Escaped China activist in US protection-rights group

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is now under U.S. protection in Beijing after fleeing from house arrest, a U.S.-based rights group said on Saturday, threatening to open up a new front of tensions between the two governments.   

The United States has not provided any official confirmation of reports from rights activists that Chen, who was spirited away from house arrest at his home in Shandong province, had fled into the U.S. embassy.   

China declined to comment on Saturday on the issue, which now threatens to overshadow a top-level China-U.S. meeting in Beijing next week that will include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.   

Texas-based ChinaAid said it "learned from a source close to the Chen Guangcheng situation that Chen is under U.S. protection and high level talks are currently under way between U.S. 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, said in an email.  

"If there is a reason why Chinese dissidents revere the U.S., it is for a moment like this."   

Both the U.S. State Department in Washington and the U.S. embassy in Beijing declined to comment.   

Two prominent Chen supporters, friend He Peirong and Beijing-based researcher Guo Yushan, remained out of contact on Saturday, suggesting they had been detained.   

Chen's reported escape comes days before China and the United States hold high-level talks in Beijing. The U.S. government has not commented on Chen's whereabouts.   

Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions, had been restricted to his village home in Linyi in eastern Shandong province since September 2010 when he was released from jail.   

His confinement and relentless surveillance with his family fanned protests by Chinese sympathisers and criticism from foreign governments and activist groups.   

Chen's reported escape and the furor it has unleashed could add to the headaches of China's ruling Communist Party, which is striving to ensure stability and authority before a leadership transition later this year.  

Reuters