Dead Silence from Mitt Romney on Chen Guangcheng’s Arrival in U.S.
Posted: May 21, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, China, Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, U.S. Politics | Tags: Chen Guangcheng, diplomacy, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, State Department 31 Comments
It’s been a couple of days now since blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng arrived at Newark on a flight from Beijing. Mitt Romney must have heard about it, but he’s said nary a word about it. I wonder why?
He had plenty to say back on May 3, in the midst of the crisis that took place during Secretary Clinton’s trip to China. Chen had managed to escape from house arrest and make it to the U.S. Embassy to ask for assistance. As State Department and U.S. Embassy staff struggled to negotiate an exit strategy for Chen, Romney, the all-but-official Republican nominee:
condemned the Obama administration’s handling of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, calling the episode “a dark day for freedom” and “a day of shame” for President Obama if, he couched, reports are true that American officials communicated threats to Chen’s family….
Several times on Thursday, Romney couched his comments with disclaimers like “if the reports are true,” but the takeaway was clearly intended that the incident is a black eye for President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Despite Romney’s impulsive catastrophizing, Secretary of State Clinton calmly continued her efforts to help Chen and his family get to the U.S. in a way that would also save face for Chinese officials. Chen was offered a law fellowship at New York University and a deal was struck: Chen could leave China on a student visa, and his departure wouldn’t be characterized as seeking asylum.
On May 9 in New Delhi, Clinton told an interviewer:
that the work she and others have done to establish multiple channels for dialogue over the last 3 1/2 years “created a level of personal relationships and understandings between individuals and our government institutions that is absolutely critical.”
Clinton suggested that China’s willingness to agree to a U.S. proposal to assist a prominent critic of the government’s one-child policy is an indication that taking a broader view of the relationship pays dividends in a moment of crisis.
“I’ve invested a lot and argued strongly” for keeping regular channels of communication open so that no one issue “predominates or undermines the potential for reaching agreement on other equally important issues,” the top U.S. diplomat told Bloomberg Radio.
This was a triumph for negotiation as opposed to the kinds of macho chest-pounding that Romney has been preaching so far.
Declining to comment on how the U.S. managed to craft a deal this time in a sensitive case involving a Chinese activist, Clinton said that “every high-level Chinese official that I met” last week “repeated back to me” words from a speech she delivered in Washington reflecting on Sino-U.S. relations in the 40 years since President Richard Nixon’s historic outreach to communist China.
Chinese officials, she said, echoed her view that “what we are trying to do — the U.S. and China — is unprecedented in world history. We’re trying to find a way for an established power and a rising power to coexist.”
Last night, Cheryl Isaac wrote at Forbes:
Chen posed a great challenge for Hillary Clinton because of two competing issues: the economic dialogue in Beijing had been her priority for a couple of years, her pledge to protect human rights—women’s rights nonetheless—another priority.
The confusion of the negotiation process did not help either. After escaping house arrest and seeking refuge at the American Embassy, Chen first decided to stay in China. Then later, he pleaded to be taken to America—putting Clinton in the difficult place of having to renegotiate an agreement that had been reached 24 hours prior; reports the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz.
People around the world stated their displeasure. In the U.S., she had Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) stating that Clinton did not keep Chen safe within the U.S. Embassy. In this video interview, Smith even admits to telling Chen—in a phone conversation—that the fact that officials were working day and night on his paperwork, was not a good sign…”
But Hillary pushed onward, made the right decisions, and was successful in her goal of helping Chen and his family.
Bravo, Madam Secretary! Where are macho Mitt’s congratulations? Has he apologized yet? I’ve googled, but can’t find any evidence that he has owned up to his bungling or even acknowledged this diplomatic achievement. Why am I not surprised?
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Just more proof that Mittens is a CMCP. (Certified Male Chauvinist Personality).
I second that.
That and human rights are of no concern to him.
I predict that, if he mentions it at all, he’ll “take a lot of credit for it”. Yes, he’s that big a lying dumbass.
lol. All too typical.
Mother Jones has a very interesting article about breasted cancer– probably caused by contaminated drinking water. The victims are male BC survivors. Generally BC occurs in males one per 100 females.
I remember that one of the Seattle area TV personalities had BC years ago and the TV station did some good public service work to get the message out that BC doesn’t happen to women only.
Also there have been other hot spots of BC — but this is perhaps the first time the US Marines have been in a hot spot of BC.
So where is that “pink” charity?? Crickets!
Safe drinking water — thickset is a life and death issue.
BC & scrappy Marines article is in Mother Jones Mag.
Is this the problem at Camp LeJuene? That’s a known cancer hot spot due to contaminated well water. Various kinds of cancer not just male BC though.
It isn’t just water we need to worry about. I’ll post this again – http://www.npr.org/2012/05/16/152818798/breasts-bigger-and-more-vulnerable-to-toxins It’s an interview with the author, Florence Williams, of Breasts – A Natural & Unnatural History.
It’s certainly not just water, though that’s a good start. All the synthetic growth hormones in US meat has to be playing hell with us.
From Breast Cancer Action, a group which does not accept funding from any company which profits from breast cancer. Excellent resource for information.
Kindle fire changes spelling —
what I wrote is — safe drinking water is a life and death issue.
I’m wondering about the long term effects of poisoned drinking water — agriculture poisons getting into drinking water, tracking injection of who knows what?
Pittsfield, MA –Silver Lake which never froze during the coldest winters. Industrial waste was dumped into the tiny lake/pond on GE owned property. Is this another hot spot?
OMG! This post and the original TBogg post at FDL may be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. One thing is certain, George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina is gonna be sorry he was a total prick to Sandra Fluke. He want FDL to remove him from teh Google 😉
Balloon Juice: The George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina Kerfuffle: For Teh Google, Sandra Fluke, and Glory!
Bwahahahahaha! Looks like George Tierney is now enshrined in countless posts, screen shots and links all across the intertubes.
I wonder if he uses those terms of endearment on his daughter?
I don’t think he has any daughters and, if prospective mates use google, he’s not likely to have much luck in that regard for some time. Bwahahahahaaha
And I thought the wingnuts were winning the twitter wars.
Yes this the Mother Jones article is about Camp LeJuene. The focus is on the rare BC in males and the work these guys are doing to highlight what happened to them. They’ve done a Calendar spread — topless. It was the BC survivors who realized that no one was tracking or publishing the link. These guys are putting their faces & chests on the line.
My guess is that the female cases of BC must also be high. I remember a case in NY state where a group of women also found a disturbing cluster of BC — and they also suspected drinking water.
The Internet is very useful in this sort of connecting the dots.
I saw a story a while back about it. One of the retired marines who had contracted BC had a daughter die of an unusual cancer. He and his retired CO, who also contracted BC were pushing this in DC somehow.
USA should help its own citizen illegally blocked in China for 4 years come home!!!
https://www.change.org/petitions/help-my-father-dr-zhicheng-hu-come-home
Thank you for this information. I will read about it.
His statement was so ridiculously inflammatory–“if reports are true that American officials communicated threats to Chen’s family”? WTF? Perhaps a source that’s a bit more reputable than the Department of Hypothetical BS would be useful when making insanely irresponsible statements about an ongoing foreign policy matter.
Please these are wingnuts, They can’t be expected to be sane,
@ Ralph
Oh I know that is a great response from TBogg….I bookmarked it to share too.
It’s absolutely classic and maybe should be used as a template to shame these cretins into some semblance of humanity. I’m still chortling every now and again.
Me too, here is the link Ralph and I are talking about: Internet Man Does Not Want To Be On The Google Anymore | TBogg
Hey Ralph, have you seen this: Little Green Footballs – Outrage Fail: ‘Vulgar Comments From The Left’ Not Actually From The Left
Oh, it is good….
That’s funny and will make a typical Fox and Friends interview I imagine. Fake leftists, yeehaw.
So glad you brought this up BB.
Thanks, JJ. I thought a post with Hillary besting Mitt would get a strong reaction. But not so much. You never know. I think she handled the situation impressively and at the same time made Romney look like a fool.
She’s so good at handling difficult situations. I shudder to think about how Mitt — or his appointee — would.
LGF: Breitbart Blogger Dan Riehl on the Trail of a Bombshell Obama Photoshop Phraud
Hahaha. The Breitbrats are pushing for a scandal about whether the White House doctored a photo of Obama throwing a football. Some vetting 🙂
These people are such morons!