ONE of China’s best known dissidents, Chen Guangcheng, has escaped from house arrest and has released a video addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao.In it he makes three demands, including one that Mr Wen investigate what Mr Chen, who is blind, calls the brutal beating up of his family members.Rights activists say Mr Chen slipped out of his home in Dongshigu town in Shandong province on Sunday.His whereabouts are unclear, with some reports saying he is safe in Beijing.They say Mr Chen may have taken refuge in a diplomatic mission.Mr Chen, 40, had been under house arrest since he was released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010.In the video, delivered from a darkened room and posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, Mr Chen asks that:Mr Chen names some local officials who told him that they “do not care about the law” and that “a few hundred people” were hired by the local government to “lock down” the village he lives in.The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathisers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up.In the video, Mr Chen says: ‘’I may be free but my worries are for my family… my wife, my children, my mother. Perhaps because of my leaving, they may become the target of more brutal abuse.’’The plight of Mr Chen has become famous around the world. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly called for his release and is due to visit Beijing next week.An activist based in the United States who has been in close contact with Mr Chen confirmed that the dissident had left Shandong - about eight hours’ drive from Beijing.
