Advice for Chen Guangcheng, From a Fellow Passenger By DANIEL C. CHUNG
General OpEd Article
This is how Kaixin Sees the Affair of Mr Chen
And Below is how the world and China sees the affair Mr Chen
Advice for Chen Guangcheng, From a Fellow Passenger
By DANIEL C. CHUNG
ON Saturday night, I returned home from a business trip in China, on a flight made extraordinary by the presence of another traveler, who was leaving his country for mine: Chen Guangcheng.
I sat in the row directly behind the family of Mr. Chen, the blind human rights activist who had been admitted to the United States to study law at New York University, and their American handlers. I wondered what I would say to Mr. Chen if I had the chance. (There was no such opportunity; I suspected that his handlers — who unlike Mr. Chen’s two well-behaved children bounced out of their seats with unusual frequency, alerting anyone nearby that something unusual was afoot — would have intercepted any attempt at conversation.) I imagine other passengers wondered the same thing; as the Chen family exited the plane, the cabin of United Airlines Flight 88 filled with spontaneous applause.
The first thing I would tell Mr. Chen would be to take his time before making any public observations on America and China. In China, he was a leading human rights lawyer and dissident, and his insights will no doubt be of great interest and value to us all. But in the United States, he is perhaps not so different from my late father, Kai Lai Chung, who came here in 1944 on a scholarship and received a Ph.D. in math from Princeton — and who later in life became blind, as Mr. Chen is. Even with TV and the Internet, he is unlikely to understand or know our country and society very well at first.
Why such advice? Because I am worried that Mr. Chen and his family will be used as political fodder, by the Obama administration or by politicians of either party trying to advance the “how great we are versus how bad China is” theme we hear so often as America works through its cooperation/competition with China on commercial, environmental, strategic and countless other issues.
Having traveled frequently to China for business and pleasure for over three decades, I have seen the remarkable transformation that has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty. I have seen my own relatives move from rough village housing — cooking and heating by coal, no telephone, and questionable running water — to modern (if simple, by American standards) apartments.
In my first visit, as a teenager in 1975, I saw my father lead some of the first mathematical discussions between Chinese and American scholars after Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger began to normalize Chinese-American relations. In the 1980s, as my father’s eyesight failed (but not his will to educate Chinese students), I accompanied him as he saw old friends who had survived the Cultural Revolution. On my own, after a clerkship for the United States Supreme Court, I visited Tiananmen Square, a few months before the crackdown on the democracy protests.
Despite smog, urban blight, the persistent poverty of migrant workers and other challenges, my impression is that the Chinese seem happier over all. They increasingly recognize, and sometimes regret, the social price of economic transformation, but feel that the benefits outweigh the costs. When Mr. Chen does speak out, I hope it will have great impact. It is in his role as observer and critic, whether his stay in the United States ends up being long or short, that Mr. Chen can make the most of the spotlight that has been placed on him (a spotlight that will surely fade over time, as it has for other notable dissidents).
Mr. Chen has articulated serious criticisms of China’s politics and government. But he might do well to think about, and perhaps educate us on, the similar obstacles we Americans face. We have our own dynastic “princelings,” whether in electoral politics or corporate boardrooms. Our air may be less polluted, but we seem unable to do our part to pay for efforts to slow global warming. Though independent, our press, particularly the broadcast media, focuses on distractions like the John Edwards trial more than on the corrupting influence of money in campaign finance and the legislative process.
While the American system of government may be less subject to bribery and overt nepotism than China’s, in many ways our capitalist economy and democratic politics are dominated by “too big to fail” corporations and public-sector bureaucracies — institutions far less monolithic than the Chinese Communist Party, but similarly influential and unaccountable. China’s government is indeed authoritarian, but it has achieved much in a short time as a result of its ability to analyze, debate and then act to address problems from poverty reduction to infrastructure creation. All of this has been achieved without relying on debt. Our diverse society is a source of greatness, but the dysfunction of our politics — the vanishing of the political center, the inability of elected representatives to find common ground on urgent problems, the triumph of bluster over reason — is a growing source of weakness.
Mr. Chen’s coming to America is a great thing. His reflections on China could become a prism for Americans to better understand our own future. It would be an odd but welcome triumph if an awkward diplomatic incident became a path to greater discussion and understanding. The relationship between the United States and China will be, for better or worse, the most important influence on world affairs for decades to come. Much of our strength in the past has come from the assimilation of immigrants into the United States and our nation’s openness to change. Today, we need to summon that strength and openness again to help America assimilate in an increasingly multipolar world — perhaps, with a little help from Mr. Chen.
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The New York Times
Dissident China Lawyer, in U.S., Voices Fears for Family
Chen Guangcheng also expressed concern about the friends and dissidents who aided his escape in April from a home that the police had turned into a virtual prison.
Brother of Chen Guangcheng Escapes Guarded Village
Chen Guangfu, a brother of Chen Guangcheng, slipped through a security cordon and went to Beijing, said a lawyer who met him there.
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Chen Guangcheng's Plea for Protection Deepens a Crisis ...
Facing criticism amid fraying relations with China, American officials privately acknowledged missteps in the handling of the Chinese dissident ...
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For China, Chen Guangcheng's Exile Is One Less Headache ...
Once exiled, nettlesome prisoners of conscience, like Chen Guangcheng, almost invariably lose their ability to grab headlines in the West and ...
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China Opens Way for Dissident to Come to U.S.
Chinese officials will allow Chen Guangcheng to travel to the United States with his family, American officials said, but Secretary of State Hillary ...
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Chen Guangcheng Case Much Discussed in China, but Cautiously ...
Chinese citizens have had to tread carefully in discussing Chen Guangcheng, the dissident who sought refuge at the United States Embassy.
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Chen Guangcheng's Final Escape?
Chen Guangcheng has escaped from Chinese government detention before — and he was severely punished. But this time, the world is ...
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Chen Guangcheng
I want to come to the U.S. to rest,” said the dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng, speaking from Beijing to members of Congress by way of a ...
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Chen Guangcheng Assisted by Chinese Authorities for U.S.
Chen Guangcheng, whose flight to the American Embassy triggered a diplomatic crisis, said Tuesday that Chinese authorities have begun to ...
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Chen Guangcheng
Washington must use all of its influence with China to ensure the safety of this courageous activist.
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In the Chen Case, Collateral Damage
As high-level negotiations swirled around the fate of the human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng, several members of his inner circle of ...
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Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng Escapes House Arrest in China ...
Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer, was said to have sought refuge at the American Embassy in Beijing, potentially complicating matters ...
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Flight of Chen Guangcheng, Chinese Rights Lawyer, Thrills Dissidents
Chen Guangcheng's rush for freedom from house arrest was made possible by a small network of people, risking detention, who used code to ...
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China Blocking All Mention of Chen and His Daring Escape ...
China seems to have issued a gag order to prevent any mention of Chen Guangcheng and his daring late-night escape from house arrest.
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What Chen Guangcheng's Arrival in America Means
5 days ago ... Chen Guangcheng arrived at Newark's Liberty International Airport on Saturday night, a face-saving sign of a maturing superpower rivalry ...
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Advice for Chen Guangcheng, From a Fellow Passenger - NYTimes ...
2 days ago ... The dissident should take his time before making public comments on America and China, so he is not used as political fodder.
The Wall Street Journal
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Two Big Stories, One Conclusion: China Has No 'Legal System'
The illegal harassment of Chen Guangcheng and the reign of Bo Xilai in Chongqing each in their own way signal the fundamental weakness of Chinese law and the extent to which it serves as a tool to maintain the Party’s control of Chinese society.
As blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng settles into life as a student in New York following a daring escape from home confinement and a six-day stay in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, a highly scrutinized legal battle over the fate of his nephew is heating up.
- Reuters
In the most recent development, Liu Fang, the wife of Mr. Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, has written a letter to local authorities demanding that her husband be allowed to meet with the lawyers she has commissioned to represent him. The letter comes a few days after Mr. Chen’s brother, Chen Gaungfu, escaped guards in the family’s home village near Linyi in Shandong province to consult with lawyers in Beijing about his son’s case.
Stanley Lubman, a long-time specialist on Chinese law, is a Distinguished Lecturer in Residence at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and is the author of “Bird in a Cage: Legal Reform in China After Mao,” (Stanford University Press, 1999).
The illegal harassment of Chen Guangcheng and the reign of Bo Xilai in Chongqing each in their own way signal the fundamental weakness of Chinese law and the extent to which it serves as a tool to maintain the Party’s control of Chinese society.
Chen, the blind self-educated “barefoot lawyer,” was a victim convicted in a sham trial, imprisoned for over 4 years, and subsequently illegally held under house arrest for two years and brutally beaten by security forces before he escaped.
By contrast, Bo, the “princeling” son of a revolutionary, was the perpetrator of brutality. After becoming Communist Party boss of the world’s largest municipality, he launched an organized crime crackdown described by the New York Times as “a security apparatus run amok: framing victims, extracting confessions through torture, extorting business empires and visiting retribution on the political rivals of Mr. Bo.”
In each case, the question is whether formal legal measures will eventually be used to punish alleged violations of law.
Russell Leigh Moses is a Beijing-based analyst and professor who writes on Chinese politics. He is writing a book on the changing role of power in the Chinese political system.
The story of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng is part of the familiar narrative that many outside China have adopted and applied here for decades: a lone individual against the state, confronting the government with courage and conviction, chipping away at Party authority. Eventually, the whole edifice of Chinese authority comes tumbling down—given a helpful shove by outside powers.
Or so the story goes. But there’s not much that indicates that Chen represents a direct threat to Party rule.
Chen dissents, but he’s no dissident—surely not in the sense of someone in violent disagreement with how Beijing operates. The real importance of his case is in the clues it provides as to what direction the Party might move in as it approaches a leadership handover later this year.
China’s propaganda apparatchiks have finally figured out how they want to handle the thorny case of Chen Guangcheng, the blind activist who sought refuge in the U.S. embassy last week after a harrowing escape from informal house arrest: They have reached into their Cultural Revolution-style toolkit, calling Mr. Chen a pawn and an unwitting tool of the U.S.
They have also aimed their fire at U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, who, according to one editorial, is maybe a trouble-maker like other typical American politicians and could be using the case to damage Sino-U.S. ties.
Yiyi Lu, an expert on Chinese civil society, is currently working on a project to promote open government information in China. She is the author of “Non-Governmental Organisations in China: The Rise of Dependent Autonomy” (Routledge 2008).
The escape of the blind activist Chen Guangcheng from his home village in Shandong Province, where he had been placed under de facto house arrest for the past year and a half, has made headlines in international media. For one who believes that there are usually rational explanations for the actions of Chinese authorities, including seemingly irrational actions, the way the Chen Guangcheng case has been handled is very puzzling.
Chen is one of the best-known Chinese human rights activists. His treatment by the authorities receives much attention and scrutiny, especially internationally. He is also a blind man with a young child. Any ill-treatment of him and his family is therefore more likely to arouse sympathy for him and cast the authorities in a particularly bad light. It would make sense for the authorities to appear to handle his case according to the law.
So why don’t they?
- Associated Press
UPDATE, 4:47pm: Chinese state media reported Wednesday afternoon that Chen Guangcheng has left the U.S. Embassy after a six-day stay.
The Global Times, a tabloid run by the Communist Party-run People’s Daily, has broken the Chinese media silence surrounding Chen Guangcheng since his escape last week.
An editorial published on the newspaper’s English-language website on Wednesday criticizes Mr. Chen, saying “[h]is self-judgment has been ruined by exaggerated media reports.” It also says the situation “is making Washington uncomfortable.”
Global Times
Asia Times Online
Chen hands Beijing a hollow victory
As Chen Guangcheng settles in New York, Beijing can rest assured that its efforts to minimize domestic fallout over the blind activist's escape have worked well and that Chen is effectively silenced. However, this Pyrrhic victory does nothing to address the deep-rooted corruption in local politics that Chen suffered imprisonment and torture to agitate against.
- Kent Ewing
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The anatomy of Chen's change of heart - Asia Times Online
12 May 2012 ... A risky and hasty deal negotiated by the US State Department had led to the departure of Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng from the ...
