If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Overall, the Obama Administration has shown a lack of enthusiasm to engage human rights issues around the world and has a mixed, if not poor, record of supporting pro-democracy dissidents such as Chen.
At this moment, in our land, it is time for the true champions of the 99 percent to launch the largest voter registration, mobilization and turnout campaign in the history of freedom.
There were two stories that made the front-page news last week. One had to do with art and an obscene amount of money. The other was a story about the shameful treatment by the Chinese authorities of political dissident Chen Guangcheng.
How come Tallahassee doesn't ban contracts with companies doing business with China, too? Why just Cuba and Syria? Silly question, because with a Chinese ban, virtually no businesses could do business with Florida governments.
China watchers have differing opinions on China's decision to let activist Chen Guangcheng apply to leave China for the United States, on the trustwor...
While the U.S. State Department and Chinese officials wrangle over Mr. Chen's fate, the larger questions concern the horrific contours of government population control and the fate of those who dissent in China.
Extending asylum to Mr. Chen will almost certainly complicate relations with China, perhaps for some time. Given that, is this really the right time for President Obama to take a hard line on human rights?
Americans may have been surprised to read in news stories this week about the role of a Christian organization in the escape from house arrest of Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights lawyer in China.
Our leaders are no more serious about human rights in China than they are about such conditions in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, for the simple reason that we need what those nations have more than they need us.
Chen Guangcheng's heroism is profound, his developing circumstances are distressing, and unfortunately for U.S.-China relations, the timing of all of this is undeniably inconvenient. But in the end, America cannot escape our moral responsibility to help this brave "barefoot lawyer."
Tensions between Washington and Beijing mount with every development in the story of the blind Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng. Washington is trying to keep the issue low-key, but Obama faces mounting Republican criticism that he is too soft on China's human rights record.
Now is the time to remind the Chinese that human rights, long viewed as a luxury indulged in only when it does not conflict with core issues of security and prosperity, permeates U.S.-China relations.
With the eyes of the world watching, China must allow Chen and his family to live in freedom. Critically, the nation must also heed widespread calls to repeal the One-Child Policy, whose victims are largely voiceless.
Our instincts are to cheer on Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng and use this case to dramatize the flagrant human rights abuses that occur in modern China. However, we must not sensationalize this affair.
Chen needs to be protected no matter what by U.S. officials, and the war on women in China (and in other nations around the globe) is the only real conflict against womanhood that should be distracting Americans in this election year.
