Reportar MensajeDid the Obama administration abandon Chen Guangcheng?
Hotair ^ | 05/02/2012 | Ed Morrissey
The story of Chinese democracy activist Chen Guangcheng took a bizarre turn this morning. The dissident escaped house arrest and ended up at the US embassy in Beijing, with an injury to his foot in the escape. The US then announced that they had negotiated safe passage to a hospital with the Chinese government, where Chen could be reunited with his family. However, the AP reported a few minutes agothat the US told him that if he didn't leave, the Beijing government would beat his wife to death ... and now he fears for his life:
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.
Here was the story earlier today, from LifeNews and an earlier report from the AP:
In a new deal between the United States and China, Chen has left to a local hospital and is reportedly under American protection, as U.S officials have guaranteed his safety. U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke escorted Chen, according to an AP report, to the Chaoyang Hospital and, on the way there, Chen called his lawyer, Li Jinsong, who said Chen told him: “‘I’m free. I’ve received clear assurances.’” …
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As part of the agreement that ended the fraught, behind-the-scenes standoff, U.S. officials said China agreed to let Mr. Chen receive a medical checkup and be reunited with his family at the hospital; his wife and two children joined him there Wednesday afternoon. He would then be relocated to a safe place in China where he could study at university — all demands activists said Mr. Chen had raised.
Clinton, in a statement, said Mr. Chen’s exit from the embassy “reflected his choices and our values” and said the U.S. would monitor the assurances Beijing gave. “Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task,” she said.
It doesn’t sound as though Chen feels particularly “free” at the moment. Did the Obama administration sell out Chen to the Beijing government? If so, that sends a chilling message to democracy activists and dissidents around the world about American commitment to freedom, and Obama’s own insistence that he would be on the side of freedom-loving activists.
Obama Kowtow to Chinese Leaders
What a sickening disgrace. How utterly typical of 0bama. Another kowtow to a communist.
How about telling the ChiComs that Chen and his wife and any kids are leaving, that they have US diplomatic immunity and any reprisals against Chen's extended family will be will be met with severe repercussions for US-China relations?
How much courage would it take to do that?
Apparently more than exists in the Zero WH and the State Dept.
These people make me sick.
Young Chinese heroine kidnapped for helping Chen flee: advocate
Life Site News ^ | May 2, 2012 | KATHLEEN GILBERT
He Peirong
BEIJING, May 2, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - He Peirong is a beautiful, petite Chinese woman friends describe as having a “spine of steel” - one that proved an immense benefit to her friend, human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, whose bid for freedom she spearheaded.
But the young woman’s fate is now dangerously unknown, as she disappeared immediately after the last leg of her effort to get the forced-abortion opponent out of the government’s reach and into the U.S. Embassy last week.
Advocates say she has likely been kidnapped by Chinese officials, who are infamous for their brutal torture methods against those who defy the Communist regime.
Telling from Chen’s own treatment - which involved severe beatings, starvation, and imprisonment in his home for the past 19 months despite being officially charged with no crime - the lack of contact from He Peirong is highly alarming to advocates overseas.
Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a U.S.-based advocacy group against forced abortions in China with deep connections to Chen’s community, said that Peirong has already suffered beatings and jailing for her efforts several times. But the success of the Embassy escape is likely to especially anger Chinese officials, as Littlejohn says it came about even while the Communisty Party was “clamp[ing] down on him as hard as it could.”
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Obama kowtows to Chinese Leaders
Somehow, Peirong managed to get Chen past 66 guards working in three shifts - 22 guards every eight hours - outside his house. The village itself was sealed by another set of guards, and Chen, on top of being blind, seriously sick, and injured from beatings, had his phone, computer and television confiscated, cutting him off from the outside world.
“According to Peirong, Chen spent months on his back, pretending to be near death, so that his guards would relax their vigilance,” Littlejohn said. “Then on April 22, with exquisite timing, he scaled a wall and ran for his life, taking several wrong turns and falling into a river because of his blindness.
“Peirong drove 20 hours to meet Chen and fooled the village guards into letting her in. She disguised herself as a courier. Then she drove Chen another eight hours - still wet from his fall in the river - to safety in Beijing.
“Their plan was so masterfully executed that the authorities did not realize Chen was gone for four days.”
But as soon as the plan was realized, Littlejohn said the reprisals began: the Communists violently detained Chen’s older brother and nephew, and his wife, children and mother, who have not been heard from, are also considered at risk.
Meanwhile, Littlejohn says as news broke of the escape she contacted Peirong, who said she was worried for her own safety. Hours later, she had vanished.
“At about 5:00 a.m. Dublin time, I skyped Peirong one last time and she did not answer. She had been detained, and no one has heard from her since,” said Littlejohn.
“We don’t know if Peirong is being tortured or whether her detention will last days, months or years.”
Littlejohn urged those concerned for Chen’s fate not to forget his rescuer.
“In pressing for Chen’s freedom, let us also press for the freedom of his rescuer, He Peirong, a hero in her own right,” said Littlejohn.
“She stood up for Chen during his time of greatest need. The least we can do is stand by her as she pays a terrible price for her courage.”
