OPPRESSION

Dissidents: China Will Get Worse

After rare exception for Chen Guangcheng.

Despite China’s announcement Friday that it would allow blind human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng to leave the country for the United States with his family, other critics of the Chinese government say they don’t expect to see much improvement in the country. “I think that after the Chen Guangcheng incident, the situation for us will just become worse and worse,” said a supporter of Chen’s who said he may have been assaulted by plainclothes police while going to see Chen in the hospital last week. Another activist, Liu Feiyue, said that Chen was lucky to have the U.S. step in to defend him. “Not all dissident cases can become international issues,” Feiyue said.