By JOSH CHIN
BEIJING?A blind Chinese human-rights activist escaped his captors this week after a year and a half of de facto house arrest and was said to be hiding in Beijing, setting off speculation over whether he will try to seek shelter or asylum in a foreign embassy.
The move by Chen Guangcheng, a fierce critic of forced abortions under China's one-child policy, could prove to be an embarrassment to Chinese authorities ahead of a visit next week by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
Mr. Chen's escape is already believed to have led to the arrest of a second activist, said Bob Fu, president of the U.S.-based Christian human rights group ChinaAid, who confirmed that Mr. Chen escaped on April 22 and said the activist was now in Beijing in a "100% safe location." Mr. Fu said Mr. Chen's escape was long-planned but he declined to offer further details.
Associated PressBlind activist Chen Guangcheng
Where Is Chen Guangcheng?
The Durham, N.C., Chinese-language website Boxun has posted a video of Mr. Cheng, purportedly filmed after he fled, to its channel on YouTube.
"Dear Premier Wen Jiabao, with great difficulty, I've escaped," the activist says. He then details the conditions of his confinement, including beatings by local thugs.
"My mother, my wife, my child are still in their clutches," he says, expressing fears that they may be subject to "mad revenge" now that he has left.
He goes on to say he thinks local authorities have "no intention of resolving" his case. "Those who make the decisions are afraid their crimes will be exposed," he says.
Watch the video on ChinaRealTime Report.
Asked about Mr. Chen's escape at a regular press briefing, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said he had "no information" about the case. The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on Friday and referred queries to the State Department. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland on Friday declined to comment on the case.
In a video posted online, Mr. Chen appealed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for mercy for his family, which remained behind in his home village of Dongshigu in China's eastern Shandong province.
"Dear Premier Wen Jiabao, with great difficulty, I've escaped," the activist, clad in a black Nike jacket and black aviator sunglasses, says at the beginning of the video. He details the conditions of his confinement, including beatings by local thugs.
"My mother, wife and child are still in their clutches," he says, expressing fears that they may be subject to "insane revenge" now that he has left.
Both the U.S. and the European Union have condemned Mr. Chen's treatment. In November, Mrs. Clinton cited the case of Mr. Chen as among examples of Chinese human-rights abuses, adding, "We continue to call on China to embrace a different path."
Timeline
- September 2005: Lawyer Chen Guangcheng, who helped mount a legal challenge over policies that he said forced women into abortions, is detained
- August 2006: Chen sentenced to four years in prison on charges of "intentional destruction of property" and "gathering crowds to obstruct traffic."
- January 2007: Chen's sentence upheld
- September 2010: Chen is released from prison but held at home without charges and monitored by guards
- October 2011: Activists say Chen's 6-year-old daughter is allowed to leave home to attend school
- December 2011: Actor Christian Bale attempts to visit Chen and is turned away by guards
- April 2012: Chen escapes imprisonment, and a rights group says he is in hiding in Beijing.
Previously
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Geithner are scheduled to visit Beijing on Thursday and Friday for the U.S. China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a set of talks established in 2009 to increase communications between the countries. The visit already comes at a sensitive time, following the recent ouster of former Communist Party high-flyer Bo Xilai, a move that exposed tensions in the upper levels of China's leadership just before a leadership change set to take place late this year.
An appearance by Mr. Chen at a foreign embassy would cause Beijing further difficulties. In 1989, following the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, scientist and human-rights activist Fang Lizhi fled to the U.S. Embassy. He stayed there for months as Washington and Beijing engaged in sensitive negotiations, finally leaving in 1990 to settle in the U.S. He died in Arizona earlier this month.
Mr. Chen, who made waves several years ago with a campaign against forced abortions, spent more than four years in prison on charges of disturbing public order. But since his release in 2010, he has been kept at home under guard in Dongshigu, without formal arrest or charges. Repeated attempts to visit Mr. Chen by activists and others, including actor Christian Bale in December, have occasionally resulted in violent confrontations with the men hired to guard the entrance to his village.
A person who answered the phone at the public security bureau in the nearly town of Linyi, which has jurisdiction over Mr. Chen's village, said he wasn't aware of the activist's escape.
Mr. Fu, of ChinaAid said his group had acted as a "facilitator" in the escape, helping to brief the U.S. government and diplomats.
He said another human-rights activist involved, He Peirong, may have been detained. Mr. Fu said he was talking to Ms. He at 11 a.m. Beijing time when she told him public security agents had arrived at her door and hung up. He has not been able to reach her since, he said. Attempts to reach Ms. He through her cellphone were unsuccessful.
The Associated Press cited Ms. He earlier Friday as denying a report in Singaporean media that said Mr. Chen had entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Thursday night.
In the video, posted on the YouTube channel of the U.S.-based Chinese language site Boxun, Mr. Chen said he thinks local authorities have "no intention of resolving" his case. "Those who make the decisions are afraid their crimes will be exposed," he says.
Write to Josh Chin at josh.chin@wsj.com
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