Accused of treason, conspiracy and other offenses against
the newly formed communist government, the cardinal, wise in the ways of
fascist and communist interrogators, took the precaution before his arrest of
writing a note denying he had been involved in any conspiracy and informing
much of the world that any confession he might make as a result of duress would
be fraudulent.
The always inventive communists accused the cardinal, among
other charges, of having orchestrated the theft of Hungary's crown jewels,
including the Crown of Saint Stephen, with the explicit purpose of crowning
Otto von Habsburg emperor of Eastern Europe. Under duress the cardinal
confessed he had schemed to remove the Communist government; that he had planned
a Third World War, and that, once this war was won by the Americans, he himself
would assume political power in Hungary.
Cardinal Mindszenty was imprisoned and tortured by both
fascists and communists. Towards the end of his life, he wanted his bones to sweeten
the soil of his homeland, but his communist captors had other ideas. The
cardinal, always a burr in the side of the totalitarians, soon became an
inconvenience to then President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the
architect of Mr. Nixon’s policy of détente with the Soviet Union.
After much diplomatic agony, the cardinal was brought to
Vienna by the Pope, Mr. Nixon having told the cardinal that it was best he bow
to his fate. The primate’s seat in Hungary was vacated by the Pope in December
1973, and Cardinal Mindszenty was stripped of his titles. Two years later, at
the age of 83, he died in Vienna. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union
and the liberation of Hungary from Soviet tyranny, the cardinal’s remains,
repatriated to Hungary by the country’s new democratically elected government,
were interred in the basilica in Esztergom.
During the same time span, Mr. Nixon had become embroiled in
the Watergate tar patch and, under threat of impeachment in 1974, he bowed to
his fate. Hammered to his knees by the unfolding scandal, Mr. Nixon asked Mr.
Kissinger to pray with him. While Cardinal Mindszenty had been a casualty of
détente, Mr. Nixon fell to his knees a casualty of an always unforgiving
ironfisted history.
If Hollywood were not little more than a politically
petulant self-indulgent fantasy machine, the “Great Escape” of Chen Guangcheng
from China’s fascist thugs would make a stirring film. Chen is telegenic,
young, courageous, and the anti-hero of years of stale, soulless,
propagandistic, Orwellian blather.
As a means of controlling population, Chinese fascists have
for years resorted to forced abortion. Winston Churchill used to say that the
hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Not satisfied with controlling the
means of production, Chinese fascist are able to dominate their world by
determining precisely who lies in the cradle.
Protesting forced abortion and the mistreatment of women
under China’s misogynistic “leaders” earned Chen a rare red badge of courage.
After the blind, self-taught lawyer began to advocate on behalf of victims of
abusive practices such as forced abortions by China's planned parenthood
officials, he was tried in 2006 on trumped up charges -- damaging property and
"organizing a mob to disturb traffic" in a protest -- and sentenced
to four years and three months in prison.
A blind self-taught lawyer, Chen evaded guards who had kept
him under house arrest for more than 18 months in a small eastern village and
made his way to Beijing on April 22. On Friday, Chen sent the following message
via YouTube to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao:
"They broke into my house, and more than a dozen men
assaulted my wife. They pinned her down and wrapped her in a comforter, beating
and kicking her for hours. They also similarly violently assaulted me… As you
see, I have escaped.”
Chen’s “Great Escape” has occurred, unfortunately, just as
President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are to sit down and
discuss matters of moment in the world. Mr. Obama, according to one report,
“was tight-lipped about the whereabouts of escaped Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng
and his potential impact on the discussions to be held this week in Beijing.”
Asked whether Chen was under U.S. Embassy protection, the
president responded during a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda at the White House:
"Obviously, I'm aware of the press reports on the
situation in China, but I'm not going to make a statement on the issue. What I
would like to emphasize is that every time we meet with China, the issue of
human rights comes up.”
The issue of human rights, it may be recalled, also came up
during the Mindszenty affair, a tiresome subject really. The main point in such
international meet and greets is that the leaders involved in the pointless
propaganda displays should make valiant attempts to snatch détente from the
ragged jaws of history.
They are not always successful.
UPDATE
According to an AFP report filed at 8:00 PM on May 2,
Chen Guangcheng has left the American Embassy. Following his abrupt leave-taking,
Chen made an appeal to President Barack Obama “to help get him and his family
out of China, saying he feared for his life just hours after leaving the US
embassy in Beijing.
"’I would like to say to President Obama: please do
everything you can to get our family out,’ Chen told CNN, according to a
translation of his quote.
“He also accused US embassy officials of pushing him hard to
leave the safety of the embassy on Wednesday where he had sought refuge for six
days after fleeing his home in the eastern province of Shandong.”
UPDATE
The human rights leader and his family were suddenly whisked out of Beijing, as Chen expressed gratitude but also concerns about the safety of the relatives he was leaving behind.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-china-dissident-20120520,0,3543636,full.story
UPDATE
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-china-dissident-20120520,0,3543636,full.story
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