Caught between a desire to seem to be “engaging” China on human rights and a new-found realization of how messy that is, the US State Department is loudly trumpeting a tentative deal on Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng as a “way out” – something it desperately wants.
The deal, which came virtually out of nowhere as New York University offered Chen a fellowship, allowing him and his family to come to the US for formal legal study. The State Department says it will issue visas as soon as China approves travel permits.
The US has been struggling to try to figure out what to do with Chen since he showed up at the embassy door seeking asylum. So far the responses was to give lip-service to his plight while relaying threats to his family, even as the US tried to coax him out the door.
After that flailing effort to resolve the situation without alienating the Chinese government, it is clear that US officials need this NYU deal to go through, because the US diplomats on the ground clearly have no solutions of their own.
I feel sadness for all people with disabilities, as in any country they face uphill struggle for survival. In China, as in many countries with poverty, such disabilities mean a life of struggle. But what makes no sense is to declare every person with problems in China a "dissident"? In which way was he politically relevant in China? He surely was critical of services to disabled people. He himself faced endless struggle with bureucracy, For intelligent and sensitive people, this is living through nighmare. But the problem is — why elevate such humanitarian issues to politics? Personally, I admire him for showing up at US Embassy. This was a gutsy and smart move. He at once put both countries in a no win situation. US took the story too far, and represented his plight as a political cause. But then, China made a smart move, and let US take the man and his family. Secure him education and free living. That is the kind of treatment many US people with disabilities would love to have. What was Clinton going to do then? Tell China she does not want him? Now, this has been all represented as some feat of "smart diplomacy".
"Laurel & Hardy at State…..?????? OOOOOOOO YES…!!! It's Hillary……….. It would be funny, if there was no a nasty side……..like…… U.S. diplomats mouthing Chinese threats against his family to get him, toward the door…… What a horror that shrew has becum,…!!! I wonder what Hillary's minder and personal MOLE [Victoria Nuland] has to say….??? see: http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2011/0…
This Nuland has more baggage than a five ring circus…….
"Nuland was the Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO from July 2000 to July 2003. There she was instrumental in NATO's invocation of Article 5 of its charter – "an attack on one ally is an attack on all" – in support of the United States after September 11, 2001.
A career Foreign Service officer, she was Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney from July 2003 until May 2005, where she worked on the full range of global issues, including those relating to Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the broader Middle East." [
A career Foreign Service officer, she was Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney from July 2003 until May 2005, where she worked on the full range of global issues, including those relating to Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the broader Middle East. "
"Nuland is married to historian Robert Kagan," [Wiki] Does she have blue blood Neocon lines or what…???