(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) It seems the Sino-US ties are in the hands of a blind man. Chen Guangcheng now sits as an unresolved riddle in a local hospital in China after leaving the US embassy where he had stayed for almost a week as part of asylum.
The fact that Chen's grievances are becoming an interstate issue is a startling proposition. Chen's activism as a human rights activist, irrespective of the fact that he is unable to see the world as a born blind, makes him a revered figure for many in the West and the United States.
The point, however, of botheration to both Beijing and Washington is that the issue has surfaced in media at a time when their bilateral annual review of ties was under way. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are in China for talks, and Chen has tried to make it an issue of protocol and face-saving at the worst. How this personal request on the part of Chen to leave China for United States is going to be dealt remains a mystery.
The good point is that both countries have maintained a low profile in the case and that is squarely evident from the remarks on behalf of US President Barack Obama, who said that he remains unconcerned and looks forward for a new epoch in bilateralism.
But there is much more beneath the surface that has apparently motivated Chen to take a stand, and now play to the gallery in exposing excesses in China's one-child policy. Many of the questions remain unanswered: why did the US authorities persuade Chen to leave the embassy and take the risk of walking free in China when he feared for his life and family? Similarly, why is Chen merely interested in ending up across the Atlantic and not seeking guarantees for his safety and well-being in Mainland itself?
And last but not the least, at a time when Chen is in Chinese custody, cornered to a bed in hospital, how come he in possession of a cell phone that made him speak directly to the US Congressmen at one of their hearings on Capitol Hill?
This smells a rat and goes on to hint that a dichotomy is at work on the part of the US while dealing with China at a time when the stakes for bargaining on geopolitics and trade issues are quite high. The lid seems to have been maintained as Beijing has not spoken on the issue in all comprehension, especially keeping in view the upsets that it had faced in the case of Bo Xilai, and the like.
As far as Chen's security is concerned it is squarely the responsibility of China, and all that the US could do at this point of time is to respect and speak in high profile on the works of Chen as a valuable insight in the dragon's land.
There is no point in looking beyond the prism. The issue is merely acting as a monkey wrench.
