Chen Guangcheng left US embassy 'after threats made against his wife'
Activist who took refuge in Beijing embassy wanted to go abroad but was forced to accept deal to stay in China, says friend
Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the US embassy in Beijing only after threats his family would be immediately returned to house arrest, a close friend has said.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, had earlier said that the handling of his stay and departure "reflected his choices and our values", adding that China had offered him understandings he could pursue higher education in a safe environment.
"Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task," added Clinton, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday. Chen also told his lawyer that he had "received clear assurances".
But supporters have expressed concern about whether his safety could be protected if he remained in China and Zeng Jinyan, a friend of Chen, said he told her in a phone call that he needed her help.
In Twitter messages which she confirmed were genuine Zeng said the "barefoot lawyer" left the embassy because he was told his wife, Yuan Weijing, and their children would otherwise be returned to eastern Shandong province, where authorities have harassed them for years. The couple are believed to have been badly beaten by the guards keeping them under house arrest in Dongshigu.
Staff at the US embassy were not immediately available for comment.
Friends and human rights activists questioned the value of assurances of safety.
"It raises the question of whether we can trust the promises not to retaliate against Chen Guangcheng and his family and supporters," said Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch.
"It's very difficult to see how China can honour the bargain given that the suppression of human rights activists and governme! nt criti cs are embedded in its political situation. This is what they do day in and out. There are no reassurances I can trust that Chen and his family will remain safe in the long term."
China has demanded that the US apologise for taking him into the embassy in "an irregular manner".
"The US method was interference in Chinese domestic affairs, and this is totally unacceptable to China. China demands that the United States apologise over this, thoroughly investigate this incident, punish those who are responsible, and give assurances that such incidents will not recur," the foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin added in a statement carried by Xinhua. The state news agency said Chen had spent six days at the embassy and left "of his own volition".
The activist, who made a remarkable escape from a punishing 19-month regime of extralegal house arrest last week, was reunited with his family as he underwent medical checks at a Beijing hospital.
Chen was treated at the VIP clinic on the ninth floor of the Chaoyang hospital.
His wife, who was waiting there with their exhausted 10-year-old son and six-year-old daughter, told the Guardian: "I'm OK. We don't know yet [what's wrong with him]. He's having a check-up."
She said they had arrived in Beijing on Wednesday.
The US ambassador, Gary Locke, and the state department legal adviser Harold Koh accompanied him to the hospital.
US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said staff had helped Chen enter the mission because he needed medical care following his escape.
"This was an extraordinary case involving exceptional circumstances, and we do not anticipate that it will be repeated," one said.
He did not elaborate and it is not clear exactly how Chen entered. But while the activist had apparently hoped to stay in safe houses in Beijing, friends concluded that he could not be protected unless he went to the US embassy and discussed asking for a car with diplomatic number plates to pick him up.
The off! icial al so said Chen had not asked for asylum, although in any case it cannot be granted to people outside the US.
Wang Songlian, of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network, warned: "If he's going to stay in China, reassurances are not very reassuring because the Chinese government has a record of not honouring its words regarding human rights."
"The most worrying part is that his extended family is in Shandong and authorities could retaliate by detaining or torturing them. We know four are in custody and one [his nephew, Chen Kegui] is accused of injuring government officials."
She gave short shrift to the Chinese demand that the US say sorry over Chen's case.
"I think it's incredible that the Chinese government would ask for an apology from the US when it has unlawfully put a human rights activist and his family under house arrest for so long," Wang said.
Chen's case has been regarded as one of the most egregious examples of official abuses. The self-taught legal activist was initially praised by authorities for using his skills to help disabled people and farmers with problems. But he angered officials in Linyi city, eastern Shandong province, after attempting to help women forced to have abortions and sterilisations. He was jailed for more than four years on what supporters described as fabricated charges and placed under a brutal regime of house arrest on his release in 2010.
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