Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng
with his wife and son,Chen
Kerui in
2005. In a YouTube video [watch below], Chen
expressed his
fear that Chinese authorities will take
'crazed
revenge' on his family
after his escape
from house arrest on Sunday .
Chen Guangcheng ‘Deluded’ by Western Media Attention (Global
Times, People’s Republic of China)
Was the escape of China’s blind dissident Chen Guangcheng from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy a failed attempt by a discredited man to enlist the help of a foreign power? This editorial from China’s government mouthpiece, the Global Times, not only seeks to diminish Mr. Chen’s significance as a global human rights champion, but hopes to persuade readers that seeking any kind of help or security from the U.S. or the West is futile.
Chen Guangcheng: A self-schooled legal activist, Chen is reknowned for exposing human rights abuses under China's one-child policy, and accuses Shandong Province officials of forcing 7,000 women into having abortions or be sterilized.
News that Chen Guangcheng, the
blind activist from Shandong Province, has entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing
and may seek asylum is making the rounds in U.S. and European media. The
question was even raised during a press conference with U.S. President Obama
and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Washington, though Obama declined
to comment on the case.
According to Western media, Chen is a hot potato for Chinese
authorities. But now it is Washington that he is making uncomfortable. Chen,
unlike other China dissidents with more abstract human rights goals, has issued
detailed complaints about grassroots governance. But now that he has made
his way from Linyi, in Shandong Province, to the U.S.
Embassy in Beijing, he has taken his complaints into America’s sphere.
Public complaints plague all countries. In the case of Chinese
petitioners, there are a wide variety of motives. If the demands petitioners
aren’t met domestically and they turn to the U.S. Embassy, it not only creates embarrassment
in China, but it puts the United States in an awkward position as well.
The U.S. Embassy has no interest in turning itself into an
office for Chinese petitioners. For Washington, it is easier to preach
universal values to the Chinese public, and once in a while, perhaps, offer
assistance in a few cases that best illustrate U.S. intentions. But it has
never been willing to involve itself in large numbers of Chinese societal
disputes.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Western media portray Chen as a blind activist hero, and
some Chinese echo this view. This has deluded Chen into adopting a mistaken
impression of his importance to the United States and his personal influence in
China. His assessment of himself has been ruined by exaggerated media reports.
The Chen Guangcheng incident will
not affect Sino-U.S. relations. The upcoming Sino-U.S. Strategic and Economic
Dialogue is unlikely to dwell on him. Quite a few who
are out of favor with the Chinese people have sought to exaggerate their own influence
by relying on overseas powers. But this is a poor strategy. The time that
foreign governments could dictate policies to Chinese authorities is long gone.
Over recent decades, hundreds of Chinese have fled to the West in the hope of pressuring
China. None of them won the prominence they sought.
Progress on human rights requires comprehensive public
support and social development. This is a notion imported from the West and is
not opposed to human rights. Conflicts often emerge when a specific problem is exaggerated.
Sustaining support for human rights in the country can only
come from within China. The West has little capacity to offer help in this
regard. At the moment, they are more than frustrated by their own human rights
issues.
As far as the Chen Guangcheng
issue, the West has put all the blame on Chinese authorities. Now he is
reportedly in the U.S. Embassy, which indeed has proven a dramatic twist. Let
us see how the U.S. government tries to satisfy both Western media and Chen
himself.
[Editor's Note: On Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry said through state media: "China demands the U.S apologize for a Chinese citizen's entering the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Spokesman Liu Weimin said the Ministry has been informed that Chen Guangcheng, a native of Yinan County in China's Shandong Province, entered the U.S. Embassy in late April and left of his own volition after a six-day stay in the embassy."]
