Xinhua published a commentary following the public statement that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange made on the balcony of Ecuadorean Embassy in London on August 19, 2012. The article started with Assange’s statement that "he did not commit any crime; his suffering from persecution was due solely to his publicizing U.S. government documents on the Internet."
The article commented, “Why do the British police refuse to let go of this political asylum seeker who leaked secret (government documents) on the Internet? Digging deeper, there is actually a mystery here. Assange did not mention the United Kingdom, nor did he mention Sweden in his speech. Instead, he chose to talk at great length about the United States.”
“It appears Assange is clear-minded. He knows it is the enormous pressure from the United States that makes the United Kingdom and Sweden go after him so tenaciously.”
“It seems that (the application of) the so-called human rights and the rule of law varies from ‘person to person’ in countries such as the U.S. and Britain. The so-called ‘freedom of speech’ is not applicable to Assange.”
The article concluded that “Assange’s tragedy is that he has revealed U.S. secrets and exposed the ugly side of the United States. The mighty, powerful United States has always been tyrannous, so how can it swallow such a humiliation? The U.S. government wants to tell the world: Whoever dares to go against the United States, will be punished, even if he runs to the farthest corner of the earth. The United States is determined to declare war against those who dare to uncover the shady façade of the United States, to silence them and ‘disappear’ them. This probably is the root cause for Assange now being trapped in the Ecuadorean Embassy.”
Source: Xinhua, August 20, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-08/20/c_112785505.htm