Robert S. Wang, center, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, gestures as he walks with an unidentified U.S. embassy staff, left, outside the hospital where blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng is recuperating in Beijing today. The Chinese activist at the center of a diplomatic standoff between the United States and China said Friday his situation is “dangerous,” and that American officials have been blocked from seeing him for two days and friends who have tried to visit have been beaten up. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)GILLIAN WONG and MATTHEW LEE
BEIJING (AP) – China hinted at a possible, face-saving way out of a diplomatic standoff with the United States over legal activist Chen Guangcheng, saying Friday that he could apply for permission to study abroad.
The concession was offered in a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement while Chen remained in a guarded Beijing hospital ward, unable to see U.S. officials. His wife’s movements are being monitored, he said, and the couple with their two children feel in danger.
“I can only tell you one thing. My situation right now is very dangerous,” Chen said. “For two days, American officials who have wanted to come and see me have not been allowed in.”
A blind, self-taught lawyer and symbol in China’s civil rights movement, Chen embroiled Washington and Beijing in their most delicate diplomatic crisis in years after he escaped house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy last week. He left six days later under a negotiated deal in which he and his family were to be safely relocated in China so he can formally study law. But he then upended the agreement by saying they wanted to go abroad.