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Christian
Science Monitor...
Blame
China, not Obama or US, for the plight of activist Chen Guangcheng
By Nicholas
Burns
May 3, 2012
Beijing,
not US mishandling, is responsible for activist Chen’s predicament. The
US
often needs to balance its concern for human rights in favor of
Beijing’s
cooperation on pressing global issues. This is not one of those times.
Obama
must stand up to China to defend Chen’s rights.
The
dramatic events in Beijing surrounding the brave Chinese activist, Chen
Guangcheng, are confounding and hard to fathom at such a great distance
and
without all the facts. That has not stopped critics who should know
better from
rushing to blame the Obama administration for having mishandled
negotiations
with the Chinese authorities over his fate.
None of
this is surprising given China’s lamentable human rights record and its
shameful status as the one of world’s greatest human rights abusers. It
was
also standard Chinese practice to demand a US apology for harboring
Chen, an
apology that will surely not be forthcoming.
The State
Department did many things right during this tumultuous past week. It
was right
to permit Chen to stay within the walls of the American embassy for six
days.
It was right to keep negotiations with China private and beyond the
glare of
the press as that maximized the chance of an agreement to protect Chen.
And, I
have no doubt that Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and US Ambassador
to China
Gary Locke, both long-time champions of human rights, did everything in
their
power to protect him.
Now that
Chen has made a series of increasingly anxious statements from his
hospital
bed, some quite critical of his American protectors, the United States
would be
well advised to bring his fate back to the center of the talks in
Beijing this
week.
Secretary
Clinton has every right to remind the Chinese government about the
commitments
it made to permit Chen to rejoin his family and live a life free of
intimidation and for continued American government access to him. Given
the
confusion surrounding Chen’s decision to leave the embassy, this will
also make
it clear where the US stands – on Chen’s side against China’s cynical
leaders.
Read the
rest of this article at Christian Science Monitor
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