http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9242088/Chen-Guangcheng-leaves-US-embassy-after-threat-to-beat-his-wife-to-death.html
Posted By Josh Rogin
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Mr Chen, one of China's leading dissidents, said he had been abandoned by United States officials hours after they claimed to have agreed a deal to keep him and his family safe.
The American government insisted that Mr Chen had wanted to stay in China, but the 40-year-old lawyer said he had left the embassy in Beijing only because of the threats to his wife and children.
He said his home had been turned into a "prison" and asked for help to leave the country "safely".
Mr Chen's plea ended an extraordinary day of diplomatic claim and counter-claim, the climax to a week-long stand-off which had threatened a serious diplomatic rift between China and the US.
It began when the self-taught lawyer emerged from the US embassy yesterday, six days after having fled there following an escape from house arrest in his home village in China's Shandong province.
As Hilary Clinton, the US secretary of state, arrived in China for strategic and economic talks, American officials trumpeted a deal to release Mr Chen which they claimed "reflected his choices and our values".
They insisted that he had not requested asylum and had instead wanted to remain in China to be reunited with his family.
Hailing the compromise, they said that the Chinese had agreed to guarantee his safety and that the US would be able to "monitor" his situation. Mr Chen would be able to enrol in a university and study in a "safe environment", they said.
Such was Mr Chen's supposed happiness at the deal that he was said to have spoken to Mrs Clinton on the telephone and said: "I want to kiss you."
For her part, Mrs Clinton said: "The US government is committed to remaining engaged with Mr Chen and his family in the days, weeks and years ahead."
At noon on Wednesday, Mr Chen was escorted from the embassy by Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state, and taken to a local hospital where he was reunited with his wife, Yuan Weijing, his 11-year-old son Kerui, and his seven-year-old daughter Kesi, who had been taken to the city by high-speed rail.
He was also to receive treatment for an injury he sustained in his escape.
However, by Wednesday night it appeared that Mr Chen had changed his mind about the deal and that events had played out very differently.
In a series of interviews from his hospital room, the lawyer, who has been blind since early childhood, claimed that US officials had told him that if he did not emerge from the embassy, the Chinese had warned his family would be sent back to their home in Shandong, where they faced an uncertain future.
He said that at one point, a US official had told him that the Chinese had threatened to beat his wife to death.
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Mr Chen accused the US of abandoning him in his hospital ward, saying: "Nobody from the embassy is here. I do not understand why."
When asked if he was at hospital because of his health, he replied: "No. I came because of an agreement.
"I was worried about the safety of my family. A gang of them have taken over our house, sitting in our room and eating at our table, waving thick sticks around. They've turned our home into a prison, with seven cameras and electric fence all around."
He added: "My biggest wish is to leave the country with my family and rest for a while."
In an attempt to counter Mr Chen's claims last night, the US embassy released a series of photographs showing Mr Chen hugging Mr Campbell and smiling as the men departed for the hospital.
One of his lawyers, Li Jinsong, said he had spoken to Mr Chen en route and that he was "really happy".
Mr Campbell denied that Mr Chen had been under any duress to leave the embassy. "I was there," he said.
"Chen made the decision to leave the embassy after he knew his family was safe and at the hospital waiting for him. We were all there as witnesses to his decision, and he hugged and thanked us all."
Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokesman, added: "At no time did any US official speak to Chen about physical or legal threats to his wife and children. Nor did Chinese officials make any such threats to us."
However, she said China had indicated that Mr Chen's family would be returned to Shandong if he chose to stay in the embassy.
It was unclear last night whether the Chinese would honour the deal that was struck with the US diplomats, or whether Mr Chen faces yet more persecution.
So far, the only comment on the case from the Chinese has been a fierce attack on the US for allowing Mr Chen to enter the embassy.
A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry accused the Americans of meddling in China's "internal affairs" and demanded an apology.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Mr Chen's nephew, Chen Kegui, and of He Peirong, an activist who drove him to Beijing after his escape, are unknown.
Mr Chen enraged the authorities in his home county after exposing a series of forced abortions, some on women who were near their full term. He was jailed for four years for an unrelated traffic offence, and has lived under house arrest since his release in September 2010.
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http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/02/state_department_we_did_not_relay_threats_to_chen
Posted By Josh Rogin 
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - 12:59 PM 
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The State Department insists that blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy of his own volition Wednesday and that U.S. officials in Beijing did not convey threats to harm his family by Chinese officials, as Chen claims.
"At no time did any US official speak to Chen about physical or legal threats to his wife and children. Nor did Chinese officials make any such threats to us," said State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. "U.S. interlocutors did make clear that if Chen elected to stay in the Embassy, Chinese officials had indicated to us that his family would be returned to [their home in] Shandong, and they would lose their opportunity to negotiate for reunification."
Nuland was responding to accounts by Chen supporters, now repeated by Chen himself to the Associated Press, that said Chen was pressured into leaving the embassy via threats to the safety of his wife and family. Chen told the AP that U.S. officials told him the Chinese would take his family back to their home province in Shandong, where they had been under extrajudicial house arrest and in some cases physically abused, if he didn't leave the embassy.
Chen also said a U.S. official told him the Chinese government would beat his wife to death if he didn't leave the embassy and agree to the terms of the deal struck by U.S. and Chinese negotiators, according to the AP's account.
The State Department disputed that version of events.
"I was there. Chen made the decision to leave the Embassy after he knew his family was safe and at the hospital waiting for him, and after twice being asked by Ambassador Locke if he [was] ready to go," said Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who was a key negotiator in the deal. "He said, ‘zou,' -- let's go. We were all there as witnesses to his decision, and he hugged and thanked us all."
The deal, detailed by Foreign Policy's Editor Susan Glasser from Beijing, included a reunion between Chen and his family at a hospital where he could receive attention to the foot he damaged by scaling a wall during his daring escape last week.
The deal also stipulates that the Chinese government would treat Chen and his family humanely, that they would be relocated, and that Chen would be allowed to study at a university. Senior administration officials told reporters in a background briefing in Beijing that Chen called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the car to the hospital and said, "I want to kiss you."
Glasser noted that Zeng Jinyan, the wife of well-known activist Hu Jia, contradicted that account on Twitter, saying Chen told her he had asked to "see" Clinton, not to kiss her.
Clinton, in a statement, said, "I am pleased that we were able to facilitate Chen Guangcheng's stay and departure from the U.S. Embassy in a way that reflected his choices and our values."
Chen, according to the AP, said that it was true he had expressed his desire to stay in China. But now that U.S. officials have left him alone in his hospital room, he is having second thoughts.
"I think we'd like to rest in a place outside of China," he said. He then asked to relay a message to Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ). "Help my family and I leave safely."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-05/02/c_131564125.htm
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| English.news.cn 2012-05-02 15:46:56 |
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BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- China demands an apology from the U.S. side for taking a Chinese citizen "via abnormal means" into its embassy in Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said here Wednesday.
Chen Guangcheng, a native of Yinan county in eastern China's Shandong province, entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in late April and left of his own volition after a six-day stay at the embassy, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin.
"It should be pointed out that Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese citizen, was taken by the U.S. side to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing via abnormal means, and the Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with the move," Liu said.
He stressed that China demands that the United States thoroughly investigate the event, hold relevant people accountable and ensure that such an event does not happen again.
"What the U.S. side has done has interfered in the domestic affairs of China, and the Chinese side will never accept it," said the spokesman.
"The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has the obligation to observe relevant international laws and Chinese laws, and it should not do anything irrelevant to its function," said the spokesman.
China noted that the U.S. has expressed the importance it attaches to China's demands and concerns and has promised to take necessary measures to avoid similar events, he said.
The U.S. should reflect on its policies and methods and maintain the overall situation of Sino-U.S. bilateral ties with concrete acts, he said.
Liu said China is a country under rule of law, and its citizens' legitimate rights and interests are protected by the Constitution and laws.
"All citizens, at the same time, have the obligations to abide by the Constitution and laws," he said.
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