Here is a story that refers to both Chen's account and that of the US State Dept: http://www.theatlantic.com/internat...-in-the-us-says-officials-lied-to-him/256675/ Seems that Chen is (probably reasonably) scared but the situation is still developing.
I thought America's only responsibility was to turn on the fire alarm as a distraction so everyone would start running in circles.
I suppose a worthwhile debate could be had about our responsibility to take in all, or any, political prisoners; particularly from the countries of supposed allies.
This news is fraught with ironies on so many levels: Chen is not what West media like to think who he is. For one he called CCP "our party". The U.S. may be not such a human rights protector as Chen precvied. For one, there are far more important businesses with China than a blind activist, and the US embassy couldn't wait to have Chen walk away "on his own". China's soverign claim on Chen's issue may not be so soverign as claimed. What's so soverign about a blind man being house arrested without a charge and the alleged brutalization of Chen and his family. China's promise over Chen's safety isn't as it may sound. The CCP is adept at switching and baiting Fianally, Rommney and Basso don't really give a damn about Chen except for the GOP presidency bid.
High profile prisoners/dissidents will be treated all right. It's the nobody's that are subjected to harsh, inhumane and illegal treatments.
I have to admit, I'm deeply disappointed the US didn't try to at least protect him. I want to know what the actual deal was struck behind the negotiations, although given Chen's now high profile internationally, it seems unlikely the Party can do that much to him now. But still, it's very very frustrating to see a supposed beacon of liberty running away from principles.
Let's all hope that's the case. The official statement from China call Chen a person of Shangdong Qin County. The kind of desiganition usually puts a person on the other side against CCP. That doesn't sound like Chen is going to be treated well if he continues to stay in China. The switching and baiting is on. Chen is going to be an international concern for awhile, but how long? Who's going to guranttee his safety after that interest wanes?
Chen said the US embassy was lukewarm about his stay in the embassy and constantly reminded him of the consequences.
You Chinese posters just missed the heart of the story, a blind man just punked the ChiComs and turned this into a serious and embarrassing incident. Chen is a hero in my eyes and reminds me of Bruce Lee who also goes by the name of "Chen " in Fist Of Fury punking the Japanese. Stop forcing your own people to have abortions. ChiComs you suck!!!
Forced abortion gets a lot of press in Western media due to difference in cultures, however, this is one issue that is quite low on the list of injustices in China. China has 1.4 billion people, how many have been forced to have abortions? In reality, the Chinese whom the government forces abortions on are almost always the type who strongly dislike girls, in fact almost all of them have had 2+ girls but no boy. Some of them just throw away the girls like garbage and try again and don't stop until they get a boy. (Even before Chinese government's one child policy in the 1980s, discarding girls was common, it actually happened in my family, with 3 aunts thrown away in the 1960s.) Here in the US, I worked as an immigration court interpreter and have met a lot of these people who use this as a basis for asylum. Now some of them may have been mistreated by local governments after repeated violations, I think that's also possible, but at the end of the day this is just a minor problem for China as a whole.
Abortions are necessary especially when some Chinese people THROW AWAY girls like they were garbage (as sinoball mentioned) and literally leave them to toil around to landfills. People report finding bodies of Chinese girls in these landfills. That's ****ing horrible. The alternative is abortion when they fetuses a.k.a. not considered human yet. The alternative is horrifying.
If there are not abortions in China we will have a MAJOR world population crisis. No one likes to discuss it but it is an global concern.
It seems to me Chen's biggest error is that he's still living in the past, back when the US was a lot more proactive with regards to dissidents. Oh how times have changed since the days of Tiannamen Square and huge amount of anti-Communist sentiments among the American public.
