{"id":4798,"date":"2015-02-24T21:46:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T02:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=4798"},"modified":"2015-03-04T21:10:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T02:10:44","slug":"chinese-dissident-accuses-top-u-s-diplomat-of-lying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/chinese-dissident-accuses-top-u-s-diplomat-of-lying","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Dissident Accuses Top U.S. Diplomat of Lying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US-CHINA-RIGHTS-PROTEST\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BY ISAAC STONE FISHFEBRUARY 25, 2015 – 5:29<\/p>\n

In April 2012, blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest in a rural village and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The ruling Chinese Communist Party was furious, and demanded that Chen leave the embassy. When U.S. officials negotiated with Chen to find a way for him to leave, he asked for a guarantee that his family \u2014 who had been routinely harassed and beaten by plainclothes government thugs \u2014 would be safe.<\/p>\n

In a copy of Chen\u2019s unpublished memoir, The Barefoot Lawyer, obtained by Foreign Policy, Chen details the promises U.S. officials made to him \u2014 and then broke. According to Chen, Kurt Campbell, the then-assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the highest-ranking United States diplomat directly involved in the affair, said that he and then-American Ambassador Gary Locke would personally reunite the dissident with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I swear on my mother\u2019s name, on the name of my children, in the name of God, that Ambassador Locke and I will go to get your family,\u2019\u201d Campbell told Chen inside the embassy, according to the dissident\u2019s account. Campbell then asked Chen to make a statement \u201cthat the American government has been extremely helpful and that you completely trust us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell didn\u2019t keep his promise to go to rural China and bring Chen\u2019s family to Beijing. Instead, it was Chinese officials who did so, causing Chen to fear for their safety. The Americans, Chen writes, \u201crelinquished control of the situation.\u201d Furious, Chen instead made a different statement, and complained that U.S. officials abandoned him, exacerbating a diplomatic tiff between Washington and Beijing.<\/p>\n

Chen, who first incited Chinese officials\u2019 ire by defending the rights of people with disabilities, had long been critical of the State Department\u2019s handling of his case. In The Barefoot Lawyer, set to be published March 10, Chen releases some damning new details about his saga, which unfolded just days before then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to arrive in Beijing for talks with the Chinese leadership.<\/p>\n

In Hard Choices, Clinton\u2019s June 2014 memoir of her time at the State Department, she devotes an entire chapter to her involvement in the Chen affair. Chen was \u201cunpredictable and quixotic,\u201d Clinton writes, but also \u201cas formidable a negotiator as the Chinese leaders outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen, however, barely mentions Clinton in his book. In detailing the pressure American officials put on him to reach a deal quickly, it\u2019s Campbell who comes off especially poorly. He warns Chen, according to the book, that \u201cif you don\u2019t leave the embassy, the Chinese government will accuse you of treason.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email, Campbell, who now runs the Asia Group, a consultancy, didn\u2019t dispute the quotes, or the promise he made. \u201cI respect Chen\u2019s perspective and his many sacrifices,\u201d he wrote. It was an \u201cextraordinary experience,\u201d Campbell added, and he was proud to have been part of it. (The State Department didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. Chen didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n

It was also an intense one, for Chen, Campbell, and everyone involved. \u201cI\u2019m so upset, I don\u2019t know how else to help you,\u201d Chen quotes Campbell as saying. \u201c\u2018We\u2019ve been up for days and nights, and in Washington hundreds of people have been working on this. We can\u2019t keep talking about it!\u2019\u201d Chen writes that Campbell, exhausted by the pressure, \u201cshed tears before storming out of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chen also details for the first time his interaction with the Chinese side. Absurdly, the highest-ranking Chinese official whom Chen dealt with appears to be a man named Guo Shousong, who identified himself as the assistant head for citizen reception at the State Bureau for Letters and Visits \u2014 a toothless Chinese institution that claims to encourage citizens to petition grievances.
\nFor detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ISAAC STONE FISHFEBRUARY 25, 2015 &#8 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[312],"views":4657,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4800,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4798\/revisions\/4800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}