President Obama gloats over killing Osama bin Ladin. Now comes a real test. Will he stand up to China on behalf of blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng? He wants to meet with Secretary Hillary Clinton who is now in China. The Financial Times reports: (HT: Drudge)
The fate of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was injected into the US presidential election on Thursday after Republican challenger Mitt Romney described the incident as “a day of shame for the Obama administration”.
Mr Romney joined a series of Republican lawmakers who piled criticism on the Obama administration after an agreement to allow Mr Chen to remain in the country appeared to collapse.
The Obama administration was forced into damage limitation after Mr Chen said he had changed his mind and now wanted to leave China, one day after the state department announced a deal with the Chinese authorities to allow him to reunite with his family and attend law school.
In a telephone interview with the FT, Mr Chen said that he wanted to leave on the same aircraft as Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, who is in Beijing for an annual economic and security summit.
Mr Chen, a 40-year-old self-taught lawyer, took refuge in the US embassy last week after making a dramatic escape from house arrest in a rural area 300 miles from the capital.
Mr Romney said that it appeared US officials had “sped up” Mr Chen’s departure from the US embassy in Beijing because of the summit meeting being attended by Mrs Clinton and had not put in place measures to assure Mr Chen’s safety once he left the embassy.
“If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom,” he said. . . .
The administration also came under intense criticism from Republican lawmakers and some human rights groups at a specially called congressional hearing on the case. Christopher Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, said that the administration had “dropped the ball significantly” and that it would be “scandalous” if the US did not do everything it could to protect Mr Chen.
Bob Fu, who runs ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian group that has worked extensively on human rights issues, added to the pressure on the administration. “Secretary Clinton, this is the moment to deliver on what you promised over the last few years,” he told the hearing. . . . [more...]
Me: Now, it seems to me, is a test of the importance President Obama places on freedom and human rights. Is anyone brimming with confidence?