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Courtesy U.S. Embassy Beijing Press Office
Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is seen holding the hand of U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke, right, in this photo released by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday.
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Updated at 10:50 p.m. ET: BEIJING -- In a visit to China on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned China to protect human rights, the Associated Press reported.
Without mentioning Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident who sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for six days, Clinton said, “all governments have to answer to our citizens’ aspirations for dignity and the rule of law and that no nation can or should deny those rights.”
Only hours earlier, U.S. officials said they had extracted from the Chinese government a promise that Chen would join his family and be allowed to start a new life in a university town in China, safe from the rural authorities who had abusively held him in prison and house arrest for nearly seven years.
In her remarks, Clinton did not mention Chen by name, although she had spoken with him hours before when he left the embassy. In a statement she welcomed the resettlement as one that “reflected his choices and our values.”
This came after an interview Chen gave to the Associated Press on Wednesday from a hospital room in Beijing where he was taken for medical treatment, during which he said a U.S. official told him that Chinese authorities had threatened to beat his wife if he did not leave the embassy. He said he feared for his safety and wanted to leave.
In a separate interview with Britain's Channel 4 News, Chen said he wanted to go to any country that will take him and his family and added he's disappointed that American officials didn't stay at the hospital with him as he thought they would.
"Nobody from [the] embassy is here … I don't understand why. They promised to be here," he told Channel 4 News.
Chen also told NBC News that he asked the U.S. to take concrete steps to guarantee his safety.
The State Department denied much of the AP's account of what Chen said.
The blind Chinese activist at the center of a diplomatic tug-of-war between Washington and Beijing left the U.S. Embassy Wednesday morning to receive medical care and be reunited with his family. NBC's Ian Williams reports.
"At no time did any U.S. official speak to Chen about physical or legal threats to his wife and children. Nor did Chinese officials make any such threats to us," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told NBC News.
Chen was told his family would be sent back home if he stayed in the embassy, she said.
China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama
"At every opportunity, he expressed his desire to stay in China, reunify with his family, continue his education and work for reform in his country. All our diplomacy was directed at putting him in the best possible position to achieve his objectives," Nuland added.
Chen's plight has overshadowed high-level talks on economic and international issues due to begin Thursday. The United States hopes the negotiations will encourage greater Chinese cooperation on trade as well over Iran, Syria, North Korea and other international disputes.
Who is Fu? Chinese exile is 'God's double agent'
In what earlier appeared to be a deal to end the diplomatic tussle between the U.S. and China over his future, Chinese authorities promised he would be relocated to a safe environment where he could study at a university, a U.S. official said, speaking prior to Chen's comments.
Chen, who went to the embassy after making a daring escape from house arrest on April 21, ran afoul of local government officials in China for exposing forced abortions and other abuses. His dogged pursuit of justice and mistreatment by authorities brought him attention from the U.S. and foreign governments, and earned him supporters among many ordinary Chinese.
Chen may have been forced to accept what he's offered, according to Zeng Jinyan, a long-time friend of Chen's family and also a human rights activist. Zeng has been tweeting about Chen's latest situation since Wednesday evening, some in Chinese, some in English, according to NBC News.
Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends
According to Zeng, Chen was unwilling to leave the American embassy but had no choice because his wife and two children would be sent back to Shandong province if he insisted on staying. It is not known when and how they arrived in Beijing, but Chen's wife Yuan Weijing told Zeng that local government in Shandong province installed security cameras inside her home and moved in, waiting for her and the children if Chen didn't agree to leave the embassy. Yuan also said she was arrested on April 27th when they found out Chen has escaped.
Teng Biao, a lawyer who's been assisting Chen in the past few years, tweeted about his conversation with Chen Wednesday afternoon, asking Chen "I've heard you were threatened, is that true?" Chen said, "Yes, very true. People from the Foreign Ministry said this afternoon, if you didn't leave the embassy, your wife and children would have been sent back to Shandong." In the same conversation, Chen said the Shandong officials who escorted his family are still in Beijing.
Blind dissident’s case a 'hot potato' for US-China
Meanwhile, Chinese government is taking a more hard-lined attitude on the case, demanding an apology from the American government.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said: "It should be pointed out that Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese citizen, was taken by the U.S. side to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing via abnormal means, and the Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with the move."
Jordan Pouille / AFP - Getty Images
Chinese activist activist Chen Guangcheng (left) is seen in a wheelchair pushed by a nurse at the Chaoyang hospital in Beijing Wednesday.
He stressed that China demands that the United States thoroughly investigate the event, hold relevant people accountable and ensure that such an event does not happen again. "What the U.S. side has done has interfered in the domestic affairs of China, and the Chinese side will never accept it," said the spokesman.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- who arrived in Beijing Tuesday ahead of the talks -- said that the case had been handled "in a way that reflected his choices and our values" -- comments made before Chen's remarks that he feared for his and his family's safety.
She said it was crucial to ensure that Beijing kept its pledge to leave him unmolested. "The United States government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks, and years ahead," Clinton added.
Chen's supporters said last Friday that he had escaped after 20 months of house arrest and gone into U.S. government protection.
More on Chen: Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight
NBC News, msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Leave a Comment:
Obama just handed this guy and his family a death sentence. Everyone knows if this guy doesn't get hung he will be silenced. China now controls Obama. Obama has sold freedom to the Chinese. Obama is a Chinese puppet.
I agree. Obama and MessNBC want folks to believe he needed "medical" help and was handed back to his torturers for what? More "medical" help? Give me a break! The last dissident to be hended back to his torturers hasn't been seen or heard from since. http://freebeacon.com/defection-denied-2/
The BS floating around this inept, corrupt administration never ends. Chens fate is the fault of the Obama administration. Mainstream media will never follow up on Chen's whereabouts.
The people in Bo Xilai's inter circle are also having medical treatments...
TIMELINE: BO XILAI SCANDAL - http://freeinternetpress.com/story/China-Scandal-Bo-Xilai-Officials-Wiretapped-Call-To-President-Hu-Jintao-34593.html
GCV, before this topic becomes swamped with vicious attacks on other posters for completely irrelevant reasons, I'd like to agree wholeheartedly with your calm and incisive opinion. However, in reality we have no ways, means or power to achieve any improvement in our national condition. We negotiate with countries who possess none of our ideals, so the reason must be only profit, and for a government to behave that way it must be driven by merchants who fund the politicians' efforts to retain their positions. Imports/exports/military power were mentioned as discussion topics, yet nothing about issues that our leaders tout to us: moral integrity and mutual respect.
Of course, anarchy is a dirty word but the majority of the world's nations are controlled by forces that apparently have their people's worst interests at heart: war, debt, enforcement of repressive laws, imprisonment, massive disparity of income, an impotent and despairing public. If I thought for a minute that this site had broad readership, I would have more hope for change for the better but we are all clearly shouting into the wind.
What about the devestation of economic sanctions that would bring millions of jobs back home? That would be bad to corporate profits and the CEO pay. Sorry Chen, you lose.
Chen is one of thousands that disagree on how China treats their people. The problem with the U.S. is that they always try to get into China's business. In China there are no freedoms like here and they like it the way they have it. We're not going to change things there. Only the people there can if they want. You can't take thousands of dissatisfied chineese and give them amnesty. I'm sure China put pressure on Chen's family for him to leave. In this country we don't punish people for speaking out against the government. Of course we can elect another group to govern if we want and China would probably deny entry by a U.S. citizen into their embassy here. China just wants to be left alone to do what they want with their people and we need to stay out of their business.
I heard that CNN was "chased" when dealing with the Chinese escape artist's home town. Well anyone who is ANYONE should agree that CNN has carte blanche in ANY COUNTRY ANY TIME they wish, so obviously EVERYONE who's ANYONE other than CNN staff are guilty!!! I REALLY wish they held Soledad O'Brien for ransom for a few weeks/months - don't require any harm to her, just a period of "significant" time OFF OF THE AIR - nightmares of Katie Couric begin recurring. And this morning, as I perused the channels, I noticed she wore little make-up on what seemed a swollen face..........please don't tell the viewing public she's pregnant!? She looks ridiculous, even worse than with some make-up as she really lacks what most of us refer to as "natural" beauty (i.e., someone who can easily get away with or without make-up); she's more of a Grimace from the old McDonald's commercials. Anyway, "love ta" msnbc!
Returned to his family, sure, to work in a rice field as forced labor as punishment for trying to get freedom and liberty, the Chinese Gov. is no better than. N. Korea, a bunch of backward thinking rogue's. 2 faced traitors, PETA would make a better Gov. than what they have. We treat our animals better than they do human beings. It's just the 1% needs their cheap products made in child sweat factories, to get bigger and richer. Other than that we would have no use for China.
I'm sorry China, but forced abortions are absolutely evil. If your "one child" policy causes little lives to be murdered and women to be traumatized then I do not agree with it AT ALL! This man was trying to stop forced abortions so I fully support that mission. There's absolutely no reason for you to hurt that man. Have some humanity, please. I would've agreed with any country taking this man in and protecting him.
Sorry shogun but we need China because they could shut the U.S. down just by selling off everything they own in the U.S. We're not talking about a third world country. They could walk over us anytime they want. We couldn't beat them in a war so get off your high horse. The only thing we could do is have a nuclear war with them and neither one of us would be left.
Glad you're a proud supporter of China, Ed........more backwards thinking. Our Military tech. is far superior than anyone in the world, they're lucky to get a rocket off the ground,...... get your head out of the sand.
Apparently Obama and Hillary do not have the ability to stand up to the Chinese. So, in order to make it less embarrassing for them, the guy was released to a hospital and then back to where he was. And lo and behold, suddenly he is not seeking US protection any longer. Can Obama and Hillary be any softer? No wonder Obama has done virtually nothing to address China's unfair trade practices that have been robbing our economy of manufacturing and jobs. He either doesn't know how to deal with the Chinese or simply has no desire to do so. Perhaps his ideological outlook has something to do with it.
Besides, under Obamacare there may come a time when the cost of having an abortion, which is a lot less than having a child and raising it, makes the Chinese policy look tempting
Amy's another one who doesn't understand. China doesn't care what you think. They're going to treat their people the way they want. The only way China is going to change is if the people there rise up against the government but I don't see any sign of that happening. But they are a little afraid of it because they know Chen is trying to start another movement. That's why they want our country to appologize and punish our people. I don't know about appologizing but we'll probably tell China we don't punish people in our embassy who try to help people. Of course China could eventually tell our embassy to leave.
Ed, I'm afraid you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in China lately.
Ok KingK what would you do to China.
You people make me laugh. Do you think China is like the U.S. I don't know what they're teaching you all in school nowdays but China doesn't care what the U.S. thinks and Obama or if the Republicans were in the White House can't change them. We need their trade just like we need their money to get out of this recession we're in. And all you young people need to go to work instead of living off unemployment and your parents and welfare.
Exactly! Ronald Reagan made news when he openly criticsed the Chinese for their human rights violations --- to which the Chinese countered by pointing out ours, having to do with our treatment of Native Americans. Yeah,,,, we're really good at pointing out the faults --- of others!
Hillary Clinton is over there trying to save the trade talks we're suppose to have with China and Chen has really messed it up. I just hope we can get a good trade agreement with China. If not Russia will.
Ed people really don't care what you think, but go ahead and vent your frustrations, it's your right, but don't you realize the human rights failure in China. Or should the world just turn a blind eye, and live in their own little narrow minded bubble.
Obama and Clinton just shut the door on addressing human rights violations in China. Now any complaints from Chinese citizens seeking US help will fall on deaf ears while Obama is in office.
The China-man didn't want to defect, he was more or less trying to give China a black eye to the world by going to our embassy. He preferred to stay with his own family in China. That's the facts, he could have left China, get your head out of the sand, King Kong.
OK Hillary we understand the spin you and Barack want tp put on this. Wink, wink!
Why do we seem to want to become involved in every countries internal politics? We seem to think we are a paragon of virtue and assume the role of the global policeman when no one wants us involved unless their ox is gored and after said event they no longer want us or like us. This global obsession is expensive not only in treasure but in national prestige domestically and internationally.
In the words of Leslie Chow....."Too-da-loo-mada-fawk-aaaaaaa"
You have to wonder what the punishment is for soldiers who failed to keep a blind guy from escaping....
Look, if the US needs to apologize because of him, and for "interfering in China's internal affairs", then the Chinese government needs to apologize for one of its own officials (Wang Lijun) entering the US consulate and "trying to bring the US into China's internal affairs".
This is nothing but a face saving maneuver by the Chinese government. They lost face and cannot appear that way to the people, so they try to push the blame onto someone else (especially when it is a foreign nation).
My apology to the Chinese government? "I apologize for not shaving my --- before I ask you to kiss it."
Phuck China. Enough said.
So Hilary and Obama throw Chen back to the wolves....with "assurances" that he won't be molested ?!?!?
What frikken naive idiots in the White House!
The hell motoricker. They didn't throw him back. Don't you read well? He didn't want to leave his homeland. We aren't going to hogtie him to move into the USA. He decided.........let me repeat.........HE DECIDED to return back after his own negotiations with his government. Geez. Get it right.
Jonboy, are you really that naive?
How long before Obama apologizes ?
[channeling Obama]
"Chen Guangcheng acted stupidly"
Bizare comment coming from China. They do know that any embassy accepts folks knocking on their doors asking for assistance. That is what we do. They know that. This is all rhertoric again to 'save face.' What did they think the USA would do. Throw water in his face when it is known he is a world wide known activist being harrassed in his own home. He doesn't want to leave China. What more do they want? For the USA to crawl to them. Think again.
Any bets on how long he will study at a "state university" before he becomes a volunteer for organ donations? Sure, you can trust the Chinese government - to bulldoze any dissent and bury the remains. That is, unless the remains can be recycled into fish and dog food.
Code message for China and their leaders: 4Q!
r i i i g h t
The world is watching China, Chen better be treated well and not disappear as others have. Screw China!
Chen has to appologize for starting this mess and hope down the road the people change their attitude toward their country. Chen can't win without the support of millions.