Chen Guangcheng: Taking half a loaf

“Crisis averted, we hope,” said the Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger in an editorial. The Chinese government last week approved a tentative deal allowing blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng to travel to the U.S. to study at New York University School of Law, and to take his family with him. It’s a face-saving way for China to get rid of the troublesome Chen, who has campaigned against government-forced abortions and sterilizations of people who violate China’s one-child policy. Chen recently escaped government house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing; after days of intense negotiations, he left for hospital treatment, but quickly realized he’d never be safe in China—and the U.S. “could never guarantee that he would be.” The deal also saved President Obama from major embarrassment, said Bradley Klapper in the Associated Press. Now “Washington can say it safeguarded human rights, Beijing can point to its cooperative diplomacy, and Chen gets a new start in America.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department handled this incident with worrisome naïveté, said Yang Su in CNN.com. They allowed Chen to leave the embassy after receiving Chinese guarantees of his “safety,” even though the regime also claimed “Chen was ‘safe’ when he was confined in his home” and being regularly beaten by party thugs. Don’t be surprised if China reneges on letting Chen leave the country. Human rights are simply not a priority for the Obama administration, said Mona Charen in NationalReview.com. Clinton made it clear last week that she viewed Chen as an annoying impediment to scheduled talks on economic issues. Obama has kept his distance from the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, out of fear of offending Beijing, which views him as a threat. “The Chinese appear to have taken Obama’s measure,” which is why they treated both Chen and U.S. negotiators with such open disdain.

Welcome to the real world, said Zachary Karabell in TheDailyBeast.com. The U.S. doesn’t have the power to punish China—its main creditor and second-largest trading partner—without also causing “severe damage to the American economy.” Obama resolved the Chen situation as well as he could, while keeping U.S.-China ties intact. In the delusional world of the macho Right, the president would demand that China do as we command. But today China views itself as our equal, and would not bow to threats and demands. Without quiet negotiation, “there can be no viable framework for human rights.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up