Chen Guangcheng and Junior Seau

     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.