Chinese dissident wants to leave China for US

Fearing a threat to his life, blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has appealed to United States lawmakers to ensure that he would be allowed to leave his homeland for America.

The 40-year-old self-taught lawyer said he was worried about his relatives in his hometown in the eastern province of Shandong, which he fled last month.

"They have installed seven surveillance cameras in my house," he said, adding, "In addition to have the guards stay in my place, they are building an electric fence around my house."

"I want them to keep their commitment by allowing me to travel abroad to recuperate," Chen said. "I want to go to the United States and rest for a while, since I haven't had a Sunday in seven years," Chen told US lawmakers over phone from his hospital bed in Beijing.

He also requested them to arrange a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is currently in China.

"I want to meet with Secretary Clinton. I hope I can get more help from her. I also want to thank her face to face," Chen told lawmakers through a translation done by Pastor Bob Fu, founder president of ChinaAid Association, who was a witness at a hearing of Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

"So the thing I'm most concerned right now is the safety also of my mother, my brothers, and I really want to know what's going on with them," Chen said.

"We are in danger. If you can talk to Hillary, I hope she can help my whole family leave China," Chen had told CNN.

The call from Chen to the hearing came after the Commission Chairman Chris Smith complained that the Obama administration failed to get him in touch with Chen via phone earlier in the week.

"Having been handed over to the Chinese officials by American diplomats yesterday, Chen, his wife Yuan and the rest of his family and friends appeared to be in significant danger," Smith said.

"Notwithstanding vague and potentially empty safety assurances from the Chinese side, Chen has, since leaving the American Embassy in Beijing, expressed an earnest desire to gain asylum for himself and for his family. Questions indeed arise as to whether or not Chen was pressured to leave the US compound," he said in his remarks at the hearing.

Next week Smith plans to convene another hearing of this commission on Chen in order to take testimony from the Obama administration witnesses and to get some answers, the Congressman said.

Smith said the story of Chen has been extraordinary and inspirational from the beginning.

Blinded by childhood illness, Chen pushed past profound barriers to school himself in Chinese law and became an advocate for the rights of the vulnerable, including disabled persons and rural farmers.

"Years later, when local villagers told him of their stories of forced abortions and forced sterilisations, Chen and his wife Yuan Weijing documented these stories, later building briefs for a class- action lawsuit against the officials involved.

Their efforts gained international news media attention in 2005, and their challenge to China's draconian population control policies spurred harsh and extended official retaliation, including torture," he said.

Smith alleged China sometimes paints a false picture for gullible foreigners that the policy is somehow being eased or mitigated.

"But the few exceptions they permit do not fundamentally modify its rough, harsh, brutal and ugly character, and Chen Guangcheng and his wife knew it, and they faced huge, huge retaliation for speaking out against it," he said.