Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is now saying the police have arrested his sister-in-law and detained his nephew in retaliation for the humiliation he caused when he escaped house arrest. Well, duh. Any of your known associates are prolly in trouble now, too. That's how it works.

I'm not really sure what he expected the outcome of his escape to the U.S. Embassy to be. There was no way the U.S. would risk relations with China over this. Did he not think that as soon as he escaped and made it public, the government wouldn't immediately threaten his family in order to get him to cooperate?

And as for all this talk about him going to school in the States, i assume it was all lip service. I figure this is what the actual negotiations between the U.S. and China were about. How do we make it look like the U.S. actually cares while allowing China to not get screwed? I know! We'll put it out that China's agreed (due to persuasive talking by the U.S. team) to let him go to school in the U.S. That'll appease the American news viewers and they'll forget all about it in a week or two, moving on to the next exciting thing. Then China can go back to doing whatever the hell they want to this guy.

I'll be surprised if they actually let him leave. I imagine more threats to his family and friends over the situation until he capitulates. It might go something like this: Sure, go ahead to America with your family. Just know that the rest of your family and friends who still live here will be under our scrutiny (scrutiny meaning "we're totally going to arrest them and beat them up whenever we feel like it").

I'm not saying he should have accepted his situation in order to not rock the boat. I'm just wondering if he thought this through and if this is the outcome he was hoping for or if he really did expect the U.S., champion of human rights that we are, to sweep in and protect him and his loved ones. If it's the latter, then i'm very sorry he fell prey to the propaganda.