Hours after Chen Guangcheng agreed to leave the U.S. Embassy in Beijing Wednesday under a deal that would let him relocate within China, he changed his mind. The blind Chinese dissident and his family now want asylum in the U.S., and late Thursday he made a plea by phone to Members of Congress. American diplomats seem to be negotiating again on his behalf, only now they have less leverage.
Why doesn't this man understand the joys of living under reasonably enlightened autocrats? I really think Thomas Friedman needs to teach that man a thing or two. But then again, even I can't see the appeal of living under Chinese Communist Party rule.
Hey, pop quiz. What do you call "dissidents" in America? Answer: Pretty much everyone, depending on what party is in power. Except for the fevered imaginations of a segment of the lunatic Left who feared for their lives under the Bushtatorship, nobody feels the need to seek refuge in the Chinese embassy here.
Liberals like to go on about "soft power." The appeal of our liberty and freedom is surely the most potent of our soft powers. If we let this man sink into the abyss of China's dissident crushing machinery when we have a chance to save him, we'll have to rely on hard power more than we'd like.
UPDATE: Not that President Obama likes dissidents here, of course.
