Mitt Romney declares U.S. handling of Chinese dissident ‘a day of shame’
During a frustrating week in which the Obama administration has highlighted the death of Osama bin Laden, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has found a foreign policy opening in China.
From the Associated Press:
Campaigning in Virginia, the Republican presidential candidate said reports that American officials allowed Chen Guangcheng to leave the embassy represented a “dark day for freedom.” And a “day of shame for the Obama administration.”
Chen took refuge at the embassy after escaping house arrest. He rejected a deal that was supposed to keep him safely in China and now says he wants to leave the country. Chen has told media outlets he feels abandoned by the U.S. American officials said they had not pressured him to leave U.S. protection.
Romney says the U.S. should be a “place of freedom.” He suggested the administration abandoned Chen for political reasons.
The Wall Street Journal has the most extensive report of Romney’s remarks, including this quote:
“The reports are, if they’re accurate, that our administration willingly or unwittingly communicated to Chen an implicit threat to his family. And also probably sped up, or may have sped up, the process of his decision to leave the embassy because they wanted to move on to a series of discussions that Mr. Geithner and our secretary of state are planning on having with China.”
Chinese dissidents in the U.S. vented to the Los Angeles Times:
“The Chinese government knew the Americans were soft from the very beginning,” said Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese democracy activist who spent more than 17 years in Chinese prisons before his negotiated release to the U.S. He now lives in Washington, D.C. “They’re more concerned about economic interests than about human rights.”
Wei contended the U.S. had failed to put any real pressure on China, instead settling for a promise without any way of enforcing it. “If the U.S. government had stated from the beginning, ‘If the handling of Mr. Chen is improper, we will cancel the trade talks,’ that would be very different,” Wei said.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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75 comments Add your comment
Ryan Shakur
May 3rd, 2012
3:57 pm
i friends, am first in line to leave a comment
doesn’t necessarily make me fast…just lucky i suppose LOL
now for the comment (brace yourselves):
i love politics!
JustMe
May 3rd, 2012
3:58 pm
I’m not saying the Obama administration probably didn’t handle this as well as it could be, but the thing is it doesn’t matter what Obama says or does, most likely it is going to result in a criticism for Obama from Romney. Romney doesn’t really have anything to stand on because since he is such a flip-flopper he has no record to speak of (aside from “RomneyCare”, which he avoids like the plague despite the fact that he and the Republicans all loved it when he first initiated it and for plenty of years before that), so he’ll just criticize Obama over and over again even if there is no room for criticizing (either that or if Obama does something good and there is no denying it, Romney tries to take credit for it in some reason – first he says “let Detroit go bankrupt” and now he is trying to act like the whole bailout thing was his idea – flip-flop, flip-flop).
Ray Brent Marsh
May 3rd, 2012
4:00 pm
Yes, I’m sure that an administration headed by Mitt “I Like to Fire People” Romney would be a champion of global human rights. If Romney was in office they would have popped that dissident in a dog carrier, put him on top of the woody and hit the freeway.
Just saying..
May 3rd, 2012
4:23 pm
Day 1: Criticize Obama for using foreign policy events for his political advantage.
Day 2: Criticize foreign policy events for Candidate Romney’s political advantage.
Campaign 2012: Repeat Day 1 and Day 2 endlessly.
Goober
May 3rd, 2012
4:24 pm
I really don’t give a hoot about one guy in China.
ByteMe
May 3rd, 2012
4:25 pm
So Governor Romney — he was a Governor, right? Why doesn’t he talk about that experience much?? — wants to US foreign policy to be focused on a Chinese citizen’s desire to live in America? Really??!? What would happen to Romney’s stock holdings if we decided to do that?
Goober
May 3rd, 2012
4:27 pm
Show me the line in the constitution about a Chinese protester?
MrLiberty
May 3rd, 2012
4:29 pm
And yet this ahole and our president both support the NDAA which allows the military to take anyone prisoner and hold them indefinitely without due process, simply on the president’s word.
Really, China is that different from the scum hole totalitarian regime we have become over the past 12 years???
ByteMe
May 3rd, 2012
4:46 pm
And yet this ahole and our president both support the NDAA which allows the military to take anyone prisoner and hold them indefinitely without due process, simply on the president’s word.
Lincoln was there as well. But they all feel bad about it after.
contrarian
May 3rd, 2012
5:02 pm
Another day, another column with no other point than giving the Obama-haters another irrationalization with which to continue their war against our properly elected democractic president. (As if they needed any reason other than he’s a democrat.)
And they continue to whine that the AJC never — EVER — lets conservatives have any say.
Way to prove them wrong!
Nice job, Jim!
Old timer
May 3rd, 2012
5:25 pm
It was a shame…He came to our embassy for protection….and was screwed.
Marlboro Man
May 3rd, 2012
5:30 pm
Romney can buy this mans freedom, the Chinese will sell it to him. Make them an offer, bet you $10,000 they will take it.
Look before I leap...
May 3rd, 2012
5:42 pm
Gee, all these judgements and accusations and not a single fact to back them up.
Exactly what reports are Mr Romney referring to and what are their sources?
I have seen reported that Chen was informed he could stay in the Embassy but that the US could not guarantee Chen’s family’s safety (which is true by the way). It was Chen’s decision to leave. This after the US negotiated some protections for him with the Chinese in good faith. That he had buyer’s remorse several hours later, is on him. That the Chinese may or may not live up to what was agreed to, is on the Chinese.
I know it is open season on Obama and there are plenty of valid issues to go after him with. This situation is not one of them.
td
May 3rd, 2012
5:43 pm
This is the type of actions Obama will take in order to keep China happy so that they will continue to finance his spending spree. $5 trillion additional debt in 3 years to pay off unions and other Democratic constituencies.
Martin Williams
May 3rd, 2012
5:47 pm
Someone needs to put some kind of dentures in Mitt Ronmey’s mouth. Mitt will say things like he has no dentures in his mouth as the words will just come out. Why always America? How come the Russians and Europeans are not coming to this fellows aid? We need to stop being the world police and give other countries a chance. America cannot be in all places at all the time, it is very very costly….Okay Tea Party fools, speak up. Tea Party fools, do you all know that America spent over $700 million dollars to build one of the biggest or maybe the biggest Embassy in Iraq financed by tax payers ofcourse.
Lakeisha Jackson
May 3rd, 2012
6:01 pm
Hillary Clinton would sell her soul…whatever little of it might be left…to be seen on TV leaving the plane in Washington, D.C. with Chen and his family at her side. So she will push for President Obama to cut whatever kind of deal China demands. Let the U.S. taxpayer have to pick up the tab, to hell with national security, and screw Taiwan!
Kyle and Kurly Looooooove the Kochs
May 3rd, 2012
6:13 pm
Now, now, Mr. Mor(m)on. We imprison more people than China, even though our population is about one-third.
Look before I leap...
May 3rd, 2012
6:21 pm
“$5 trillion additional debt in 3 years to pay off unions and other Democratic constituencies.”
I offer an alternative point of view.
How about 5 trillion in additional debt to actually fund disastrous tax cuts, 2 wars and huge federal funding required to shore up a crumbling economy?
Now which of the above do you think can actually be backed up with facts and numbers?
I am ready when you are td….
Attack Dog
May 3rd, 2012
7:02 pm
1. Real Americans trust Hillary’ judgment way more than Condi’s. 2. Does anyone really think that Willard could make a decision in the best interest of others, when his track record is all about him? 3. So what would Willard do, Bomb China?
Attack Dog
May 3rd, 2012
7:06 pm
So Willard will follow in George W’s footsteps, and take the wrong door in China too?
Attack Dog
May 3rd, 2012
7:22 pm
OK, Obama spent $5 trillion on millions of US union-benefited WORKERS, while Dubya spent $15 trillion on a few Americans and millions of Chinese.
ld
May 3rd, 2012
8:22 pm
“ALLOWED”????? Not the same thing as forced.
Mitt Romney needs to get a grip on reality. Not everything the current president does is something for which he can be justly criticized.
td
May 3rd, 2012
8:48 pm
Attack Dog
May 3rd, 2012
7:22 pm
“while Dubya spent $15 trillion on a few Americans and millions of Chinese.” Bush’s debt was $5 trillion over 8 years that included $1 trillion on two wars.
Now tell us again what Obama’s $5 trillion was for?
td
May 3rd, 2012
8:53 pm
CBS News) The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama’s three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency.
The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.
The latest posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department shows the National Debt now stands at $15.566 trillion. It was $10.626 trillion on President Bush’s last day in office, which coincided with President Obama’s first day.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57400369-503544/national-debt-has-increased-more-under-obama-than-under-bush/
td
May 3rd, 2012
9:03 pm
There’s no doubt federal spending has exploded in recent years. In fiscal 2007, the last year before things went haywire, the government took in $2.568 trillion in revenues and spent $2.728 trillion, for a deficit of $160 billion. In 2011, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, the government will take in $2.230 trillion and spend $3.629 trillion, for a deficit of $1.399 trillion.
That’s an increase of $901 billion in spending and a decrease of $338 billion in revenue in a very short time. Put them together, and that’s how you go from a $160 billion deficit to a $1.399 trillion deficit.
But how, precisely, did that happen? Was there a steep rise in entitlement spending? Did everyone suddenly turn 65 and begin collecting Social Security and using Medicare? No: The deficits are largely the result not of entitlements but of an explosion in spending related to the economic downturn and the rise of Democrats to power in Washington. While entitlements must be controlled in the long run, Washington’s current spending problem lies elsewhere. …
Spending for Social Security and Medicare did go up in this period — $162 billion and $119 billion, respectively — but by incremental and predictable amounts that weren’t big problems in previous years. “We’re getting older one year at a time, and health care costs grow at 7 or 8 percent a year,” says Holtz-Eakin. If Social Security and Medicare were the sole source of the current deficit, it would be a lot smaller than it is.
The bottom line is that with baby boomers aging, entitlements will one day be a major budget problem. But today’s deficit crisis is not one of entitlements. It was created by out-of-control spending on everything other than entitlements. The recent debt-ceiling agreement is supposed to put the brakes on that kind of spending, but leaders have so far been maddeningly vague on how they’ll do it.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/23/obama-set-to-beat-bush-debt-aggregation-record/
td
May 3rd, 2012
9:05 pm
Finally, let’s recall that Congress passes budgets, not the President. The proper measure of deficits and debt should be allocated on the basis of Congressional control as well as control of the White House. Ten months ago, when Obama blasted through the $3 trillion debt mark, I calculated the true allocation of debt along those lines:
First, let’s break down the last 10 years of the Bush/Obama era by control of Congress, starting on January 1, 2001. The starting point for the national debt was $5.662 trillion. On January 6, 2007, when Democrats took over, Republicans in total control had added $3.011 trillion in debt in six years, just slightly less than Obama has added since taking office less than two years ago. Since taking control of Congress less than four years ago, Democrats have added $4.992 trillionto the national debt.
Perhaps it would be more fair to look at the entirety of Republican control of the House, which lasted 12 years and bridged the Clinton and Bush administrations. In that entire span, Republican budgets added $3.873 trillion to the national debt. That is not only far below what Democrats have added in just one-third of the time, it’s also far below the Obama administration’s own projections of how much they will add to the national debt in just one term.
We can also do the same calculations by fiscal year, from October 1 to September 30 each year, matching the budgets. Using that guide, we find the following scenarios:
Republicans in control for 12 years: Added $4.034 trillion (avg $336.17 billion per year)
Republicans in control during Bush era: Added $3.201 trillion (avg $533.5 billion per year)
Democrats in control of Congress during Bush/Obama era: Added $4.603 trillion (avg 1.48 trillion per year)
Now, with an extra $1 trillion in ten months, we can change that last line to $5.6 trillion for Democrats in less than 4 years. It’s an astonishing explosion of federal spending, much of it in the increased regulation that’s strangling job growth.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/23/obama-set-to-beat-bush-debt-aggregation-record/
td
May 3rd, 2012
9:06 pm
Look before I leap…
May 3rd, 2012
6:21 pm
Please read above: Where is your evidence?
td
May 3rd, 2012
9:10 pm
How do Bush and Obama compare on closer inspection? Just about like they do on an initial glance. According to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, during his eight fiscal years, Bush ran up a total of $3.283 trillion in deficit spending (p. 22). In his first two fiscal years, Obama will run up a total of $2.826 trillion in deficit spending ($1.294 trillion in 2010, an estimated $1.267 trillion in 2011 (p. 23), and the $265 billion in “stimulus” money that was spent in 2009). Thus, Bush ran up an average of $410 billion in deficit spending per year, while Obama is running up an average of $1.413 trillion in deficit spending per year — or $1.003 trillion a year more than Bush.
Obama, of course, has said the economy made him do it. But the average inflation-adjusted deficits through Obama’s first two fiscal years will be more than ten times higher than the average inflation-adjusted deficit during the Great Depression. Even as a percentage of the gross domestic product, the average deficits in Obama’s first two fiscal years will more than three times higher the average deficit during the Great Depression. The fact that Obama’s deficits have, by any standard, more than tripled those of the Great Depression, cannot convincingly be blamed on the current recession.
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/25/133211508/the-weekly-standard-obama-vs-bush-on-debt
eatapeach
May 3rd, 2012
9:46 pm
td, It is very apparent that you are from a state where the average IQ is 92. That is why it is a red state. Intellectually challenged people are easily brainwashed.
Jeff
May 3rd, 2012
10:03 pm
This is really getting frustrating. All the GOP seems interested in doing is trashing Obama and America. We cannot and should not provide exit opportunities through our embassy’s in other countries. And if the Bin Laden effort had not been successful and seals died does anyone believe that Romney and the GOP would not be using that in their smear Obama campaign? I have never voted for a democrat in any type of election but i am a moderate conservative and i am sickened by what the party has become. It also pisses me off when they invoke the name of Ronnie Reagan because he would be disgusted with todays GOP
double
May 3rd, 2012
10:10 pm
Just think.We were in good shape until the Bush clan started creating wars.If the money woes confuse you,as they do me.Then count body bags,theirs and ours.Mission accomplished.
td
May 3rd, 2012
10:10 pm
eatapeach
May 3rd, 2012
9:46 pm
Touchdown!!!!!! You can not argue the facts so you turn to personal insults. Just proves my facts are right and I just ran over you for a score.
double
May 3rd, 2012
10:12 pm
I do not know which is more annoying.TD or Meebo.
td
May 3rd, 2012
10:12 pm
double
May 3rd, 2012
10:10 pm
Deflection is another good way libs try to change the conversation when they can not argue the facts. I am up 14-0 now.
td
May 3rd, 2012
10:16 pm
double
May 3rd, 2012
10:12 pm
I do not know which is more annoying.TD or Meebo.
Don’t let those pesky little facts get in the way of your narrative “Obama is the messiah and all republicans are evil”.
double
May 3rd, 2012
10:17 pm
No argument from me TD Newt taught you well.
SKE
May 3rd, 2012
11:06 pm
Anything Romney says is crap! His plan is to demonize the POTUS so that he can become the POTUS.
td
May 3rd, 2012
11:12 pm
SKE
May 3rd, 2012
11:06 pm
And what has the Obama surrogates and accomplices (See this blog and Jay Bookmans blog for examples) in the media been doing to all the Republican candidates for the past year?
It is time for Obama to be held accountable for his actions of the past 3 1/2 years.
honested
May 3rd, 2012
11:18 pm
This amateurish outburst makes one glad the mittens will never have to make such decisions for the United States.
Wouldn’t it have been easier if he had not been part of the process for selling out the interests of the US in the first place?
honested
May 3rd, 2012
11:19 pm
td,
Americans should be proud that while the likes of ‘Captain Jerk’ have been pulling moon bases from wherever they pull them without any funding, the likes of President Obama have been protecting America from the ‘forces of ignorance’!!
honested
May 3rd, 2012
11:22 pm
td,
When you use the colloquial ‘Great Depression’ do you refer to the ‘Hoover Depression’ or the ‘Bush Depression’?
eatapeach
May 3rd, 2012
11:46 pm
honested, In case you missed this:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/money-power-wall-street/
The damage you can attribute to Wall Street, and the politicians who enabled them, far exceeds the cost(monetary) of the asinine wars – a fact that it seems td omitted from his dissertation.
Shine
May 4th, 2012
12:23 am
Who cares what Mutt Romney says or thinks? The guy makes me sicker each day I have to look or listen to any of his bs.
Boot a kook! Vote democrat!!
Shine
May 4th, 2012
12:25 am
Romney says the U.S. should be a “place of freedom.”
In other words, open the borders and let them all come in.
double
May 4th, 2012
3:06 am
No he means(romney)open the borders so his money can flow out.
normabechtel
May 4th, 2012
4:22 am
Usually, with most insurance today, the amount the insurer pays the docs is already agreed upon. If you have insurance B, then it doesn’t matter which doctor you go to, insurance B will pay the same. Only thing you can shop around is the health insurance check “Penny Health” for health insurance ideas to save money.
Buckhead Boy
May 4th, 2012
5:19 am
Mr. Romney is silent in defending his own staff appointment and others from the intolerance spewed by some in his own party, but quick to champion a Chinese dissident without having specific knowledge or suggesting an alternative vision? Publicly, Mr. Chen announced that he wanted to stay in China and left the Embassy of his own accord. Now, supposedly privately, he says that he may want to leave. Mr. Romney should certainly have an appreciation for changing one’s mind, if nothing else.
Weetamoe
May 4th, 2012
6:32 am
Okay, Bush tried to open the wrong door in China, but Obama mistook a window for a door into his own quarters in the White House. AP and other news sources had pictures of him repeatedly trying to find the door knob or thumb latch. Also pictures of him preening in a mirror before a speech. The fact that the media gives Obama more cover than Bush was given is evident, in the long run irrelevant.
My Chinese friend was a college student in China and was at Tiananmen Square during the massacre. I had several students from China in my classes here at the same time. Obama and Clinton do not have half the courage of those kids who faced down the tanks and if I had to choose anyone to stand with me before them it would be Bush, the gaffes be damned.
DeborahinAthens
May 4th, 2012
6:46 am
Weetamoe,would that be the Chickehawk Dubya the Dumb that used his Daddy’s influence to get out of going to Vietnam? Would that be the same brave Dubya the Dumb that lied about insider trading (selling his Harkin Energy before the company reported they were essentially a shell company)? He failed to file his Form 144. He said he “forgot” . When the SEC came after him, his Daddy called them off because he was President and had put the head of the SEC in place. Which “brave” Dubya the Dumb do you think will stand beside you in front of approaching tanks? You guys are so fracking brainwashed.
joni
May 4th, 2012
7:15 am
The Romneybot is programmed to pander.