Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident whose flight to the US Embassy in Beijing sparked a major diplomatic incident, had no idea that his escape would coincide with a visit to his country by Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State.
A week after he fled, Beijing was due to welcome Mrs Clinton and a US delegation for a Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Her arrival heightened tensions surrounding Mr Chen’s case and led to a speedy diplomatic resolution, which resulted in him being allowed to leave China to study in New York.
At his first public appearance yesterday, nearly two weeks after arriving in Manhattan, Mr Chen said that he had not sought to exploit Mrs Clinton’s visit. “I didn’t know there was going to be a strategic dialogue. I was cut off from the rest of the world,” Mr Chen told the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.
Mr Chen said the internet meant that the state had lost some of its power. “Chinese society has got to the era where if you don’t want something known, you better not do it. People are using all kinds of means to disseminate information. Can you do cover-ups? No. That possibility is diminishing,” he said.
This made him optimistic for the future of China, although any democratic reforms were likely to be slow. “Nobody can stop the process of history, whether it’s the central government, whether the central government wants to move forward or backwards.”
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However Mr Chen expressed concerned about the welfare of his brother and nephew who had been set upon by 30 thugs with wielding pick axes after they had helped him escape. “My nephew is still being held in a detention centre . . . keeping him isolated from his lawyer suggests that he is being tortured,” he said.
He called on authorities to investigate the “lawless punishment” inflicted on him and his family over the past seven years.