U.S. throws Chen under the bus

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last Thursday that the U.S. has “made inquiries” regarding what she called “concerning reports” about Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng and his family:

We’ve expressed our concern should there be any sense of reprisal, et cetera, but we are awaiting further information.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), since Chen’s dramatic escape last month:

• His brother and sister-in-law have been placed under house arrest.

• His elderly and ailing mother was arrested and charged with harboring a criminal. She is currently free on bail.

• His nephew, Chen Kegui, is in jail, charged with attempted homicide. Ten men broke into Chen Guangcheng’s brother’s house in the middle of the night and savagely beat the young man. He injured one of them, a Communist Party official. If convicted, he could face a sentence ranging from ten years in prison to execution.

• Authorities have confiscated the license of the lawyer defending Chen Kegui, and threatened to confiscate the license of a second lawyer who volunteered to defend him.

• About a dozen members of Chen’s extended family are now under some form of house arrest.

Are you getting any sense of reprisal yet, Ms. Nuland?

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