Crouching Lawyer, Sullen Dragon

The dramatic escape of the blind dissident lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, from house arrest in the Shandong province and his temporary sheltering in Beijing's American embassy, have refocussed world attention on China's human rights deficit. The incidents have also triggered an uneasy row between China and the US. A country which spends more on internal surveillance than on its military defence, and which has the largest number of political prisoners in the world has a lot to hide. The tactic of extrajudicial confining of acti-vists to their homes, even after they have served unjust 'legal' sentences in jail, is not limited to Chen or Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo. Hundreds, who have dared to raise uncomfortable truths about China's authorita-rian rule, have encountered the same fate. If such courageous individuals were free to write and talk, they would have undermined President Hu Jintao's goal of a "harmonious society".