China's Chen Guangcheng 'set to fly to US'

[alp227]

Source: BBC

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng - who was at the centre of a diplomatic crisis with the US - says he is at Beijing's airport, where he expects to leave to go to the US.

The blind activist told reporters he did not have a passport, but believed he was going to New York.

Mr Chen recently spent six days in the US embassy in Beijing after escaping house arrest in north-east China.

He wants to leave China and has been offered a place at New York university.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18127886

[erpowers]

1. Breaking News: Mitt Romney Takes Credit

[sofa king]

3. Breaking: Romney Blames Obama, Can't Recall Taking Credit

But if he did, he stands by it.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Will the media try to get a response from his campaign?

This was the lead story a few days ago when it was a potential embarrassment to Obama. Now that you can chalk up another diplomatic coup for his administration, I haven't seen this story covered at all on the teevee. Romney needs to face the music regarding his earlier criticism.

[CBHagman]

2. The State Department confirmed the family left China for Newark, NJ.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chen-guangcheng-leaves-beijing-hospital-headed-for-us/2012/05/19/gIQApKMEaU_story.html

[Enrique]

4. this is a dark day

for the Romney campaign.

[FarCenter]

5. Supported by religious nuts in Midland TX

Bob Fu, president of the US activist group China Aid and a key supporter of Mr Chen, told the BBC that the dissident was planning to stay in New York for two to three years.

"Of course he wants to spend some time to rest after seven years of brutal treatments at the hands of the Chinese local authorities," Mr Fu said.

[CBHagman]

6. Where do you get off callng people "religious nuts"?

And are you saying that assistance to a dissident somehow doesn't count unless it's from someone carefully vetted to adhere strictly to your own point of view?

[FarCenter]

7. Who is Fu? Chinese exile is 'God's double agent'

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/30/11474717-who-is-fu-chinese-exile-is-gods-double-agent?lite

It's about evangelicals and abortion politics.

[Odin2005]

8. So you support forced abortions?

[FarCenter]

10. It's up to the Chinese

I don't support pretentious extraterritorial meddling in the internal affairs of other countries.

In spite of the fact that the Communists threw out all the meddling clerics from the "mission fields of China".

[Odin2005]

11. That means you deney the notion of human rights.

Human rights by definition apply to every country.

[FarCenter]

12. It depends on what "responsibly" means.

Parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.

But each country can define "responsibly".

[CBHagman]

14. Whether it's the Chinese authorities or Republicans in Virginia, interfence with family planning...

...is still interference with family planning. Let's not kid ourselves about what women and men are subject to in the People's Republic of China.

From Amnesty International, "Thousands at Risk of Force Sterilizations in China."

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/thousands-risk-forced-sterilization-china-2010-04-22

Amnesty International's stance on reproductive rights and the rights of women and girls in general:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/campaigns/stop-violence-against-women/issues/implementation-existing-laws/srr

On this case:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/china-must-guarantee-chen-guangcheng-s-safety-2012-04-27

A self-taught legal activist, Chen Guangcheng became internationally known after he exposed widespread forced abortion and sterilization practices by authorities in Linyi, in the name of implementing China’s population control policy.

Authorities retaliated, sentencing him in 2006 to more than four years in prison on charges of “damaging property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic” and Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience.

Upon his release in September 2010, Chen Guangcheng and his family were immediately placed under illegal house arrest in his home village of Donshigu in Linyi County, Shangdong province.

Visitors attempting to see Chen while under house arrest told media they were beaten bloody, robbed of their possessions, and driven away from the village with bags over their heads.

By the way, as far as the religious aspect goes, though Christians in the U.S. have taken a particular interest in his case, I've read Chen Guangcheng himself is not a Christian. I don't know what faith, if any, he practices.

[randome]

9. He can't fly! He's fucking blind!

Oh, sorry, I thought he was going to continue his escape. I mean, if he can sneak out of a heavily armed building and run for miles and scale a wall while blind...you know what? Never mind.