Photo of the Day: Chen Guangcheng and Christian Bale

You all know about Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese human rights activist who managed to escape and is now in the States.  You may not know, though, that while he was still under house arrest in China, Christian Bale attempted to visit him.  The two finally met when Chen was honored with a human rights award earlier this week.  Here's a charming photo of the actor and his hero.  (Oh, and there's video in which Bale mentions Chen detailing the Chinese government's gross human rights abuses, especially against women.)

Chen Guangcheng Arrives in the US

Welcome!  Chen will now go to NYU.  I'm counting this one as a win, though there are of course still concerns about his relatives who remain in China.  On a related note: in a time when there's constant America-bashing on all sides by all kinds of people, the nonstop depiction of the US as the bad guy, I note that the entire Chen affair should clarify some points, including (a) the cruel repression of the Chinese government underneath all its glittering charm offensives, and (b) the fact that despite all the foreign policy pratfalls by US leadership, now as before (and, I hope, always) dissidents fleeing from oppression come to America (remember Fang Lizhi?).  I'm cynical about almost everything these days, but this fact coming with my Sunday morning sunshine and coffee made my non-existent heart swell.

Chen Guangcheng and the CCP: the Aftermath

Professor Minxin Pei, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, has some thoughts.  I give you a piece of his analysis:

The apparent agreement between Beijing and Washington to allow Chen to go to the United States as a visiting scholar in the very near future may have put an end to this heart-wrenching episode for now, but the fallout from this event, both for Chinese diplomacy and the ruling Communist Party’s ability to maintain control in an increasingly volatile political environment, will be significant and lasting. 

On the diplomatic front, the relative flexibility demonstrated by Beijing in handling this crisis has definitely prevented an even more damaging outcome.  The all-important U.S.-China relationship was spared another body blow. 

Yet, Beijing should find no cause for cheer. The damage done to the Chinese government’s image abroad is incalculable. For almost a week, the world was riveted by the unfolding drama of Chen’s escape. People all over the world cared about Chen’s wellbeing because he was a powerful symbol for courage and social justice. This couldn’t be good news for Chinese leaders, now seen as complicit in Chen’s mistreatment by thugs hired by local government officials. China may have invested tens of billions of dollars, including extravaganzas like the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, to boost its international standing. All it takes to undo such “soft power” offensives is one lonely blind man who dared to show to the rest of the world the cruelty and repressiveness of the current Chinese political system.

Read the whole thing.

More on the Chen Guangcheng Fiasco

Apparently in the Obama Administration, the term "smart diplomacy" is an oxymoron.  Now here we are talking about damage control.  Yeah, but the damage is done.  OMG, people!  Further thoughts: "Disgraceful."

Chen Guangcheng Updated

Read this.  UPDATE: The Insta-Prof calls it all a "debacle."  

"High Noon in Beijing": Some Thoughts

A few thoughts, including this:

That within a few months a leading Chinese official and a leading dissident should both have turned in extremis to American diplomats should, by the way, make Americans everywhere stand a little taller. 

Meet Chen Guangcheng, the Blind Chinese Dissident ... Who Just Escaped House Arrest

READ THIS.  Blurb:

The dramatic nighttime escape of a blind rights lawyer from extralegal house arrest in his village dealt a major embarrassment to the Chinese government and left the United States, which may be sheltering him, with a new diplomatic quandary as it seeks to improve its fraught relationship with Beijing. 

The lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, one of the best-known and most politically savvy Chinese dissidents, evaded security forces surrounding his home this week and, aided by an underground network of human rights activists, secretly made his way about 300 miles to Beijing, where he is believed to have found refuge in the American Embassy, according to advocates and Chinese officials.