In case you wondered what the USA represents, and why we shouldn’t need to apologize to ANYONE

NYT

The dramatic nighttime escape of a blind rights lawyer from extralegal house arrest in his village dealt a major embarrassment to the Chinese government and left the United States, which may be sheltering him, with a new diplomatic quandary as it seeks to improve its fraught relationship with BeijingThe lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, one of the best-known and most politically savvy Chinese dissidents, evaded security forces surrounding his home this week and, aided by an underground network of human rights activists, secretly made his way about 300 miles to Beijing, where he is believed to have found refuge in the American Embassy, according to advocates and Chinese officials.

An official in the Chinese Ministry of State Security on Friday said that Mr. Chen had reached the United States Embassy, but American officials would not confirm reports that Mr. Chen had found shelter there.

Mr. Chen’s escape represents a significant public relations challenge for the Chinese government, which has sought torelegate him to obscurity, confining him to his home in the remote village of Dongshigu and surrounding him with plainclothes security guards, even though there are no outstanding legal charges against him.

He didn’t go the Russian Embassy, or the French. He didn’t go to the British or the Canadian. He didn’t go to the Australian or the Swiss.

He went where HISTORICALLY freedom, human rights, freedom of conscience is aggressively defended.

This is not a gimme as was the reality of the decision over Osama, especially given what occurred when Bill Clinton was president (four chances to get Bin Laden, refused at the advice of John Brennan ..Obama’s Terror Security Man).

Let’s see what happens. Aggressive and public defense of freedom? Silent finesses as we take this man in? An apology to China? Craven acts of obsequiousness?

If we do no more than the minimalist actions required by the advice of John Q Adams, we should at east expect a welcoming as a hero, and a warning that the whole world is watching what happens to Chen Guangchen’s family