What a day today has been. First off living in San Diego the
entire city was crushed at the sad news of Junior Seau’s death. My condolences
go out to the entire Seau family.
Today started with exciting news for anyone who follows US
foreign policy. In China, a dissident made a harrowing escape from his house
arrest, where he had been a prisoner since 2010 and was smuggled into the US Embassy
seeking help from the US. This happened in the middle of Secretary of State
Clinton’s visit to China.
Clinton has long been a critic of the harsh treatment doled
out to vocal opponents of the Chinese regime.
Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident, had been imprisoned
for speaking out against the forced abortions and the one-child rule in China.
The Drama started once Chen Guangcheng had arrived at the US
Embassy. Chen had a seriously injured one of his legs (possibly a broken leg)
do to his escape from his house arrest. According to reports, once Chen arrived, there were some
negotiations between the US and China to see if Chen and his family would be
allowed to leave. However, once that avenue had broken down the US wanted to
and received assurances from the Chinese government that Chen and his family
would not be harmed if they were to stay in China. The embassy then arranged for Chen to go to a local hospital
for treatment. At least that is what was reported.
Once out of the control of the US Chen reported, through the
twitter account @zengjinyan, that he was forced to stay in China in order to
protect his family. The reports he was receiving was that his family could be
beaten to death.
So these are my questions to the Obama administration, how
can we take the word of a government one the safety of Chen and his family when
that same government threatens to brutally kill the family of a man who speaks
out against a government policy? And will you apologize to the Chinese government
for the US interfering with a Chinese domestic issue?
China has had so many human rights violations of the last 30
years that it would be nearly impossible to count, but the US will believe them
when they say we wont do anything this time. If Chen or his family is harmed
the blood will not easily wash off the hands of the Obama administration.
