Nary kiss nor hug for
the blind man
By Wesley Pruden
PrudenPolitics.com
Barack Obama says he agrees with Abraham Lincoln
(you could ask him) that America is “the exceptional
nation,” a nation unique in a world of moral
squalor, a beacon of hope for the “tired, the poor,
the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But
sometimes cold pragmatism demands the exceptional
nation make exceptions.
This was apparently the message sent to Chen
Guangcheng, the blind human-rights hero who fled for
his life to the American embassy in Beijing. He
didn’t ask for asylum, exactly, but he was desperate
for help. A blind man who travels 400 miles, evading
cops and soldiers to reach the American embassy,
fits the definition of desperate. But after six days
of negotiations between American diplomats and the
Chinese government a deal was struck, and Mr. Chen
left the embassy. To the surprise only of the
Americans, Mr. Chen said Thursday that the Chinese
were not living up to the agreement.
The specifics of the deal are leaking slowly, and
outsiders can’t know for sure exactly what’s going
down. The U.S. State Department says it did nothing
to force Mr. Chen to leave the embassy, which is
something the Chinese government devoutly wanted.
But the State Department is stuck with the
reputation for weakness, vacillation, hesitation,
mendacity and shilly-shallying it has earned over
the years, so most of us take the account of friends
of Mr. Chen as the straighter goods.
“I can confirm without doubt that I spoke to both
Chen and [his wife] Yuan, and Yuan told me she was
frightened,” Zeng Jinyan, wife of the prominent
dissident Hu Jia, told Foreign Policy magazine.
“Chen said he did not want to leave the embassy and
did so because officials threatened to send his
family back to [his village] if he refused.” Another
dissident told the magazine that “it’s now clear
from several friends that Chen feels threatened.”
Chen himself told The Associated Press that American
foreign service officers told him that the Chinese
would beat his wife to death if he didn’t leave the
embassy and agree to the terms of the deal. The
deal, as outlined by an editor of Foreign Policy
magazine, speaking from Beijing, would enable Chen
to meet his family at a hospital where he could get
treatment for the leg injury he suffered escaping
from his village, that his family would be treated
“humanely,” and after “relocation” Chen would be
allowed to study at a university.
If the State Department was satisfied with China’s
assurance he would be treated “humanely,” why wasn’t
Mr. Chen? Would the Chinese government lie? Would
ours? A senior U.S. official, desperate to put the
story to rest, told reporters in Beijing that Mr.
Chen was so grateful that he called Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton to say, “I want to kiss you.”
No doubt everyone has wild dreams of kissing
Hillary, but Zeng Jinyan disputes that account. Mr.
Chen told her he wanted to “see” Hillary, not “kiss”
her. A little lovin’ seems oddly on the minds of the
American diplomats. Assistant Secretary of State
Kurt Campbell, the key American negotiator, said Mr.
Chen was so grateful for the deal that “he hugged
and thanked us all.” Who knew the Chinese, a
reserved and dignified race, had succumbed to the
Western mania for hugging and kissing strangers?
Hillary seemed to suffer little hunger for his kiss,
or stray hugs, either. She merely said afterward, in
the canned language of a Holiday Inn manager
thanking a traveler for his custom, that she was
“pleased that we were able to facilitate Chen
Guangcheng’s stay and departure from the U.S.
Embassy in a way that reflected his choices and our
values.” She didn’t even offer him an extra night
the next time he visits, as a Holiday Inn might.
Mr. Chen first humiliated the Chinese commissars,
insofar as commissars are capable of feeling shame,
by leading protests against compulsory sterilization
and forced abortions. He soon escaped from house
arrest and made his way to the capital. He was found
by local officials, beaten to within an inch of his
life and sentenced to four years in prison for
“damaging property” and “disturbing traffic.” Once
released from prison he was put under house arrest
in his native village, guarded by hundreds of
plainclothes thugs who would not allow anyone to
approach his house.
His latest heroics and his unrequited love for “the
exceptional nation” have not dimmed his poignant
optimism. “My fervent hope,” he told the online
Daily Beast, “is that it would be possible for me
and my family to leave for the United States on
Hillary Clinton’s plane.” Even without kiss or hug.
Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The
Washington Times.