Obama aide mum on whether US protecting activist

ANNE FLAHERTY

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON — A top White House aide on Sun­day said Pres­i­dent Barack Obama wants to strike an “appro­pri­ate bal­ance” between advanc­ing human rights and main­tain­ing U.S. rela­tions with China, the first pub­lic com­ments by the admin­is­tra­tion on its poten­tial involve­ment in har­bor­ing a Chi­nese activist on the eve of diplo­matic talks between the two world powers.

John Bren­nan, Obama’s coun­tert­er­ror­ism adviser, declined to pro­vide details on the inci­dent or say whether the activist, Chen Guangcheng, might be hid­ing in the U.S. embassy in Bei­jing as reported.

Chen, who has exposed forced abor­tions and ster­il­iza­tions in vil­lages as a result of China’s one-child pol­icy, escaped house arrest a week ago in Shan­dong province in east­ern China. Chinese-based activists say he was dri­ven away by sup­port­ers and then handed over to oth­ers who brought him to Beijing.

“I think in all instances the pres­i­dent tries to bal­ance our com­mit­ment to human rights, mak­ing sure that the peo­ple through­out the world have the abil­ity to express them­selves freely and openly, but also that we can con­tinue to carry out our rela­tion­ships with key coun­tries over­seas,” Bren­nan told “Fox News Sunday.”

The U.S. rela­tion­ship with China is “very impor­tant,” he added, “so we’re going to make sure that we do this in the appro­pri­ate way and the appro­pri­ate bal­ance is struck.”

Chen’s escape comes at a polit­i­cally sen­si­tive time for the U.S. This week, Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton and Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Tim­o­thy Gei­th­ner head to Bei­jing for long-planned strate­gic and eco­nomic talks. Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State Kurt Camp­bell began a hur­ried mis­sion to Bei­jing on Sun­day to smooth the way for the annual talks involv­ing Clin­ton and Geithner.

The U.S. has been look­ing to China for help on try­ing to curb the sus­pected nuclear ambi­tions of North Korea and Iran, and to push Syria toward a cease-fire with anti-government pro­test­ers. Bilat­eral dis­putes over trade, China’s cur­rency and U.S. rela­tions with Tai­wan also were expected to sur­face dur­ing the talks.

While the White House has remained mostly mum on the inci­dent — and how much it might fac­tor into the upcom­ing dis­cus­sions in Bei­jing — Bren­nan sug­gested that the diplo­matic dance with China isn’t new.

“I think it would be fair to say the pres­i­dent has faced sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions in the past in terms of this bal­anc­ing require­ment and so I’m con­fi­dent that the pres­i­dent and oth­ers within the U.S. gov­ern­ment will be able to find the right way for­ward,” Bren­nan said.

Pre­sump­tive Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee Mitt Rom­ney expressed his con­cern Sun­day for the safety of Chen and his fam­ily, urg­ing U.S. gov­ern­ment offi­cials to offer the dis­si­dent and his fam­ily protection.

“My hope is that U.S. offi­cials will take every mea­sure to ensure that Chen and his fam­ily mem­bers are pro­tected from fur­ther per­se­cu­tion,” Rom­ney said early Sun­day in a state­ment. “Our coun­try must play a strong role in urg­ing reform in China and sup­port­ing those fight­ing for the free­doms we enjoy.”

Rom­ney said the inci­dent involv­ing Chen points toward the broader issues of human rights in China.

“Any seri­ous U.S. pol­icy toward China,” said Rom­ney, “must con­front the facts of the Chi­nese government’s denial of polit­i­cal lib­er­ties, its one-child pol­icy and other vio­la­tions of human rights.”

While Chen escaped a week ago from Dong­shigu vil­lage and made it 370 miles (595 kilo­me­ters) north­west to Bei­jing, his wife and 6-year-old daugh­ter were left behind. The where­abouts of sev­eral other rel­a­tives, includ­ing Chen’s mother and brother, are unknown.

Seven lawyers have vol­un­teered to defend Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, who allegedly con­fronted and stabbed local offi­cials who stormed his house in the mid­dle of the night on Thurs­day in appar­ent ret­ri­bu­tion for the activist’s escape.

Posted by AP News on Apr 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.