Clinton heads to China and into dissident drama

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left on Monday on a high-stakes trip to Beijing, where a blind dissident is reportedly holed up in the U.S. embassy in a drama threatening to overshadow top-level meetings between the two governments.Dissident Chen Guangcheng, according to one of his helpers, will demand to stay in China and press on with his campaign for reform, adding to tension between Beijing and Washington that poses risks for both governments as well as to relations between the world’s two biggest economies.Both governments have scrupulously avoided official comment on the Chen case and neither has confirmed that he is under U.S. protection in Beijing.Chen’s audacious escape from house arrest, under the watch of the world’s largest domestic security apparatus, was a “miracle” of planning and endurance, said Guo Yushan, a Beijing-based researcher and rights advocate who has campaigned for Chen and helped bring him to the Chinese capital after his escape.But he said the 40-year-old, self-taught lawyer, wants to stay in China and campaign for reform.“He was adamant that he would not apply for political asylum with any country. He certainly wants to stay in China, and demand redress for the years of illegal persecution in Shandong and continue his efforts for Chinese society,” said Guo on Monday, speaking in his first long interview since he was released from days of police questioning.Chen, who campaigned against forced abortions as part of family planning, was confined to his village home in the eastern province of Shandong since September 2010, after release from jail on charges he rejected as spurious.U.S. President Barack Obama nudged China to improve its human rights record, saying the two countries’ relationship “will be that much stronger and China will be that much more prosperous and strong as you see improvements on human rights issues in that country”.