A never ending story

It is hard not to sympathize with Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese human rights activist.  The front-page photos show him literally holding hands with American diplomats as he leaves the embassy in Beijing, looking for protection and a bit of guidance from those better equipped with power and sight as he hesitantly reenters his native China to seek medical treatment.

But then it is hard not to sympathize with the diplomats, who less than a day later discovered that Chen has changed his mind and wants to leave China after all, having discovered that his family was mistreated and he can expect worse.

It is far more difficult to sympathize with the Chinese government, which abuses not only Chen but much of its population.  Chen’s breach was to protest forced abortions.  How much longer can the Chinese continue medieval practices and expect an increasingly prosperous and aware population not to protest?

The high-level U.S. delegation in China, including Secretary of State Clinton and Treasury Secretary Geithner, has no doubt sighed with relief.  Their mission is to discuss security and economic matters that are far more immediately relevant to U.S. national interests than mistreatment of Chen.  In any event, he is now out of the U.S. embassy and therefore on his own.

Mitt Romney, parading himself as more or less a foreign policy realist, no doubt would agree with the Obama Administration’s choice of interests over values, but he certainly isn’t prepared to say so.  The blame game is in full swing, with Romney criticizing President Obama for failing to protect Chen.  Hard to imagine how President Romney would decide which of the 1.4 billion Chinese the United States should protect.  If the answer is only those that make it into the U.S. embassy, he’d better be ready to quadruple the already strict security to keep the hordes out.  There is simply no substitute for governments that abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without other governments intervening.

This story may not be over.  Why shouldn’t the Chinese let Chen go to the U.S. with Hillary Clinton, as he has apparently asked?  Dissidents who leave China quickly lose credibility and audience there.  Keeping him around under tight surveillance will create a long-term irritant.  If the geniuses who man the Chinese security apparatus decide to do that, they can expect more trouble–Chen was more skillful than most in escaping from his house arrest and making it all the way to Beijing and into the American embassy.