"Dissident’s daring escape inspires Chinese activists; His flight from house arrest hard, dangerous" by Andrew Jacobs | New York Times, April 29, 2012
BEIJING - The improbable escape of a well-known dissident from government detention - aided by a network of activists who helped him evade security forces for days - is emboldening China’s often beleaguered human rights community, even as the authorities have begun rounding up those they suspect helped him flee.
As more details of his escape from virtual imprisonment in his home emerged Saturday, it became even more clear how difficult, and dangerous, the last week has been for both the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is blind, and supporters who aided his flight to safety to Beijing.
Chen was not only operating without sight when he scrambled over the
wall built around his farmhouse to keep him in and supporters out, he
was also weakened by chronic diarrhea and hobbled by an injured leg.
I suppose the bigger the lie, 'er, cover story.... sigh.
Friends say his escape last Sunday was so well-planned that local officials did not realize he was gone until Thursday.
Those friends, along with sources in the Chinese government, say he is now inside the US Embassy in Beijing, where officials are trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution that would ensure safety for him and his family.
Meaning a CIA safe house.
Related: A Diplomatic CIA
From that point forward all AmeriKan diplomats are considered CIA.
“His escape is nothing less than a miracle,’’ said Zeng Jinyan, a human rights campaigner who spent time with Chen in Beijing last week.
Yeah.
US officials kept their silence Saturday, refusing to say whether Chen is at the embassy. News of his improbable odyssey has electrified China’s rights activists, scores of whom had sought to draw attention to his plight and to challenge his extralegal detention by flocking to Dongshigu village in a futile attempt to see him. The journeys, many of them publicized through social media outlets, always ended the same way: The phalanx of guards who were paid to keep Chen and his family incommunicado would use violence to drive visitors away.
Chen, 40, has long been a cause celebre among rights advocates in China. A self-taught lawyer who was illiterate well into his 20s, Chen made a name for himself defending peasants and the disabled. But he infuriated local family planning officials in Shandong Province after filing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women forced to have abortions and sterilizations under China’s one-child policy.
In 2006, he was jailed on charges that many legal experts say were trumped up. After serving his 51-month sentence, he was escorted back to his home in Dongshigu. Even if Chen did not face additional charges, local officials were determined to keep him silent. They turned his home into a makeshift prison, encircling it with guards, surveillance cameras, and a wall to separate him from his neighbors. His wife and young daughter were also confined to the house, although his daughter was later allowed to attend school accompanied by security guards.
Details of their confinement emerged last year after the couple secretly recorded a home video. Infuriated after it made its way to the Internet, the captors unleashed a series of beatings that left Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, with lingering injuries, according to rights advocates. Surveillance grew tighter after guards discovered evidence that he was trying to dig a tunnel from his house, one friend said.
Many details of Chen’s escape remain murky, but supporters say he was aided by at least one of the guards sympathetic to his plight.
Yes, there is always someone on the inside, and whenever the AmeriKan media uses the word murky it means they are concealing something.
The friends said Chen’s subterfuge was months in the making. In recent weeks, they said he stayed in bed continuously, to convince his minders that he was too weak to walk.
The blind guy didn't get lost?
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Related:
"Somehow Chen walked for hours, apparently alone, evading three rings of guards."
How come my New York Times report didn't mention that?
Also see: Bo Given the Bounce in China
I didn't comment on it; however, I was wondering how a blind guy scales a wall, etc.
Deep MI6 Operator Neil Heywood Killed To Avenge Brutal Murders of Williams, Loftus & Rawlings
When one begins to take into account what the AmeriKan media is concealing one can draw the conclusion that the U.S. snapped up its asset. The escape story is obviously cover crap.
Update: Obama aide mum on whether US is protecting activist
That's damn near confirmation.
Next Day Update:
"US envoys scramble to ease crisis surrounding Chinese dissident’s escape" by Jane Perlez | New York Times, April 30, 2012
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration scrambled Sunday to contain a burgeoning diplomatic crisis between the United States and China, dispatching a senior diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled house arrest last week.
Amid intense secrecy, including a nearly blanket refusal to comment, the administration sought to negotiate for the safety of the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is apparently in US hands in Beijing - though it remained unclear late Sunday whether he was in the embassy, in a diplomatic residence, or somewhere else.
On Sunday, Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, arrived
in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials concerning Chen’s case, and
to try to keep the matter from undermining the US administration’s long
effort to improve economic and security relations with China, senior
officials and diplomats in Washington and Beijing said.
“They’re trying to figure out what they’re going to tell Hillary Clinton,’’ the official said of the Chinese leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity surrounding the case. “We’d like to know as much as we can before she leaves.’’
Meaning it is more like what they are going to ask her. Like why are CIA agents working out of your office.
The administration’s effort to contain the crisis - the State Department declined to confirm that Campbell was in China even though he was photographed in a Marriott hotel in Beijing - underscored the fraught political challenge facing President Obama, at home and abroad.
Can they just not lie once? Just once!!!
“This is the greatest test in bilateral relations in years, probably going back to ‘89,’’ said Christopher K. Johnson, until recently a senior China analyst at the CIA, referring to the year of the brutal crackdown on student protests in Tiananmen Square.
CIA source for a CIA paper.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential challenger, called for the administration to “take every measure’’ to protect Chen and his family. While he did not address the handling of the case so far, he said the matter demonstrated the need for unflinching American support for human rights in China.
“Any serious US policy toward China must confront the facts of the Chinese government’s denial of political liberties, its one-child policy, and other violation of human rights,’’ Romney said in a statement Sunday, his first remarks on the issue since Chen’s escape from house arrest was reported Friday.
Chen, 40, became famous because of his opposition to forced abortions and sterilizations conducted as part of China’s policy of limiting families to one child per couple. “Our country must play a strong role in urging reform in China and supporting those fighting for the freedoms we enjoy,’’ Romney said.
The administration’s only public comment so far on Chen’s case came Sunday from an unexpected quarter: Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan.
Asked about the matter on “Fox News Sunday,’’ Brennan declined to discuss Chen’s whereabouts in any detail, but he acknowledged that “we are working very closely with the individuals involved in this.’’
I'm not for calling out anyone for human rights because my nation has killed millions and tortured innocents over lies; however, neither do the hypocritical double-standards pass by unnoticed.
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