Chen was Forced out of US Beijing Embassy

It seems Cheng Guangcheng is yet another victim, in maintaining a delicate balance between US's national interest and human rights.

Washington Post reported Chen, who walked out of the US Embassy in Beijing voluntarily and had a medical checkup accompanied by the US Ambassador to China Gary Locke himself. State Department and Washington Post stated Chen wanted to stay in China to continue his fight on human right issues for other Chinese people. At the end of a phone conversation, a joyful Chen told Sec Clinton, 'I want to kiss you'.

The words Chen used were, actually, 'I want to see you'. Clinton avoided meeting with Chen to appease her Chinese hosts. Sec Clinton and Treasury Secretary are visiting Beijing for more important topics the two countries are interested in, for example, economic issues.

As a matter of fact, Chen was forced out of the Embassy. Chinese officials who were negotiating Chen's situation with the US threatened Chen if he did not leave the Embassy, his wife and daughter would be beaten by batons. His wife had been chained to a chair since Chen's escape make known.

Since Friday, he had no ways to contact his friends out of the Embassy. Chen was trying to contact Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) when his phone was taken away by US officials. Chen told friends he would like to leave China with his family.

It is such an irony that a few months apart, bad cop Wang Lijun (a provincial-level senior official) and blind activist Chen Guangcheng found the US Embassy to be the safest place in China. However, both were kicked out by Washington. While US officials were up front in state Wang had little chance of grant of refuge because of his track record of being a bad cop, they are scrambling for words when they refused a blind activist Chen, who had international fame and had been persecuted along with his family for years.

In the end, governments of US and China staged a big show, in which the US Embassy, the State Department, the Washington Post and possibly President Obama all played major roles. President Obama refused to address a direct answer on Chen in a news conference one day before. While all parties tried to play by their own plot, Chen's true willing became the elephant in the room.

What a cast, what a show! Break a leg.