Chinese dissident – bad timing for Washington, Beijing
Chinese dissident Chen's escape is inopportune. President Obama is in a tough election battle. China faces a leadership change. Washington's angst over how to protect Chen without infuriating Beijing is matched by Beijing's desire to silence him without incurring world disdain.
Members of the Christian Defense Coalition participate in a prayer vigil outside the Chinese embassy in Washington April 29. The group is calling on the Obama administration not to turn Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng over to the Chinese government. Says op-ed writer John Hughes: 'As Chinese citizens like Chen overcome blindness, imprisonment, confinement, and persecution in the cause of freedom, change is ultimately inevitable.'
Benjamin Myers/Reuters
It is difficult to imagine who must have been more agitated over the case of the escaping Chinese dissident – the president of the United States or the leaders of communist China.
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For Barack Obama the daring escape from confinement of blind Chinese human rights protester Chen Guangcheng could not have come at a less politically propitious moment.
The president is in the midst of a tough campaign for re-election.
He has little to boast about at home. On the foreign front, though his removal of Osama bin Laden was a major triumph, he is criticized by his opponents for being tardy in coming to the aid of the oppressed in Libya and Syria, and for being soft on Russia.
His critical concern on the foreign front is China, America’s banker, whose cooperation he needs on a multitude of problems, especially difficult customers like Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
The sheltering of Mr. Chen by American diplomats in China could infuriate Beijing’s leaders. Not sheltering Chen – a self-taught lawyer who spoke out against forced abortions and sterilization – would play into the hands of Mr. Obama’s political opponents at home. They would count it as a contradiction of his calls upon China to observe human rights.
The angst in Washington over how to protect Chen without infuriating the Chinese regime could only have been matched in Beijing by the desire of the leadership there to silence Chen without incurring the world’s disdain.
China is currently on a global charm campaign which is hampered by some less-than-charming actions. It has been spending large sums on public diplomacy, especially TV and radio, and scores of Chinese “cultural” centers, many of them planned for the US, lauding China’s history and achievements.
In continents like Africa and Latin America – especially in countries able to help slake China’s new endless thirst for oil – the Chinese government has embarked on major construction and aid projects designed to establish long-term relationships.
The outreach program is far less successful in Asia where closer neighbors are alarmed about a major Chinese military buildup. A massive expansion of China’s naval presence will see many more Chinese warships in the East and South China Seas and the western Pacific ocean.
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