When Chen Guangcheng landed in New York—still on crutches from a daring nighttime escape from house arrest—he found himself giving a press conference in which his abundant thanks extended to Chinese officials for “dealing with the situation with restraint and calm.” It might not have been the first thanks on everyone’s lips. One could read that as a diplomatic comment, intended to protect those still in China, including his mother (whose house is reportedly being fenced off by local officials) and the fellow dissidents who helped him escape.
But it must also be read as the measure of a man with extraordinary presence of mind. He is, after all, correct: by the standards of official Chinese conduct in many other areas, its handling of Chen’s departure was restrained and calm. And that is one of the modestly encouraging facts to emerge from the final accounting of this whole complicated business: presented with diplomatic dynamite, neither China nor the United States succumbed to its worst instincts. The American handling of the affair was far better than the fevered early indictments suggested, and the Chinese have, so far, kept their promises to Chen and the United States. Those involved should take confidence from that. (Nobody has done more to shepherd Chen to safety over the last seven years than the man with the bow-tie and white mustache in the background of his arrival photographs; it’s Prof. Jerome Cohen, of New York University, and someday that should be duly celebrated.)
Now, as Chen and his family begin to unravel the mysteries of life in Manhattan—pause for a second and truly consider the cosmic span he has crossed in a single month—from his village to the Village—the world’s attention should shift to ensuring that the relatives and colleagues that remain in China are not left to absorb the punishment that some in the Chinese state will seek to deliver.
Photograph: Mladen Antonov/AFP
