Rep. Chris Smith tries to keep the pressure on for Chinese activist

PHILLY.COM: U.S. Rep. Chris Smith has never met the blind Chinese dissident whose dramatic escape from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing dominated international news for days. On Tuesday, Smith has scheduled a hearing before a House human rights subcommittee he chairs to discuss Chen and the fate of his family and friends, who have faced beatings, arrests and surveillance since Chen's escape in late April. "There's no safe place for a dissident in China," Smith, said in an interview last week. "It's an oxymoron; it does not exist. They have myriad ways of exacting revenge."