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SINO DAILY
Eyes on China after Clinton deal on dissident
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) May 5, 2012


US ready to expedite Chinese activist's visa: Biden
Washington (AFP) May 6, 2012 - The United States will grant Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng a visa as soon as he applies for one, and expects Beijing to stand by its promises, Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday.

Biden told NBC television that Washington wanted to help Chen take up the offer of a fellowship from New York University.

"We're prepared to give a visa right away. He's going to be able to take his family. We expect the Chinese to stick to that commitment," Biden said.

Chen is at the center of a major diplomatic wrangle between China and the United States after he escaped harsh house arrest in the eastern province of Shandong late last month and sought refuge at the US embassy in Beijing.

He has been offered the fellowship but injuries sustained during his flight and official restrictions on access to him have prevented him from completing the necessary formalities to leave.

Chen on Sunday appealed for official help to leave China, saying he was effectively blocked in his hospital bed in Beijing.

"Now I have notified the hospital to invite them (government officials) to help me do the procedures. I really don't have a way," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

"It's even difficult for me to get out of bed and my other friends cannot come, so I have no way. They (US diplomats) have come, but they can't see me."

Senator John McCain, who was the Republican 2008 presidential nominee, said there had been "a number of missteps" in the handling of Chen's case.

But he told ABC television "the key now right now is to get him out of there and to the United States. That's I think what we all ought to focus on.

"It's important to recognize that people who helped him are being rounded up and detained. People are being arrested," McCain added.

"We've got to focus a lot of attention on them, as well. But first priority is to get him out of there and to the United States."

The delicate diplomatic standoff over Chen's move to seek sanctuary in the US embassy in Beijing and his later request to leave China, became fodder on the presidential campaign trail.

The president's presumed White House rival, Mitt Romney suggested in a sharp critique last week that the administration had mishandled the Chen affair by allowing the dissident to leave the embassy before it was completely clear that he and his family faced no threat of retaliation and truly wanted to stay in China.

"This is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the Obama administration. We are a place of freedom, here and around the world, and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack," Romney said last week.

But speaking on ABC television Sunday, President Barack Obama's campaign strategist David Axelrod dismissed the criticism, saying "we want to help Mr Chen achieve his goal, which is to come here, and we want to do it in accordance with our values, and we want to be successful in doing that. And we're making some progress in that regard," Axelrod said.

He also leveled a swipe at Romney.

"What's shameful is when presidential candidates are so craven to score political points that they speak irresponsibly on half-information at a time when the president is trying, and the administration is trying, to resolve a situation that is very, very sensitive and very difficult," he said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended a tense visit to China Saturday with a fragile deal in hand over a top dissident, as anxious activists waited to see if Beijing would let him leave the country.

After a turbulent week in ties between the Pacific powers, the United States said Friday that China would move soon to allow blind rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng to go to the United States with his family to study.

New York University said it had invited him to attend the institution.

Chen, who has alleged beatings under house arrest in conditions that are unusually harsh even by Chinese standards, dramatically escaped and took refuge in the US embassy on April 26, days before Clinton was due on a visit.

US officials, saying that Chen never requested asylum, escorted him to a Beijing hospital on Wednesday and said China had assured his safety. But Chen later said he felt unsafe and wanted to leave China, at least temporarily.

He was still believed to be in the hospital where a heavy security detail has kept journalists and supporters from entering.

T. Kumar, the Washington-based advocacy director for Amnesty International, welcomed the agreement but said it was critical to watch if China follows through and ends harassment of Chen's family and those who assisted him.

"While Amnesty International welcomes this initiative, we are very concerned on whether the Chinese government is doing this in good faith," he said.

Bob Fu, an exiled Chinese Christian activist who was instrumental in putting the case on the global radar, had criticised the initial deal but commended Clinton and Gary Locke, the US ambassador to China, for the latest agreement.

"This announcement is important and reflects Chen's wishes," said Fu, the head of the Texas-based group ChinaAid.

But he voiced concern for fellow activists and Chen's family members, saying: "Beijing gives Chen freedom with one hand and beats rights defenders with the other."

Chen exposed forced abortions, some late in women's pregnancies, and sterilisations under China's "one-child" population control policy. He defied pressure to stay silent after a four-year jail term that ended in 2010.

The initial deal quickly escalated into a tussle in Washington. Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney called it a "day of shame" for President Barack Obama's administration if reports -- strongly denied by US officials -- were true that it relayed Chinese threats against Chen's family to him.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and staunch critic of China, said the Obama administration made a mistake to escort Chen out of US protection and should now keep pressure on Beijing.

"Only when Chen arrives on American soil and is granted political asylum will we know that this issue is resolved and his freedom and safety are assured," she said.

US officials appeared to be keeping the details of Friday's agreement deliberately vague, fearing that it would fall through if China felt embarrassed on its home soil.

The State Department said it expected China to move "expeditiously" to grant Chen a passport to leave. China said publicly only that Chen had a right to go abroad to study.

US officials refused to put a timeframe on Chen's departure or say whether senior Chinese officials gave assurances on the agreement, although Clinton met Friday with both Premier Wen Jiabao -- a self-styled reformist to whom Chen addressed his demands -- and President Hu Jintao.

Clinton, who departed Beijing for a visit to Bangladesh, said the US was "closely engaged in following up as (Chen) takes the next steps.

"We're encouraged by the progress we made in supporting his efforts to have the future he seeks," she told reporters after arriving in Dhaka Saturday evening.

While Chen marked the biggest human rights crisis between the countries in years, US officials were relieved -- and perhaps even surprised -- that it did not derail the entire relationship.

The two-day talks, which also included Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, went ahead as planned, while China's Defence Minister Liang Guanglie arrived for a rare visit to the United States late Friday.

Geithner praised efforts by China on its exchange rate -- a frequent point of concern -- and Clinton appeared upbeat that Beijing was working more closely with the United States on global hotspots such as North Korea, Sudan and Iran.

"It is a testament to how far we've come in building a strong and resilient relationship and being able to have very candid, open discussions about issues where there is disagreement without it endangering the entire range of significant matters that we are working on together," Clinton said Friday.

But Clinton, who faced criticism at the start of her term over comments on cooperation with China, vowed that human rights would be "at the heart of our diplomacy."

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SINO DAILY
US in talks with blind China activist after plea for help
Beijing (AFP) May 3, 2012
The United States said Thursday it was in talks with Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng about his future, after the blind activist expressed fears for his safety and pleaded to be taken abroad. The campaigning lawyer, who escaped from house arrest and spent six days at the US embassy in Beijing until he left on Wednesday, is at the centre of a sensitive diplomatic row between China and the Un ... read more


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