um some good Chinese food (they are in China after all) and maybe some escorts. I mean who knows!! We have to give them the benefit of the doubt. HATERS!!

Phillip
Phillip
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 10:00am

“One would like his wife to budget before she spends.”

You are a dreamer. 🙂

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 11:00am

“You are a dreamer.”

But I’m not the only one . . . and it was quite a list of fantasy wishes, wasn’t it?

Phillip
Phillip
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 11:23am

Yes it was. I am going to use them elsewhere and claim credit.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 11:36am

Shaw thinks Chen would be “better off” in Chiner if Obama gets re-elected.

Meli
Meli
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 12:15pm

I came to this article out of concern for the “Blind (generic) Activist”. But, now I find I have to assure WK Aiken and Phillip:

I, a wife, am responsible for the household budget and spend/save accordingly. (And, for the record, I learned how to budget from my Mom.) Still, the rest of your list would be great!

Clinton
Clinton
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 1:10pm

It shames me to say this, but perhaps Chen Guangcheng would have fared better if
he’d fled to the Russian embassy. My God, where is this country going?

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 3:44pm

Thanks, Meli, for restoring my faith in the sanctity of marital bond and domestic responsibility. Were this not a public forum, I’d give you my home number so you might instruct my spouse as to the benefits of your approach. As it is, I shall simply shore up hope and renew my supplications to The Almighty that someday, before we go to our rocking chairs, this too shall have passed.

Meli
Meli
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 3:55pm

WK – at least post if you find that $2 steak!

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 4:31pm

I have a US $5 gold piece or a few silver dollars that can buy a side of beef.

TommyAquinas
TommyAquinas
Thursday, May 3, AD 2012 4:48pm

(Is it just me, or does it seem that Nixon going to China was a very, very bad move?)

Despicable. Both the Chinese government, and the Obama administration’s actions.

It’s funny, but whenever I get into an argument a discussion about America’s relationship with China, they always claim that by buying Chinese goods and being friendly with China, we’re giving the Chinese people the means to live well so that they can afford to start thinking about freedom and human rights and then will encoruage their government to follow, etc.

That tactic doesn’t seem to be working…

trackback
Friday, May 4, AD 2012 1:20pm

[…] Chinese ProductsMay 4, 2012 By Thomas L. McDonald 1 CommentIn a post on the shameful betrayal of Chen Guangcheng at the hands of the US government, the Catholic retailer Aquinas & More reiterates why they […]

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