|
Obstacles remain. It isn't clear if Chen would have to return to his home province of Shandong to receive a passport, as is normal, and the statements do not mention his family. His wife was stopped in 2007 from traveling to the Philippines to pick up a humanitarian award for Chen while he was in prison. U.S. diplomats were unable to meet Chen personally for a second day Friday, able to talk only by telephone. U.S. Embassy deputy chief of mission Robert Wang entered the grounds of Chaoyang Hospital carrying food and later meeting Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing. Chen, in his remarks to the AP, said his phone calls to American officials "keep getting cut off after two sentences." His wife, when she is allowed out of the hospital, has been followed by unidentified men who video-record her, he said. And friends and supporters were beaten up trying to visit him Thursday. Jiang Tianyong's beating by state security agents caused him hearing loss in one ear, Jiang's wife said Friday. Du Yanlin said he was stopped from entering the hospital and when he turned to speak to foreign reporters gathered outside, police grabbed him. His friend, Liu Yi, tried to intervene but said plainclothes police dragged him to a nearby courtyard and beat him around the head 10 times with a plastic water bottle before driving him to a police station for questioning. China's well-controlled state media, in some of their first comments on the case, heaped scorn on Washington and U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, criticizing them for using Chen to demonize China and impose U.S. values. "The fact that the U.S. brought up the issue of Chen Guangcheng does not mean that the U.S. really has any good will, but that it is full of desires to put on a show," said the Beijing Times. "They look like they are thrilled about finding a tool and a chess piece for messing things up for China." But the U.S. involvement in Chen's case -- first by taking him in and then by letting him go
-- has hardly been cause for celebration in Washington. It has exposed President Barack Obama to criticism in what is expected to be a closely fought re-election campaign. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican challenger, savaged the White House on Thursday for putting Chen at risk. "If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the Obama administration," Romney said, campaigning in Virginia. Politics is also playing into Beijing's handling of the case. Hu and others in the Communist Party leadership are stepping aside later this year for a younger generation of leaders, and while the seats are shifting, uncompromising views on dissent and on American interference are usually safe lines of attack. At the end of the two-day strategic discussions, Clinton said that respecting human rights featured in the talks and she made glancing reference to Chen's case. "This week has shown again that we cannot wall off human rights from our bilateral relationship or relegate it to the margins of our engagement," she said in a statement. "It has also shown that advancing the cause of human rights in China depends to a large degree on that engagement and on developing a productive and resilient relationship."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries
Community |
Perspectives
|
Law & Courts |
Leisure Time
|
Spiritual Life |
Health & Fitness |
Teen Scene
Calendar
|
Letters to the Editor