NEWS ANALYSIS
Chinese seeking asylum with the United States seem to choose their timing for the most excruciating effect. In February a police chief in Chongqing fled to a U.S. consulate just before the visit to the United States of presumed next leader Xi Jinping. And now, with less than a week before the fourth round of the Sino-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, the blind Chinese human rights Lawyer Chen Guangcheng managed to escape from his closely guarded house in Shandong Province.
The first case led to a political storm whose reverberations are still being felt; it is unclear yet what Chen’s escape portends for the regime. The situation will not be solved simply, however, because Chen has announced that he does not wish to leave China. He simply wants to live without the threat of persecution hanging over his head.
The fact that his persecution was conducted in an entirely extralegal fashion, and was coordinated by central authorities, may be of immense importance to the case. Chen Guangcheng was one target in a vast and sophisticated system of surveillance, censorship, repression, and violence that spans the country, reaches into cyberspace, and has the potential to touch any Chinese. Sitting atop this apparatus is Zhou Yongkang, the head of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC), which is responsible for almost all aspects of law enforcement in China.
This fact will not be lost on the Party leaders who will need to clean up the mess.
Diplomatic Challenges
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, arrived surreptitiously in Beijing on April 29; he happened to be photographed by foreign media, but the intention of the State Department—which did not confirm his presence—was to keep everything low key.
Campbell will be meeting with Party officials in an attempt to contain the case, according to reports.
Remarks by Homeland Security Advisor John O. Brennan to Fox News Sunday are the only hint of the Obama administration’s thinking on the case. Brennan said that the president is trying to “balance our commitment to human rights” in the context of dealing with China.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called on President Obama on April 29 to do everything in the country’s power to ensure the safety of Chen Guangcheng. The incident “points to the broader issue of human rights in China,” Romney said.
“My hope is that U.S. officials will take every measure to ensure that Chen and his family members are protected from further persecution,” he said, adding that “Our country must play a strong role in urging reform in China and supporting those fighting for the freedoms we enjoy.”
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Chen Stays Put
After escaping from his home, Chen uploaded online a video stating that he was in a safe place. He requested that Wen Jiabao investigate the persecution of his family, which was conducted by the PLAC.
Chen sought asylum from persecution, but doesn’t want to leave the country. “We asked him if he wants to leave China, he really doesn’t want to, he wants to fight for his basic rights to the end, he wants to live the normal life of a Chinese citizen,” said Bob Fu, president of the Texas-based ChinaAid Association.
Yang Jianli, another prominent activist, said the fact that Chen does not wish to leave China could create major difficulties for the dialogue between the United States and the Chinese regime, in an interview with Voice of America.
A Question of Law
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has begun discussions with American officials on the Chen case, according to the latest reports (and according to a Deutsche Welle report, luxury sedans, identified as belonging to the Central Military Commission, have been parked outside the Embassy for several days).
According to Duowei News, the CCP has sent a Ministry of Civil Affairs official to the U.S. Embassy, while the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security and other departments are all assisting in the case.
The family planning office is the agency whose population control policies were so brutally implemented in Linyi Prefecture in Shandong Province that Chen saw cause to expose them, organize a class action lawsuit, and then face the wrath of the public security apparatus.
Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing power struggle within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Get the Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?
The persecution of Chen has been mentioned before by top U.S. officials. Secretary of State Clinton has named Chen in public previously, and before Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States last January, openly urged the regime to release him.
Ultimately, the case seems to put the Communist Party in a much trickier position than the United States. It is unclear what legal purchase, if any, the Chinese side could possibly have against Chen.
“What exactly is the Chinese government going to demand that the U.S. do?” writes Donald C. Clarke, Professor of Law at George Washington University, on his blog. “Chen is not a wanted man; he has neither broken nor been accused of breaking any Chinese laws; it is perfectly legal for a law-abiding Chinese citizen to walk into a U.S. embassy if the embassy is willing to let him in.”
He continues: “The Chinese government is hoist on its own petard: having decided that it was easier to persecute Chen by not using the formal legal system, it now faces the consequences of that choice. Chen has not, in a legal sense, ‘escaped’ anything.”
Clarke also points out that elements of the central Party apparatus have assisted the local authorities in their persecution of Chen, for example through the censorship of Internet terms, or the mobilization of police from other areas to hunt down his supporters. Local Linyi authorities cannot do either of those things themselves.
Independent China scholar Shi Zangshan, based in Washington, said that given the moral responsibility of the United States to deal with Chen’s case in accordance with civic freedoms and the rule of law, and in the context of the split at the top of the Party between Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao on the one hand, and the security chief Zhou Yongkang on the other, the Chen case and the pressures of public opinion it brings could well catalyze action from Party leaders.
“Wen Jiabao, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping should deal with the crimes of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee, and punish Zhou Yongkang for his crimes,” Shi said.
Read original Chinese article.
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