Week In The News: China, Afghanistan, Occupy Returns

The U.S. gives up China’s barefoot lawyer. President Obama in Afghanistan. “Occupy” is back. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

China’s Chen, Afghanistan’s future, and a dead Bin Laden all over the news this week.  The US, back and forth on a high wire with China over barefoot lawyer Chen, who seemed afraid to stay and afraid to go . It’s politically loaded on both sides of the Pacific.

President Obama turned up at midnight in Kabul talking a new dawn for Afghanistan and reminding everyone of Osama Bin Laden’s killing a year ago.  Mitt Romney says  Jimmy Carter would have done it.  Unemployment to 8.1 percent.  Occupy,  back on the streets.

This hour, On Point:  our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-Tom Ashbrook

Gideon Rose, is the editor of Foreign Affairs.

Steven Greenhouse, labor and workplace reporter for the New York Times.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

The New York Times "The recall vote here has been billed as a critical test of labor muscle versus corporate money. But it is only a warm-up for a confrontation that will play out during the presidential election, which both sides view as the biggest political showdown in at least 30 years between pro- and anti-union forces — a labor-management fight writ large."

Foreign Policy "Chen is a hero to China's growing community of liberal activists. FP spoke with a number of Chen supporters, whose views have often been lost amid the flurry of reporting over the diplomatic efforts to free the blind activist. "He's a very pure moral voice" in a land where moral power is "weak," said a Beijing-based columnist and author."

Politico "Mitt Romney has led the parade of Republicans accusing President Barack Obama of politicizing the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death for political gain — delighting in what they view as Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” moment."