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April 30, 2012

Chinese Activist Under U.S. Protection After Escaping House Arrest 
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A prominent Chinese activist has reportedly taken refuge in the U.S.
embassy in Beijing after escaping house arrest. Chen Guangcheng, who is
blind, evaded guards at his village home in Shandong province to escape
undetected. A friend of Chen's described his escape.

Hu Jia: "We talked about how Guangcheng climbed over a high wall in the
middle of the night and fell over more than 200 times, and how he
wounded himself when he fell down from the wall and couldn't stand up.
But he kept going and stumbled forward. And, as I remember, he said it
took 20 hours to get past all these obstacles to get to the people
waiting to meet him."

The Obama administration has refused to confirm whether Chen is at the
U.S. embassy, but has sent a top diplomat to China to address the case.
Bob Fu, a Chinese opposition activist based in Texas, said he has
confirmation Chen is under U.S. protection.

Bob Fu: "From our source who is knowledgeable to the U.S. government and
Chinese government, that we can confirm that Chen is in the protection
of the U.S. government in Beijing, and high-level negotiations between
the two governments have started. And it happened on April 27th, and
Chen is safe right now."

 

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