The United States should immediately grant asylum to Chen Guangcheng and his family, along with the activist who rescued him, He Peirong.\u00a0 Chen and his wife have both stated that they are in danger.<\/p>\n
U.S. officials contend that Chen left the U.S. Embassy yesterday of his own volition to seek medical treatment at a hospital.\u00a0 From the hospital, however, Chen told friends and the media that he was not given full information on which to base his decision.\u00a0 He told Associated Press, moreover, that a U.S. official relayed a threat that if Chen did not leave the Embassy, he wife would be beaten to death. \u00a0He told CNN, \u201cI am very disappointed at the U.S. government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chen also told CNN that after he escaped, his wife was tied to a chair in their home for two days.\u00a0 Guards carried sticks into their home and threatened to beat her to death.\u00a0 They also moved into their house, eating at their table and using their belongings.\u00a0 They have installed seven surveillance cameras inside their home.\u00a0 These facts convinced Chen that it would not be safe for him or his family to remain in China.\u00a0 He did not learn these facts until he was reunited with his wife in the hospital.<\/p>\n
Chen then told CNN, \u201cI would like to say to (President Obama):\u00a0 Please do everything you can to get our whole family out.\u201d\u00a0 He told the Daily Beast, \u201cMy fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton\u2019s plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Chen\u2019s miraculous, \u201cmission impossible\u201d escape and the risks he and others took to deliver him safely to the U.S. Embassy, why did the U.S. officials press him to leave and hand this noble man back into the hands of those who have been so fiercely persecuting him and his family?<\/p>\n
If so, this action is beyond shameful. Not only have we let Chen down, but we have betrayed those in China that we should most want to support:\u00a0 those who share our values.<\/p>\n
Many in China have regarded the U.S. Embassy as the lone island of freedom and justice in a land filled with repression and injustice. \u00a0Given their trust, how could the U.S. hand over a deserving citizen who had fled there for protection?<\/p>\n
Chen is hugely symbolic in China, the conscience of the nation.\u00a0 By challenging the One Child Policy, he has challenged the lynchpin of social control in China. This explains the ferocity of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s reaction to him.<\/p>\n
When Chen Guangcheng fled to the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. had a golden opportunity to do the right thing \u2013 give him and his family asylum and bring them to safety in the U.S.\u00a0 This would have erased a generation of anti-American propaganda and inspired gratitude, admiration and trust among the Chinese people.\u00a0 Instead the U.S. expediently dispatched Chen out the door, shattering our moral credibility before the world and losing the hearts and minds of a generation of Chinese people who share our values.<\/p>\n
The only way to redeem the situation is as clear as it is urgent:\u00a0 give asylum to Chen and his family \u2013 and to He Peirong as well.\u00a0 Bring them to safety in the United States, whatever it takes, on Hillary Clinton\u2019s plane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States should immediately grant asylum to Chen Guangcheng and his family, along with the activist who rescued him, He Peirong.\u00a0 Chen and his wife have both stated that they are in danger. U.S. officials contend that Chen left … Continue reading