MCLC: growing crisis over Chen Guangcheng

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: growing crisis over Chen Guangcheng
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (4/29/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/world/asia/us-official-in-beijing-to-disc
uss-chen-guangcheng.html

In Crisis Over Dissident, U.S. Sends Official to Beijing
Paramilitary police officers patrolled near the United States Embassy,
where it was thought that Chen Guangcheng was staying.
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and JANE PERLEZ

WASHINGTON ‹ The Obama administration rushed to contain a growing
diplomatic crisis between the United States and China, sending a senior
diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled
house arrest last week.

Amid intense secrecy, including a nearly blanket refusal to comment, the
administration sought to negotiate over the safety of the dissident, Chen
Guangcheng, who is said to be in American hands in Beijing ‹ though it
remained unclear late Sunday whether he was in the embassy, in a
diplomatic residence, or somewhere else.

The senior diplomat, Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state,
arrived Sunday to meet with Chinese officials concerning Mr. Chen¹s case,
and to try to keep the matter from undermining the administration¹s
longstanding effort to improve economic and security relations with China,
senior officials and diplomats in Washington and Beijing said.

A senior American official said that China¹s leadership met Sunday to work
out their response to Mr. Chen¹s escape before scheduled meetings this
week with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary
Timothy F. Geithner. Mrs. Clinton is due to leave Washington for China on
Monday night.

³They¹re trying to figure out what they¹re going to tell Hillary Clinton,²
the official said of the Chinese leaders, speaking on the condition of
anonymity because of the diplomatic delicacy surrounding the case. ³We¹d
like to know as much as we can before she leaves.²

The administration¹s effort to contain the crisis ‹ the State Department
declined to confirm that Mr. Campbell was in China, even though he was
photographed in a Marriott hotel in Beijing ‹ underscored the political
challenge facing President Obama, at home and abroad.

³This is the greatest test in bilateral relations in years, probably going
back to ¹89,² said Christopher K. Johnson, until recently a senior China
analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, referring to the year of the
crackdown on student protests in Tiananmen Square. He noted that the
relationship had weathered tense moments since then, like the forced
landing of a Navy spy plane on Hainan Island in 2001 after a midair
encounter with a Chinese fighter jet.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called for
the administration to ³take every measure² to protect Mr. Chen and his
family. While he did not address the handling of the case, he said the
matter demonstrated the need for unflinching American support for human
rights in China.

³Any serious U.S. policy toward China must confront the facts of the
Chinese government¹s denial of political liberties, its one-child policy
and other violation of human rights,² Mr. Romney said in a statement on
Sunday, his first remarks on the issue since Mr. Chen¹s escape was
reported Friday.

Mr. Chen, 40, became famous because of his strong opposition to forced
abortions and sterilizations conducted as part of China¹s policy of
limiting families to one child per couple. ³Our country must play a strong
role in urging reform in China and supporting those fighting for the
freedoms we enjoy,² Mr. Romney said.

The administration¹s only public comment so far on Mr. Chen¹s case came
from an unexpected source: Mr. Obama¹s top counterterrorism adviser, John
O. Brennan. Asked about the matter on ³Fox News Sunday,² he declined to
discuss Mr. Chen¹s whereabouts in any detail, but he acknowledged that ³we
are working very closely with the individuals involved in this.²

He went on to say that the administration sought ³an appropriate balance²
when advocating for human rights in strategically important countries like
China.

³I think, in all instances, the president tries to balance our commitment
to human rights, making sure that the people throughout the world have the
ability to express themselves freely and openly,² Mr. Brennan said, ³but
also that we can continue to carry out our relationships with key
countries overseas.²

The two days of talks to be held in Beijing this week ‹ known as the
Strategic and Economic Dialogue ‹ will be overshadowed by the diplomatic
complications surrounding Mr. Chen¹s daring escape, which took American
officials by surprise. Still, both sides suggested that the talks would go
ahead. In the only comment by a Chinese official so far, Vice Foreign
Minister Cui Tiankai said Saturday that he did not believe the Chen case
would ³occupy much time² at the talks.

The meetings have been an important element of the administration¹s policy
to manage America¹s increasingly complex relations with China through
regular discussions on a wide spectrum of issues, though they were not
expected to yield any specific results this week. In recent months,
administration officials say they have seen signs of greater Chinese
flexibility on security issues involving Iran, Syria and North Korea and
on economic concerns like China¹s exchange rate.

Mr. Cui¹s statement did not preclude the possibility that a senior Chinese
leader would meet with Mrs. Clinton separately from the planned sessions
and deliver a sharp message about American involvement in Mr. Chen¹s case,
or a broader condemnation of American support for dissidents in China.

The Chinese government regards foreign criticism of its human rights
policies and practices as undue interference in its internal affairs, and
it will almost certainly use the occasion of the talks to drive that point
home, diplomats in Beijing said. In fact, the Chinese might go forward
with the planned talks specifically to have the chance to confront Mrs.
Clinton about it.

Mr. Chen¹s case is the second in recent months that has drawn the Obama
administration into the affairs of the Chinese government without any
intention on Washington¹s part. In February a provincial official showed
up at the American Consulate in Chengdu, seeking protection from a
powerful party leader, Bo Xilai. The State Department instead arranged for
him to be transferred to the national authorities in Beijing. Evidence
that the provincial official claimed to possess apparently caused Mr. Bo¹s
political downfall and prompted an investigation of Mr. Bo¹s wife in the
killing of a British businessman.

Mr. Chen¹s case is different. A self-taught lawyer, he has called
attention to human rights abuses against the disabled and women who have
been forcibly sterilized. In 2006 he was sentenced to 51 months in prison
on charges of destroying property and assembling a crowd to disrupt
traffic, charges his supporters say were trumped up.

After he was released from prison, the local authorities held him under an
extralegal form of house arrest, with cordons of police officers
surrounding his family¹s farmhouse. In an audacious video released Friday,
Mr. Chen did not call for a change of government, but rather appealed to
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to investigate and halt the abuse of his family.

Other advocates who have spoken to him since he fled say he does not want
asylum that would force him to leave China.
That could create an opening for resolving a standoff with the United
States, the officials said.

³The federal government doesn¹t have to take this as a threat,² the senior
American official said Sunday, noting that Mr. Chen had not escaped from
official detention, but rather from harassment at the hands of the local
authorities.

Mr. Chen¹s supporters and Chinese officials have said that he is now in
the American Embassy. More than the usual number of security vehicles,
containing men in uniform and plain clothes patrolled the area near the
embassy over the weekend, but there was no sign of a major security
presence at the gates or entrances to the compound.

It was possible, however, that Mr. Chen was not in the fortresslike
embassy, but in an apartment or some other building, and thus still
vulnerable to arrest, diplomats in Beijing said. That could explain the
administration¹s refusal to discuss his case or his precise whereabouts.

Officials in Washington and Beijing refused Sunday to talk about Mr.
Campbell¹s mission or any negotiations he may be conducting. The senior
American official said that much remained unclear, including China¹s
response to what has become a major embarrassment to Beijing. ³It¹s not
something that¹s going to be resolved quickly,² the official said.

Steven Lee Myers reported from Washington, and Jane Perlez from Beijing.