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Chen Guangcheng's escape from the grips of Chinese authorities represents the culmination of a nearly month-long tale of international intrigue combining car chases along the streets of Beijing with international diplomacy at the highest levels of the world's two most important nations.
APChen Guangcheng is seen earlier this month in a file photo released by the U.S. Embassy Beijing press office.
APChen Guangcheng is seen earlier this month in a file photo released by the U.S. Embassy Beijing press office.
For weeks since Chen's April 22 escape from house arrest in his home province of Shandong, U.S. officials have been reluctant to speak on the record about his ordeal. Chen spent several days in safe houses, then six days at the U.S. embassy in Beijing before being admitted to a local hospital.Saturday morning the blind legal activist was taken from the Beijing hospital and put on a plane for the United States, where he is scheduled to land early this evening in Newark.Ealier this month, his U.S. interlocutors bargained for his freedom in China, only to see Chen change his mind and ask to leave the country with his family. The new arrangement — allegedly temporary — calls for Chen, his wife and two children to live in the New York area so he can study law at New York University.But that wasn't the deal preferred by U.S. officials as they worked with their Chinese government counterparts during the time Chen was holed up in the heavily fortified embassy from April 27 to May 2. Rather, they had worked out a deal for him to move to another province where he could live freely, attend a local university and continue to be a voice of protest inside China.Chen's case, which overshadowed a two-day conference on U.S.-China relations that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew halfway around the world to attend, had all the makings of a Hollywood film in search of a happy ending. He sought to stay in his country, then to leave. He criticized and then applauded U.S. efforts to help him. And he was a master of media attention, reaching out to U.S. reporters and even speaking to congressional hearings by cell phone.Clinton and her top deputies and embassy officials, led by Ambassador Gary Locke, worked behind the scenes to iron out differences with their Chinese counterparts. Even as she conducted meetings on other subjects with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, her deputy for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, could be seen pounding away on his Blackberry.U.S. officials described days of emotional talks with Chen and their Chinese counterparts over the self-taught lawyer's future. Chen has been a prominent voice against Chinese policies, including sterilization and abortion to carry out the country's one-child-per-couple policy.Not since the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square had China been rocked by such a controversy over its human rights abuses. And not since coming to office had the Obama administration faced such pressure to defend dissidents and stand up to China, including from Republicans and their likely presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.The United States maintains its most complex geopolitical relationship with China, 40 years after President Richard Nixon swung open the doors to the world's most populous nation.The Obama administration, like its predecessors, has raised human rights issues with the Chinese at every meeting. But it hasn't taken precedence over economic and security issues as the relationship between the two countries has become more interdependent.Still, in a Honolulu speech late last year marking what she called "America's Pacific century," Clinton cited Chen's house arrest as an example of China's spotty human rights record."When we see reports of lawyers, artists and others who are detained or disappeared, the United States speaks up both publicly and privately," she said.The case presented the U.S. with a difficult dilemma, but the maturing relationship with China helped, Clinton said in an interview with USA TODAY this week."We had a very difficult challenge in dealing with Mr. Chen, which was made I believe more possible of a positive outcome because we had this other set of activities going simultaneously that both of us, the Chinese and the U.S. sides, were invested in," she said.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.
