BEIJING — After a daring escape, four grueling days of secret negotiations and a deal struck between the world’s two leading powers, activist Chen Guangcheng found himself isolated in a Beijing hospital as Chinese guards barred U.S. diplomats, journalists and supporters from seeing him.
In a phone interview early today, Chen said he does not blame American officials for his plight after leaving the U.S. Embassy under a deal they helped strike. But he accused Chinese officials of reneging on their promises to fully restore his freedom.
A few hours later, he made a dramatic call into a congressional hearing, telling lawmakers in Washington through the cellphone of a human-rights activist that he wanted to travel to the United States to rest and that he was most worried about “the safety of my mother and my brothers.”
Obama administration criticized
With the fate of Chen and his family uncertain, the Obama administration drew criticism Thursday for its handling of the crisis.
U.S. officials expressed concern and frustration at not being able to meet with Chen. But granting him any assistance — much less safe passage to the U.S. — has grown far more complex and difficult since his departure from the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, six days after escaping de facto house arrest in his village.
Once Chen left the sovereign soil of the embassy, the leverage of U.S. officials went with him. Now he is under the control of Chinese authorities, who on Thursday blocked all access to the activist.
“We haven’t had either a diplomat or a doctor in to see him,” said one U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid. “There’s plenty of anxiety about what’s going on.”
Chen, in the interview, clarified reports portraying him as pleading for asylum, insisting that he wants to travel to the United States only temporarily, retaining the freedom to return to China.
Some Republicans and human-rights advocates have accused the Obama administration of mismanaging Chen’s case, saying it was too trusting of the Chinese government, given its history of mistreating dissidents.
“Our embassy failed to put in place the kind of verifiable measures that would have assured the safety of Mr. Chen and his family,” said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “If these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom, and it’s a day of shame for the Obama administration.”
For China, the crisis falls into an ongoing struggle between increasingly visible reform-minded moderates within the Communist Party and hard-liners who emphasize security and stability at any cost.
Some analysts saw Chinese officials’ quick acceptance of Wednesday’s deal as a sign of the reform faction’s sway. In many ways, China’s apparent willingness to give assurances to a foreign country about how it would treat one of its citizens was exceedingly rare. But the deal’s rapid unraveling could, instead, boost hard-liners.
“The collateral damage here is substantial,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “If there was a debate on the Chinese side on whether to negotiate, this certainly isn’t good for those who pushed for the deal.”
Chen unlikely to leave with Clinton
Chen’s case overshadowed Thursday’s opening of a two-day U.S.-China summit that included Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Both sides were careful not to mention Chen’s case specifically. But Chen managed to thrust himself into the center of the stage-managed diplomacy when he told interviewers that he wanted to fly to the United States with Clinton when she leaves Saturday. U.S. officials and analysts, however, said privately that that appeared unlikely.
In his interview early today, Chen said he was being treated well and that he, his wife and their two children were left alone together. But he said armed thugs have taken over his farmhouse in Dongshigu village, and he was concerned about other members of his family.
“My biggest wish right now is that the agreement concerning me is fulfilled well,” Chen said. “The agreement includes more than three points, including the U.S. side being able to visit me regularly, and China should guarantee my rights as a citizen.”
