Romney calls on China to reconsider revoked visa

Issue spotlights crisis in Darfur

Activist Joey Cheek is cofounder of Team Darfur.

Former governor Mitt Romney urged Chinese officials yesterday to reconsider their sudden decision to revoke the visa of Joey Cheek, a former Olympic speedskater and human rights activist who had been planning to attend the Beijing Olympics to draw attention to the bloody ethnic conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

Romney, who was en route to Beijing yesterday for today's start of the Games, personally intervened in Cheek's case, writing a letter to top Chinese government officials and the Chinese Olympic committee president.

"It's a very serious error on their part," Romney said in a telephone interview from Washington between flights. "Joey Cheek is by no means an out-of-control radical. He's a very serious, sober, responsible individual, and his support for human rights certainly can't be in any way a detraction from the Games."

Cheek, now a Princeton University student, is cofounder of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes pushing peace in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in what the United States and other countries have declared a genocide led by government-backed militias. China, which maintains deep economic ties to Sudan, has drawn the ire of human rights groups worldwide for its reluctance to punish the country for its abuses.

Romney, who ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, reminds Beijing in his letter that he has personally helped China in its bid for the games. He said he spoke out in favor of giving China "a fair and equal chance in the process," extended "numerous courtesies" to the Chinese delegation in Salt Lake City, and offered, in a meeting last year, "advice and counsel" to Chinese Olympic committee leadership on how to run the Games successfully.

"The Chinese officials know of my involvement in the past and hopefully will give consideration to my request, perhaps on a personal basis," Romney said in the interview. The revocation of Cheek's visa, Romney added, violated "the Olympic spirit."

In his letter, which he faxed to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Romney wrote, "Denial of a visa to Mr. Cheek has already caused the world media to criticize China and the Beijing Olympics. Should China continue to deny Mr. Cheek a visa, the criticism will only become greater. Mine will be a voice of appreciation if a visa is granted; it will be a voice of strong criticism if it is not."

Chinese Embassy officials did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. In a statement Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said that "the visa issue is a country's sovereign affairs," but did not further explain the revocation. China has taken numerous steps to prevent political dissent during the Games. The government has denied entry to other critics of the Communist regime, including Jianli Yang, a Harvard scholar and human rights activist who returned to Brookline last summer after five years in a Chinese prison. Yang was barred from reentering China and sent home on a plane Wednesday night.

Romney said he first met Cheek at the Salt Lake City games, but it was the 2006 Winter Olympics, in Turin, Italy, where Cheek made his name. After winning gold and silver medals, Cheek donated his prize money - $40,000 - to Darfur refugees, and asked others to do the same. "He is a serious and respectful individual who has brought honor to America and to the Olympic movement," Romney wrote in his letter.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.