Now the United States must decide whether to hand him over (as China is demanding), grant him indefinite refuge (as every human rights organization is urging), or negotiate a mutually face-saving compromise worthy of King Solomon (as both countries are undoubtedly trying to do)…
(“Dissident leaves U.S. Embassy in China,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 3, 2012)
It’s an indication of how conceited and myopic Americans are that the media here are hailing a “breakthrough” deal between the United States and China to allow Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights activist at the center of what has become an international incident, to apply for a fellowship at New York University. And we all know that once in the United States he will never set foot in China again.
Th
is might be the Solomon-like, face-saving compromise both countries need to put this incident behind them, but I don’t see how it advances the cause of human rights in China.
Frankly, this is rather like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. seeking asylum in the Soviet Union for himself and his family at the height of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and having the Soviet Union and the United States broker a deal for him to be granted a fellowship at Moscow University.
Does anyone believe this would have advanced the cause of black civil rights in America? And just imagine how the self-righteous Americans would have felt if the Soviets were trumpeting this as a grand gesture to advance the cause of human rights over here?
More to the point, though, what message does this Chen deal send to all of the other dissidents now living under daily threats of even greater reprisals in China…? Is the United States going to provide asylum/fellowships for all of them; and if so, what will become of the human rights movement there if all China has to do is roundup troublemakers like Chen and ship them off to America – the way Cuba did with its troublemakers decades ago?
Far from a human rights deal to be hailed, this is a diplomatic farce to be condemned !
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