Reuters: Most Read Articles: China denounces U.S. as dissident Chen leaves embassy

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China denounces U.S. as dissident Chen leaves embassy May 2nd 2012, 09:14 1 of 2. A member from the pro-democracy Civic Party displays a photograph of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng to passersby during a campaign collecting signatures in support of him in Hong Kong May 2, 2012. Chen will be sidelined in his quest to defend human rights and press for change in China if he agrees to accept political asylum in the United States, exiled dissidents said. Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip By Andrew Quinn and Ben Blanchard BEIJING | Wed May 2, 2012 5:14am EDT BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday "of his own volition" after being there for six days, state media said, and China denounced the United States for interfering in its internal affairs. It was not immediately clear whether Chen will stay in China, as he has said he wants to do, or whether the medical check is a prelude to sending him abroad for medical treatment, which could be a face-saving solution for Beijing that does not rule out Chen's return. Chen's departure comes on the eve of high-level U.S.-China talks and with both governments sensitive to the impact of the drama on domestic politics -- a U.S. presidential election and a Chinese Communist Party leadership handover later this year. "It must be pointed out that the United States Embassy took the Chinese citizen Chen Guangcheng into the embassy in an irregular manner, and China expresses its strong dissatisfaction over this," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement carried by Xinhua news agency. "The U.S. 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 blind lawyer left the embassy by car with U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, who took him to hospital, The Washington Post said. A Post correspondent spoke briefly to Chen on the phone and said he was fine. Just hours earlier, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in China for top-level talks that risk being upstaged by the drama over Chen whose flight to the U.S. Embassy neither China nor the United States would confirm until now. Rights lawyer Teng Biao said he had spoken briefly with Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, and said that both she and their two children were now in Beijing. He had no details on how they had been treated since Chen escaped. Chen's plight has overshadowed the Strategic and Economic Dialogue due to begin on Thursday. The United States hopes the talks will encourage greater Chinese cooperation on trade as well over Iran, Syria, North Korea and other international disputes. Relations could easily go awry, especially with the ruling Communist Party wrestling with a leadership scandal and a looming power succession. Before leaving for China on Monday, Clinton promised to press China's leaders on human rights, an issue that has dropped down the agenda between the two countries in the more than two decades since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. NUDGE ON HUMAN RIGHTS Washington is preoccupied with President Barack Obama's bid for re-election late this year, but ructions in Chinese domestic politics have dogged ties, causing the Obama administration to tread carefully in dealing with Beijing which faces a leadership succession late this year. "The vulnerability on the part of the Chinese leadership may in turn make decision-makers even more cautious in foreign policy issues," said Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese politics at the Brookings Institution, a think-tank in Washington D.C. A commentary in China's official People's Daily overseas edition said the United States was "disturbing still waters" by setting up military bases in Asia, selling weapons to the region and interfering in the South China Sea dispute. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is also set to attend the talks, which come amid some progress in long-standing disputes over currency, trade and market access. But the case of dissident Chen is likely to hover in the background throughout the two days of talks. Washington had already become entangled in Chinese political upheavals in February, when Wang Lijun, a vice mayor in Chongqing in southwest China, fled to a U.S. consulate for a day and denounced his boss, Bo Xilai, and Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, whom Wang accused of killing a British businessman, Neil Heywood. (Writing by Michael Martina and Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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