Chen Guangcheng pleads for seat on Clinton’s plane

Chen is currently at a Beijing hospital under the watch of Chinese authorities, and said he wants to leave the country because he fears for his safety.

A US official said on Thursday that Chen had a “change of heart” about wanting to remain in China and that they were trying to determine what he wanted to do.

“When we feel that we have a clear view of what his final decision is, we will do what we can to help him achieve that,” the official said.

It is still unclear whether Chen will be able to leave China for the US, but the decision by Chen, and by the US, will have huge diplomatic implications. Chen, a self-taught lawyer and human rights activist, escaped from house arrest last Friday and had been seeking refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.

He left the US embassy on Wednesday, telling Channel 4 News this was part of an “agreement” with the Chinese government, who had threatened to put his family back under house arrest in Shandong, unless he left the US building.

Speaking from hospital on Wednesday, Chen said: “Nobody from the US embassy is here. I don’t understand why. They promised to be here,” and then started to cry.

In his most recent interviews, he said that he and his family are surrounded by Chinese officials in hospital. “I feel very unsafe. My rights and safety cannot be assured here,” he said, adding that he had not had not yet had the opportunity to explain his wish to leave China, to US officials.

In an attempt to explain his change of heart about deciding to leave the country, he said: “When I was inside the American embassy, I didn’t have my family, and so I didn’t understand some things. After I was able to meet them, my ideas changed.”

Chen said in an interview with the Daily Beast, his “fervent hope” was that he and his family could “leave for the US on Hillary Clinton’s plane”.

“He has absolutely no idea what is going to happen to him,” said Channel 4 News producer, Bessie Du after speaking to Chen on Wednesday.

“When I spoke to him he was alone in the hospital with his wife and his children and some nurses. I asked him if the US embassy staff are still with him and he said they are not. He said: ‘I don’t understand why as they promised they’ll be with me.’

“Then he started to cry, and said: ‘I’m very sad at the moment’. I asked him why, and he said it was because of his experience in the last few days.”

Diplomatic tension

China’s foreign ministry have so far declined to comment on Chen’s request to leave, and has criticised the US involvement in the case, calling their handling “unacceptable”.

Hillary Clinton is on a two-day visit to China, which was intended to be focused on relations with North Korea and Syria, but that has largely been overshadowed by the plight of Chen, who is known as the ‘barefoot lawyer’.

In a joint speech signifying the beginning of talks, neither country mentioned Chen specifically, but Mrs Clinton addressed the topic of human rights.

“Of course, as part of our dialogue, the United States raises the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” Clinton said. “We believe all governments have to answer our citizens’ aspirations for dignity and the rule of law and that no nation can or should deny those rights.”

President Hu Jintao said the US and China would not see “eye to eye on every issue”.

“We should properly manage the differences by improving mutual understanding so these differences will not undermine the larger interests of China-US relations,” he said.