Activist Chen Guangcheng wants to leave China with Hillary Clinton
BEIJING Blind activist Chen Guangcheng and his wife have had a change of heart about staying in China, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said Thursday, and American officials are planning to talk with them more to decide whether they should leave their homeland and seek asylum in the United States.
It is clear now that in the last 12 to 15 hours they as a family have had a change of heart, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. We need to consult with them further, get a better sense of what they want to do and together consider their options.
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Washington Post reporter Keith Richburg received an exclusive phone call from Chen Guangcheng after the Chinese activist left the U.S. Embassy.
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Hours after blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. embassy on Wednesday, a U.S.-brokered deal to guarantee his safety appeared to unravel. A timeline of events.
From the hospital in Beijing where he was undergoing medical tests after being reunited with his family on Wednesday, Chen expressed a clear desire to emigrate from China, where he has been imprisoned, beaten and held under de facto house arrest for most of the past two years.
My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clintons plane, Chen said in a telephone interview with journalist Melinda Liu of the Daily Beast.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, is in Beijing for a two-day economic and security summit; she spoke briefly by phone with Chen after he left the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, having sought refuge there for six days after escaping from his village.
Chen told Clinton, in broken English, I want to kiss you, a statement that U.S. diplomats believed was an effort to convey his appreciation for U.S. assistance. But Chens friends said later that the dissident had intended to say, I want to see you, perhaps to discuss his situation further.
Teng Biao, a lawyer advising Chen, sent a Twitter message Thursday saying, The attitude for their family to want to go to the U.S. is quite clear ... The communication between Guangcheng and the embassy is open.
C! hen told CNN that after arriving at Chaoyang hospital, he learned that his wife, Yuan Weijing, had been tied to a chair for two days last week by police officers who threatened to beat her to death with clubs.
We are in danger, Chen told CNN. If you can talk to Hillary [Clinton], I hope she can help my whole family leave China.
In reality, however, it would be extremely difficult and extraordinarily unusual for Chen and his relatives to depart with the chief U.S. diplomat. Chen has no passport or visa, for one thing. And Clinton has planned stops in India and Bangladesh before returning to Washington.
Shifting priorities
Chen said he was optimistic when he first left the U.S. Embassy but was not fully informed. I wasnt allowed to call my friends from inside the embassy. I couldnt keep up with news so I didnt know a lot of things that were happening, Chen told CNN.
The dissident said he also wanted to speak with U.S. Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), a strong advocate for human rights in China, but embassy officials failed to arrange it.
U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke told reporters that the embassy was prepared to house Chen for years, if that was what he wished, but Chen insisted on leaving the embassy so that he could be reunited with his wife.