ROBERT SIEGEL, host: A one-time Chinese dissident turned diplomat turned defector is not      having an easy time winning the political asylum he's seeking.  Chen      Yonglin is in Australia, where he has asked to stay.  The government has      said that it won't send him home for now, but it hasn't made any      long-term guarantees.  And it turns out Chen also got the cold shoulder      from Washington.  News analyst Daniel Schorr says that seems inconsistent      with other Bush administration actions.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: In his inaugural address in January, President Bush told dissidents      around the world, `When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with      you.'  And so it seemed in character when the president received, on      Monday, a North Korean defector, Kang Chol-hwan, who said with elation      that the people in the concentration camps will applaud.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: But then there is the case of Chen Yonglin, a Chinese diplomat who walked      out of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney on May 26th and applied for asylum      in Australia with his wife and daughter.  That would ordinarily be      considered an intelligence coup, but not in this case.  Australia has      refused asylum, and now, Chen told The New York Times, the American      Embassy has advised that there is nothing it can do for him.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: It's not hard to figure out why.  The United States relies on China to      help keep contact with North Korea with the hope of restarting      negotiations about North Korea's nuclear weapons.  And the United States      needs China's help on trade and currency issues.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: Both Chen and the woman who became his wife were student activists at the      time of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.  They were sent separately      to re-education camps, according to The Times.  Earlier, during Mao      Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution, Chen's father was beaten for two weeks      before he died. Under the circumstances, it is surprising that he was      accepted in diplomatic service.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: Now that the story's beginning to get around, it's hard to imagine that      the Bush administration will allow his family to be deported back to      China.  This is Daniel Schorr.
Two asylum-seekers recently met different fates: A North Korean refugee was welcomed by President Bush, while a Chinese man seeking asylum in Australia was denied. NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says the lack of an outcry over the Chinese man is due to the United States' dependence on China's cooperation on diplomatic and economic issues.