Chen Guangcheng and the rule of law in China
Gideon Rachman is joined by Geoff Dyer, Kathrin Hille and James Kynge to discuss the consequences of the case of Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal activist who has left the US embassy in Beijing following a deal between the US and China.
Chen Guangcheng in a wheelchair pushed by a nurse at the Chaoyang hospital in Beijing (Getty)
The blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng had been under home arrest for 19 months until last week, when he escaped, took shelter at the US embassy, and appealed in a video for Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to intervene on his behalf.
Mr Chen left the US embassy on Wednesday for a Beijing hospital as part of a deal brokered by the US. But within hours confusion was surrounding that deal and Mr Chen was telling news agencies he wanted to leave China.
A pro-democracy protester holds a placard with picture of blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng outside China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong. Photo AP
First Wang Lijun. Now Chen Guangcheng. If anybody else sneaks into a US diplomatic mission in China we might really have a story on our hands.
The events that have electrified China over the past few months come safely under the category of things you couldn’t make up. In February, Mr Wang, chief of police of Bo Xilai, China’s most charismatic politician, turned up in the US consulate in Chengdu. He brought with him piles of documents, including what is said to be evidence of the murder of a British businessman, allegedly by Mr Bo’s wife.
I don’t think I have ever seen the British newspapers quite so interested in Chinese politics. Even the tabloids in London have the Bo Xilai story on their front pages. Of course it is not so much the power struggle at the top of the Communist Party that interests them. Rather it is the salacious details of the case: a murdered old Harrovian in a hotel room in China; hints of a sex scandal; allegations of corruption; a son who went to Balliol College, Oxford and enjoyed parties and fast cars.
Amidst all this, however, the chosen narrative of the Chinese Communist Party seems to be prevailing. Bo Xilai was dangerous, corrupt and brutal – he had to go. It certainly seems clear that the crackdown on crime in Chongqing was extremely brutal, and the Bo family were clearly wealthy. But then again, the Chinese system as a whole is not noted for its respect for human-rights. And there are other top political families in China who have accumulated great wealth.
Bo Xilai with his wife Gu Kailai
Not so long ago, Bo Xilai was one of China’s “princelings”, a charismatic, high-flying politician who was apparently destined for its top leadership. From his power base in Chongqing he became known for smashing organised crime, increasing foreign investment and running “revolutionary” campaigns involving singing contests and the revival of Maoist symbols.
But when in February a mafia-busting former police chief called Wang Lijun walked into the US consulate in the western city of Chengdu, he set in train a series of events that brought scandal and infighting out of the secret confines of Chinese party politics and into the public eye. The result was Mr Bo’s spectacular fall from grace and the arrest of his wife Gu Kailai – herself the daughter of a top general – on suspicion of murdering the British citizen Neil Heywood.
By Gideon Rachman
My book-shelves in London groan with titles such as Eclipse: Living In the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance and When China Rules the World. But travel to China itself, and you will find plenty of people who are sceptical about the notion that the country is a rising superpower.
Anxiety over Afghanistan and a power struggle in China
Jamil Anderlini joins Gideon Rachman to explain how the dismissal of Bo Xilai fits into the ongoing power struggle at the apex of the Chinese Communist Party. In Washington, where President Obama and British prime minister David Cameron are meeting this week, there is growing anxiety about Afghanistan, Geoff Dyer reports. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan itself, there is concern about what will happen to women’s rights once Nato leaves the country, Matthew Green reports from Kabul.
By Gideon Rachman
How would a Chinese superpower treat the rest of the world? Anyone wanting to peer into the future, could start by looking back at the past – or, at least, at the official version of China’s past. The message is not reassuring. China’s schoolchildren are being taught a version of history that is strongly nationalist. The official narrative is that their country was once ruthlessly exploited by rapacious foreigners. Only a strong China can correct these historic wrongs.
By Gideon Rachman
This weekend offered a rogues’ gallery of phoney democracy in action. In Russia it was announced that Vladimir Putin had been swept back to the Kremlin, after a suspiciously smashing first-round victory in the presidential election. Iran staged its first parliamentary elections since the rigged presidential poll of 2009 and the violent suppression of the Green movement. And in China, the National People’s Congress – the country’s rubber-stamp parliament – assembled for its annual meeting. It is a coincidence – but perhaps no accident – that these are the three nations that have emerged as the closest protectors of Syria’s murderous one-party state.
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