A never ending story
It is hard not to sympathize with Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese human rights activist. The front-page photos show him literally holding hands with American diplomats as he leaves the embassy in Beijing, looking for protection and a bit of guidance from those better equipped with power and sight as he hesitantly reenters his native China to seek medical treatment.
But then it is hard not to sympathize with the diplomats, who less than a day later discovered that Chen has changed his mind and wants to leave China after all, having discovered that his family was mistreated and he can expect worse.
It is far more difficult to sympathize with the Chinese government, which abuses not only Chen but much of its population. Chen’s breach was to protest forced abortions. How much longer can the Chinese continue medieval practices and expect an increasingly prosperous and aware population not to protest?
The high-level U.S. delegation in China, including Secretary of State Clinton and Treasury Secretary Geithner, has no doubt sighed with relief. Their mission is to discuss security and economic matters that are far more immediately relevant to U.S. national interests than mistreatment of Chen. In any event, he is now out of the U.S. embassy and therefore on his own.
Mitt Romney, parading himself as more or less a foreign policy realist, no doubt would agree with the Obama Administration’s choice of interests over values, but he certainly isn’t prepared to say so. The blame game is in full swing, with Romney criticizing President Obama for failing to protect Chen. Hard to imagine how President Romney would decide which of the 1.4 billion Chinese the United States should protect. If the answer is only those that make it into the U.S. embassy, he’d better be ready to quadruple the already strict security to keep the hordes out. There is simply no substitute for governments that abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without other governments intervening.
This story may not be over. Why shouldn’t the Chinese let Chen go to the U.S. with Hillary Clinton, as he has apparently asked? Dissidents who leave China quickly lose credibility and audience there. Keeping him around under tight surveillance will create a long-term irritant. If the geniuses who man the Chinese security apparatus decide to do that, they can expect more trouble–Chen was more skillful than most in escaping from his house arrest and making it all the way to Beijing and into the American embassy.
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2 thoughts on “A never ending story”
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Actually, it’s quite possible to “sympathize” with the Chinese regime if we stop for a moment to appreciate that it is trying to effect a relatively peaceful transition from an impoverished and brutally totalitarian state that could barely feed its 600+ million people into a society whose agricultural base supports more than twice that many citizens and is well on its way to become a world financial and industrial leader. As gut-wrenching as I find the forced abortions, it hardly merits the adjective “medieval”. Nor can we be sure that future generations will embrace the “universal” ideal of popular sovereignty that continues to suffer from significant design flaws that urgently need attention if it is to survive the Chinese challenge.
Resolutely ignoring the international uproar (at least the web-based type), the diplomats seem at this point to be working out a solution that will protect Chen’s safety and Chinese face – study abroad. He’s already been granted a fellowship by some university in the States, the Chinese government has only said he has to follow normal procedures, i.e., not ruling out the idea.
It’s hard to imagine that the government is pleased by the uproar, but in the long run, being forced to adhere to the provisions of its own constitution will strengthen their country. You have to wonder – how much was the U.S. indebted to the old USSR for America’s improvement in the country’s treatment of its Black citizens? When we were engaged in a competition for world public opinion, their ability to cite the old Southern tradition of lynching was an ace we couldn’t really trump by saying “they’re much rarer today.” The federal government must have seen a need to do something about civil rights beyond simple justice – that their lack weakened the country internationally, not just internally, for example. I wouldn’t expect any more thanks from the Chinese than we gave the Soviets, though.