by LOUISA LIM
A senior U.S. official, Kurt Campbell, has arrived on an
unscheduled trip to Beijing, apparently to negotiate over Chinese dissident
Chen Guangcheng, believed to be under U.S. protection. The fate of the activist
puts both China and the U.S. in a tricky diplomatic bind, with no easy answers.
Chen's
whereabouts have yet to be officially confirmed, though several activists and
groups with whom he had been in contact say he is under U.S. protection. There
was no comment from Assistant Secretary of State Campbell as he flew into
Beijing, days earlier than planned. So far, the U.S. silence is a good sign,
according to Susan Shirk, a professor of Chinese politics at UC San Diego, who
was a State Department official responsible for China during Bill Clinton's
presidency,
"Rather
than making big public statements and dramatic gestures, the United States is
using quiet diplomacy," Shirk says, "which is exactly what I would
think is needed at the current time."
Heightened Risk For Activists And Their Families
Chen
himself has not stayed quiet. Escaping after 19 months under house arrest, the
blind, self-trained lawyer on Friday released a dramatic video, describing
abuses and naming the perpetrators. Chen shot to prominence after exposing
illegal forced abortions by local officials, later spending four years in
prison on charges of intentionally damaging private property and organizing a
crowd to disrupt traffic.
"Chen's
case has become the epitome of China's human rights situation," says
activist Hu Jia, who met Chen in Beijing after his escape. "The government
kept lying about it, while citizens kept exposing the truth. Chen is living
evidence both of violent family planning abuses and of an unimaginable
crackdown on human rights."
Hu said Chen was in good spirits, but had blood in his
stool, sparking fears about the state of his health. Since talking on the phone
to NPR, Hu himself was detained and questioned for 24 hours before being
released.
Two other supporters who helped Chen escape, He Peirong and
Guo Yushan, have also gone missing, and are thought to have been detained as
well. Several of Chen's relatives are also reported to have been held by local
authorities, though this could not be independently confirmed.
It's not clear what Chen Guangcheng himself is seeking. Hu
says he clearly expressed a wish to remain in China, rather than seeking
asylum. The last precedent for such a case was back in 1989, when dissident
Fang Lizhi sought asylum at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, subsequently spending
a year holed up there before Beijing gave him permission to leave. But Chen's
case could be more complicated still, given the number of supporters and
relatives whom Beijing could use as bargaining chips ..... continue to read
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