CHINESE DISSIDENT CHEN: “I’m very disappointed at the U.S. government. . . . I don’t think (U.S. officials) protected human rights in this case.”

UPDATE: An analysis from Walter Russell Mead. “24 hours later, the deal is a heap of rubble, US-Chinese relations have been dinged and Chen is complaining to reporters that the US embassy abandoned him and saying that he wants to leave China with Secretary Clinton. Via Meadia hopes that this tangled story can still have a happy ending — and we have nothing but respect for the skills and the intentions of the US officials working on this case — but at the moment this has to rank as one of the more awkward diplomatic messes of recent years.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Obama’s Foreign Policy: Good Enough For Government Work? “The conventional wisdom is that President Obama has the advantage in this year’s presidential campaign when it comes to foreign policy. I agree. His signature accomplishments — the killing of bin Laden, the end of our military involvement in Iraq, and the promise to wind down our involvement in Afghanistan — are likely to be deemed good enough for government work. But then, so was Bill Clinton’s foreign policy, until 9/11. If we hold Obama to a higher standard, it quickly becomes apparent that he and his “smart power” practitioners have the wrong line on nearly every aspect of foreign policy. This isn’t surprising. Obama is ambivalent about American interests as they traditionally have been understood, and this ambivalence is reflected in the manner and degree to which he pursues them.”