SUPPORTERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS in China were heartened when, during her recent visit to Beijing, Assistant Secretary of State Ellen R. Sauerbrey urged the Chinese government to release Chen Guangcheng. Chen, a 35-year-old blind legal advocate from the eastern province of Shandong, had incurred the wrath of local officials in June 2005 when he helped villagers file an unprecedented class-action lawsuit. The suit charged health officials with subjecting the villagers to sterilization and forced abortion in order to meet Beijing’s birth-control quotas.