MCLC: 'progress' on Chen Guangcheng case

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: 'progress' on Chen Guangcheng case
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (5/4/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/world/asia/chen-guangcheng-study-abroad-c
hina.html

Clinton Cites ŒProgress¹ on Chinese Dissident
By MICHAEL WINES 

BEIJING ‹ In her first public comments on the dissident Chen Guangcheng
since arriving in China, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on
Friday that she was encouraged by ³progress² in a diplomatic crisis that
has deeply 

Speaking at a news conference closing out two days of economic and
security talks that have been overshadowed by Mr. Chen¹s case, Mrs.
Clinton said she was encouraged by a statement earlier on Friday from
China¹s Foreign Ministry that said Mr. Chen could apply to study outside
China. The proposal appeared to offer the possibility of a breakthrough in
the crisis.

Mrs. Clinton said that progress had been made ³to help him have the future
that he wants² and referred to the ministry¹s statement as well as a visit
by American Embassy staff and an American doctor to Mr. Chen in a Beijing
hospital on Friday, the first time they were able to see him in person
since late Wednesday.

³But there is more work to do, so we will stay engaged as this moves
forward,² she said.

The two-sentence statement posted on the ministry¹s Web site, a spokesman,
Liu Weimin, stated that should Mr. Chen wish to study abroad, as more than
300,000 Chinese students do, he ³can apply through normal channels to the
relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other
Chinese citizen.²

Speaking later at a press briefing, Mr. Liu said he was certain that
³competent Chinese authorities will handle his application in accordance
with the law.²

The announcement came hours after Mr. Chen, in a four-point statement
conveyed by telephone to a friend, insisted that he did not want to seek
political asylum in the United States but that he had been invited to
attend New York University and hoped ³to go to the United States and rest
for several months.²

That would give Chinese officials a face-saving opportunity to allow Mr.
Chen and his family to leave China, according to Jerome A. Cohen, a New
York attorney and expert on Chinese law who discussed the proposal with
Mr. Chen this week.

Despite the developments, it appeared unlikely that there would be a final
resolution of the case before Mrs. Clinton leaves Saturday evening for
Bangladesh and India.

Mr. Chen has been in a central Beijing hospital receiving treatment for an
injured foot since Wednesday, when he left the United States Embassy under
an agreement between American and Chinese diplomats that would have
allowed him to study law in Tianjin, a major city on China¹s Pacific
coast. The diplomatic crisis erupted after Mr. Chen came to believe that
the Chinese government would not honor the bargain and began telling
friends from his hospital bed that he feared for his and his family¹s
safety.

Mr. Chen¹s subsequent pleas for help from Mrs. Clinton ‹ repeated in an
urgent telephone call played on speaker during an emergency congressional
hearing in Washington on Thursday ‹ frayed the fragile deal American
officials had struck with the Chinese before the start of high-level talks
between China and the United States.

American diplomats have worked frantically to recoup but they had been
barred by the Chinese even from visiting Mr. Chen in his hospital room.

Senior American officials have privately acknowledged missteps by
diplomats rushing to wrap up negotiations on the Chen case before two days
of economic and security talks, led by Mrs. Clinton and Treasury Secretary
Timothy F. Geithner. Those included a failure to guarantee access to Mr.
Chen at the hospital or to gain firm assurances from Chinese officials on
how he would be treated.

The diplomatic miscues in China became a campaign issue for President
Obama as his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, seized upon the apparently
bungled release of Mr. Chen. Republican lawmakers and rights activists
have accused the Obama administration of leaving one of China¹s most
prominent dissidents at the mercy of the Chinese police.

In a telephone conversation with The Associated Press, Mr. Chen said his
wife was being followed by men who are recording her movements on video
and that his own conversations with American officials were being cut off
after a couple of sentences.

The Obama administration has been bombarded with criticism from human
rights activists and Republican critics that it had botched its handling
of a major human rights case and placed one of China¹s most famous rights
activists in jeopardy.

Mr. Chen¹s initial remarks fueled those attacks. In a telephone
conversation on Thursday with The New York Times, he said that Chinese
government guarantees of his safety were ³empty talk² and that he had left
the embassy the previous day in part because of Chinese threats that his
family would be harmed if he did not agree to leave.

³The U.S. Embassy treated me well,² he said, ³but the U.S. government was
not proactive enough.²

In brief telephone conversations with news services on Friday, Mr. Chen
continued to express concern for his and his family¹s safety. But he has
backed away from earlier implicit criticisms of American efforts to assist
him, instead expressing deep gratitude for diplomatic help from the United
States.

Senior American officials have privately acknowledged missteps in the
handling of the case.

In posts on Twitter and a Chinese microblog, a friend who assisted in Mr.
Chen¹s flight to the American Embassy, Guo Yushan, said Mr. Chen had told
him he was ³totally astonished² by the crisis his earlier statements had
provoked. Mr. Guo said he had talked at length with Mr. Chen late Thursday
and posted a summary of their talk on Friday.

³He never complained, either directly or indirectly, that the United
States Embassy forced or induced him to leave the embassy. He left the
embassy voluntarily and appreciates very much the United States Embassy¹s
help during the past week,² he wrote.

Mr. Chen ³has much respect for China-U.S. diplomatic efforts,² he wrote,
and ³is very much aware of the importance of diplomacy between the two
countries and the seriousness of all agreements that have already been
reached.²

The two governments have been juggling one of the most disruptive
diplomatic issues in years since Mr. Chen, a blind lawyer and rights
activist who has exposed abuses of China¹s one-child policy, escaped house
arrest in Shandong Province late last month. Helped by friends, he made
his way 300 miles to Beijing, where American officials secretly brought
him to the embassy.

Angry and embarrassed, Chinese officials berated the Americans for giving
Mr. Chen sanctuary and demanded an investigation. But the state-controlled
news media has said little on the matter until Friday, when a handful of
newspapers published commentaries accusing the United States of using Mr.
Chen¹s situation to smear China¹s reputation.

Similar broadsides were notably absent from the Communist Party¹s major
official publications, suggesting that party leaders want to play down the
issue.

The United States appeared to share that view. At the Great Hall of the
People on Friday, Mrs. Clinton and President Hu Jintao exchanged
cordialities before cameras without mentioning the diplomatic tiff that
has dominated what was supposed to be a working visit by American
officials.

³We believe that the China-U.S. relationship is stronger than it¹s ever
been,² Mrs. Clinton told Mr. Hu.

Chinese authorities continued on Friday to monitor friends and supporters
of Mr. Chen. One activist who had vanished after Mr. Chen entered the
embassy, He Peirong, reappeared and stated in a Twitter post that she was
safely at home.

But a second close friend, Jiang Tianyong, said in an interview Friday
that plainclothes police abducted him, interrogated him through the night
and beat him, badly damaging his hearing, after he attempted to visit Mr.
Chen in the hospital early Thursday evening. A third dissident, Liu
Yanping, was also detained Friday after she attempted to deliver a
birthday cake to Mr. Chen¹s son at the Chaoyang Hospital.

Ai Weiwei, the internationally known artist and government critic who was
detained for three months last year, said Ms. Liu¹s act appeared designed
to publicly underscore the government¹s restrictions on Mr. Chen. He said
Mr. Chen¹s release was unlikely to signal any improvement in China¹s human
rights climate.

³For other people, there is no sense of change,² he said. ³In fact, for
others, the situation could be getting worse. Mrs. Clinton should take
notice.²

Jane Perlez and Sharon LaFraniere contributed reporting, and Edy Yin, Mia
Li, Li Bibo and Bree Feng contributed research.