Pro-Life Groups Hope Chen Gets on Bandwagon

Chen Guangcheng's story threatens to make him into a political football now that he is in the US, the Washington Post finds. The blind dissident was jailed after exposing forced sterilizations and abortions under China's one-child policy, and though his views on abortion are unclear, anti-abortion groups are among those seeking his support. His allies say that Chen—who has also campaigned for the environment and disabled rights—defies American political categories, but will not be shy about saying what he thinks.

Chen himself has made it clear that he is focused on his homeland. "I have come here to study temporarily, not to seek political asylum," he writes in a New York Times op-ed. "And while I pursue my studies, I hope that the Chinese government and the Communist Party will conduct a thorough investigation of the lawless punishment inflicted on me and my family over the past seven years." China, he writes, needs to restore the rule of law by confronting the Communist Party political-legal committee that has turned ostensibly independent police, prosecutors, and judges into a "single, unchallengeable weapon." Click for his full piece. (More Chen Guangcheng stories.)