BEIJING (Reuters) – Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under US protection in Beijing after an audacious escape from 19 months under house arrest, a US-based group said yesterday, in a drama that threatens to ignite new tensions between the two governments.
The United States has not confirmed publicly reports that Chen, who slipped away from under the noses of guards and eyes and ears of surveillance equipment around his village home in Shandong province, fled into the US embassy.
China has also declined direct public comment on Chen’s reported escape, which threatens to overshadow a two-day meeting with top Obama administration officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Beijing from Thursday.
But Texas-based ChinaAid said it “learned from a source close to the Chen Guangcheng situation that Chen is under US protection and high level talks are currently under way between US and Chinese officials regarding Chen’s status.”
“Because of Chen’s wide popularity, the Obama administration must stand firmly with him or risk losing credibility as a defender of freedom and the rule of law,” Bob Fu, president of the religious and political rights advocacy group that has long campaigned for Chen’s freedom, said in an email.
The standoff carries political risk for President Barack Obama, whose presumptive Republican challenger in November’s election, Mitt Romney, has painted Obama as weak on China.
“The Obama administration will be inviting attack from the Romney campaign … if the right course is not decided immediately,” said Michael Pillsbury, a former senior official in the previous three Republican administrations.
The reports of Chen’s escape come nearly three months after a Chinese official, Wang Lijun, fled into a US consulate for over 24 hours on Feb. 6, unleashing a scandal that rattled the ruling Communist Party a few months before they are to head into a once-in-a-decade leadership handover.
Wang’s brief flight to the US consulate led to the downfall of top official Bo Xilai who had been openly campaigning for a place in the inner circle of power in Beijing. Wang was taken into custody by central government authorities when he left the consulate.
Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing lawyer and rights advocate, said reliable contacts also told him Chen took refuge in US embassy grounds. The incident will be another damaging blot on China’s security services, following Wang’s flight, said Pu.
“Everyone knew about the suffering of Chen Guangcheng and his family but nobody dared raised his head over this and ignored it,” he told Reuters, referring to Chinese officials.
“Chen Guangcheng has been the most typical victim of this lawless, boundless exercise of power,” said Pu. “But the day has finally come when he has escaped from it.”
Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against abortions forced under China’s “one child” policy, had been held under extra-legal confinement in his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail.
