Clinton leaves China as dissident awaits departure

BEIJING: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left Beijing yesterday after a tense week of negotiations with China over the fate of blind rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who plans to travel to the United States under a deal to end the standoff.

Despite some speculation that Chen might fly out on the same plane as Clinton, the 40-year-old activist remained in the Beijing hospital he went to on Wednesday from the US embassy, where he had taken refuge after a dramatic escape from 19 months under house arrest in his home village.

In a sign the dispute over the activist, which threatened to worsen difficult China-us ties, might be easing, China indicated on Friday Chen would be allowed to go to the United States to study.

Later, in an interview with Radio Free Asia, Chen said he did not plan to leave his homeland for good.

“This isn’t saying that when I leave it’s a one-off and there’s no coming back,” Chen told the Washington-based news service.

“Nobody should think that I’m emigrating or anything like that. As they (the Chinese government) have recognized that I’m free, then I should also have the freedom to go where I want.” It is not clear how soon and how smoothly Chen will pass through China’s procedures that would allow him to travel, and even with Washington cautiously welcoming the proposed deal, some of his supporters said they remained under house arrest or under heavy police watch.

Human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong said both his ears were injured, and his left eardrum seemed to have ruptured, after police officers beat him about the head after he went to the Chaoyang Hospital in a bid to visit Chen.

“The worrying problem is that I haven’t been allowed out of my home to see a doctor and check how serious this is,” Jiang told Reuters by telephone from his home. “The state security police have told me to wait while they ask if I can go to a hospital, and there’s been no answer.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Chen could apply to study abroad followed his dramatic appeal to a US congressional hearing on his case, when he asked to be allowed to spend time in the United States after escaping extrajudicial captivity in his home village and hiding in the US embassy in Beijing for six days.

Chen left the embassy under a deal that foresaw him staying in China to study at a university. But Chen, beset by worries about the safety of his family and his own tenuous freedom, then changed his mind and said he wanted to go to the United States.

Clinton, who was in Beijing for strategic and economic talks, said the US ambassador to Beijing, Gary Locke, had spoken to Chen on Friday and had confirmed that Chen planned to go to the United States.

Chen had complained that after he entered the Beijing hospital, US officials were not allowed to meet him.

US officials have said they now expect American diplomats and doctors to have regular access to Chen, who won fame by campaigning against forced abortions under China’s “one-child” policy and other abuses experienced by rural residents.

Any more ructions with China over Chen could embolden American critics of the Obama administration’s China policies. They already seized on Chen’s pleas for safety and criticism of US diplomats, which he later retracted as the result of misunderstandings.

“US officials made a mistake by escorting Chen away from the safety of the US embassy and into an uncertain fate,” said Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, in an e-mailed comment. “We cannot assume that this saga has been resolved.” The lawyer Jiang, who campaigned for Chen’s freedom, said Chen was right to leave with his family, but his departure would nonetheless be a victory for “hardliners” in the government.

“This has been a victory for the law- breakers, because Chen Guangcheng and his family saw how the agreement that would have allowed him to stay wasn’t going to be honored. They avoided facing that test,” said Jiang. “This is ultimately a set-back for rule of law.” In 2006, Chen was sentenced to more than four years in jail on charges, vehemently denied by his wife and lawyers, that he whipped up a crowd that disrupted traffic and damaged property.

He was formally released in 2010 but remained under stifling house arrest in his home Dongshigu Village, which officials turned into a virtual fortress of walls, security equipment and aggressive guards in plain clothes.

Clinton arrived in Dhaka yesterday for a difficult mission in Bangladesh where violence and a crackdown on the opposition threaten new instability.

Clinton, coming from a row in China over a Chinese dissident, was set to sign a new partnership agreement with the impoverished South Asian nation.

She is the first US secretary of state to visit Bangladesh since Colin Powell in 2003 amid chronic political infighting in the world’s third largest Muslim-majority country.

The last few weeks have seen rallies and strikes over the disappearance of regional opposition figure Ilias Ali in mid-april, who supporters say was abducted by security forces. Four people have died in the unrest. TOKYO: Thousands of Japanese marched to celebrate the switching off of the last of their nation’s 50 nuclear reactors yesterday, waving banners shaped as giant fish that have become a potent anti-nuclear symbol.

Japan will be without electricity from nuclear power for the first time in four decades when the reactor at Tomari nuclear plant on the northern island of Hokkaido goes offline for routine maintenance.

After last year’s March 11 quake and tsunami set off meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, no reactor halted for checkups has been restarted amid public worries about the safety of nuclear technology.

“Today is a historical day,” Masashi Ishikawa shouted to a crowd gathered at a Tokyo park, some holding traditional “koinobori” carp-shaped banners for Children’s Day that have become a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement.

“There are so many nuclear plants, but not a single one will be up and running today, and that’s because of our efforts,” Ishikawa said.

The activists said it is fitting that the day Japan is stopping nuclear power coincides with Children’s Day because of their concerns about protecting children from radiation, which Fukushima Dai-ichi is still spewing into the air and water.

The government has been eager to restart nuclear reactors, warning about blackouts and rising carbon emissions as Japan is forced to turn to oil and gas for energy.

Japan now requires reactors to pass new tests to withstand quakes and tsunami and to gain local residents’ approval before restarting.

The response from people living near nuclear plants has been mixed, with some wanting them back in operation because of jobs, subsidies and other benefits to the local economy. Major protests, like the one Saturday, have been generally limited to urban areas like Tokyo, which had received electricity from faraway nuclear plants, including Fukushima Dai-ichi.

Before the nuclear crisis, Japan relied on nuclear power for a third of its electricity.

The crowd at the anti-nuclear rally, estimated at 5,500 by organizers, shrugged off government warnings about a power shortage. If anything, they said, with the reactors going offline one by one, it was clear the nation didn’t really need nuclear power.

Whether Japan will suffer a sharp power crunch is still unclear.

Electricity shortages are expected only at peak periods, such as the middle of the day in hot weather, and critics of nuclear power say proponents are exaggerating the consequences to win public approval to restart reactors.