From China, Activist Pleads for Help in Call to U.S. Hearing
New York Times
by on May 3, 2012 BEIJING — Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident lawyer at the heart of a diplomatic crisis between China and the United States, telephoned in to a Congressional hearing on Thursday to plead for help in leaving his country.
Via a cellphone held up to a microphone at the hearing, Mr. Chen, speaking in Chinese, said: "I want to come to the U.S. to rest. I have not had a rest in 10 years. I'm concerned most right now with the safety of my mother and brothers. I really want to know what's going on with them."
Mr. Chen, according to the English translation of his comments, also asked to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was in Beijing. "I hope I can get more help from her," he said. "Also, I want to thank her face-to-face."
The call, apparently made from Mr. Chen's Beijing hospital room from which American officials have been barred, was another dramatic turn in a case that had for a short time looked like a deft achievement to secure Mr. Chen's safety by American diplomats. That achievement has unraveled, leaving the Obama administration open to attacks from rights activists and Republicans that it had failed to adequately protect Mr. Chen after he left the sanctuary of the United States Embassy here on Wednesday.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, accused the Obama administration of rushing to complete the deal before Mrs. Clinton arrived for the high level meetings and failing "to put in place the kind of verifiable measures that would assure the safety of Mr. Chen and his family."
"If these reports are true," Mr. Romney said as he campaigned in Virginia, "this is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the Obama administration."
Mr. Chen's dramatic reversal from wanting to stay in China after his escape nearly two weeks ago from harsh house arrest in eastern China and his six-day stay at the American Embassy left the administration struggling to create a new solution that would satisfy Mr. Chen, and be amenable to the Chinese government.
A key question facing the Obama administration will be the reaction of the Chinese government if Mr. Chen insists on leaving China.
If Mr. Chen requested asylum in the United States, he would need a passport and must apply for a visa. Another possibility would be Mr. Chen leaving China and going to a third country.
On Thursday, his lawyer said that a proposal for a temporary visit to the United States by Mr. Chen and his family was being considered, a possible face-saving way out of the diplomatic standoff.
Earlier, Mr. Chen suggested leaving the country with Mrs. Clinton. "My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton's plane," he said in an interview with the Daily Beast.
The Chinese government, which issued a harsh statement Wednesday criticizing the United States for its handling of Mr. Chen, skirted the issue on Thursday. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said at a regular briefing at the ministry that Mr. Chen was a free person and, as far as he knew, was living in his town in Shandong Province.
The circumstances of Mr. Chen's departure from the American Embassy on Wednesday were also still in dispute. The American ambassador, Gary Locke, reiterated Thursday that Mr. Chen had not been coerced into leaving the embassy on Wednesday and insisted that the dissident lawyer had left of his free will after a plan had been worked out with the Chinese government that he and his family could relocate to a city close to Beijing where he would pursue his law studies.
On Wednesday evening, American officials said they would do all they could to see Mr. Chen starting early Thursday morning. By not being able to talk to Mr. Chen in person, the administration was unable to determine a precise path forward for him, a senior official said.
Whether the Chinese government was actively preventing American officials from visiting Mr. Chen in the hospital, even during visiting hours that start at 3 p.m. local time on Thursday, was not immediately clear. But the longer the American officials were cut off from personal contact with Mr. Chen the more difficult it could become for the United States to reach a solution that satisfied the Chinese authorities.
American officials spoke to Mr. Chen by telephone Thursday, and met with his wife, Yuan Weijing, at a location near the hospital, the official said.
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Jane Perlez reported from Beijing, and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.
BEIJING — Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident lawyer at the heart of a diplomatic crisis between China and the United States, telephoned in to a Congressional hearing on Thursday to plead for help in leaving his country.
Via a cellphone held up to a microphone at the hearing, Mr. Chen, speaking in Chinese, said: "I want to come to the U.S. to rest. I have not had a rest in 10 years. I'm concerned most right now with the safety of my mother and brothers. I really want to know what's going on with them."
Mr. Chen, according to the English translation of his comments, also asked to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was in Beijing. "I hope I can get more help from her," he said. "Also, I want to thank her face-to-face."
The call, apparently made from Mr. Chen's Beijing hospital room from which American officials have been barred, was another dramatic turn in a case that had for a short time looked like a deft achievement to secure Mr. Chen's safety by American diplomats. That achievement has unraveled, leaving the Obama administration open to attacks from rights activists and Republicans that it had failed to adequately protect Mr. Chen after he left the sanctuary of the United States Embassy here on Wednesday.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, accused the Obama administration of rushing to complete the deal before Mrs. Clinton arrived for the high level meetings and failing "to put in place the kind of verifiable measures that would assure the safety of Mr. Chen and his family."
"If these reports are true," Mr. Romney said as he campaigned in Virginia, "this is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the Obama administration."
Mr. Chen's dramatic reversal from wanting to stay in China after his escape nearly two weeks ago from harsh house arrest in eastern China and his six-day stay at the American Embassy left the administration struggling to create a new solution that would satisfy Mr. Chen, and be amenable to the Chinese government.
A key question facing the Obama administration will be the reaction of the Chinese government if Mr. Chen insists on leaving China.
If Mr. Chen requested asylum in the United States, he would need a passport and must apply for a visa. Another possibility would be Mr. Chen leaving China and going to a third country.
On Thursday, his lawyer said that a proposal for a temporary visit to the United States by Mr. Chen and his family was being considered, a possible face-saving way out of the diplomatic standoff.
Earlier, Mr. Chen suggested leaving the country with Mrs. Clinton. "My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton's plane," he said in an interview with the Daily Beast.
The Chinese government, which issued a harsh statement Wednesday criticizing the United States for its handling of Mr. Chen, skirted the issue on Thursday. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said at a regular briefing at the ministry that Mr. Chen was a free person and, as far as he knew, was living in his town in Shandong Province.
The circumstances of Mr. Chen's departure from the American Embassy on Wednesday were also still in dispute. The American ambassador, Gary Locke, reiterated Thursday that Mr. Chen had not been coerced into leaving the embassy on Wednesday and insisted that the dissident lawyer had left of his free will after a plan had been worked out with the Chinese government that he and his family could relocate to a city close to Beijing where he would pursue his law studies.
On Wednesday evening, American officials said they would do all they could to see Mr. Chen starting early Thursday morning. By not being able to talk to Mr. Chen in person, the administration was unable to determine a precise path forward for him, a senior official said.
Whether the Chinese government was actively preventing American officials from visiting Mr. Chen in the hospital, even during visiting hours that start at 3 p.m. local time on Thursday, was not immediately clear. But the longer the American officials were cut off from personal contact with Mr. Chen the more difficult it could become for the United States to reach a solution that satisfied the Chinese authorities.
American officials spoke to Mr. Chen by telephone Thursday, and met with his wife, Yuan Weijing, at a location near the hospital, the official said.
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Jane Perlez reported from Beijing, and Steven Lee Myers from Washington.
by on May 3, 2012 Original Page: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/world/asia/chen-guangcheng-us-embassy-china-threatened.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss