Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has arrived in Taiwan for an 18-day trip that is likely to anger Beijing.
Blind dissident Chen Guangcheng, who arrived on Sunday, is expected to meet opposition lawmakers and discuss human rights in China.
The self-taught lawyer, who is blind, sparked a diplomatic row last year when he escaped house arrest and sought refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.
Chen Guangcheng was eventually allowed to travel to the US to pursue further studies.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, although the island has been separately governed since 1949.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Chen Guangcheng thanked the Taiwanese public for their concern and support.
Chen Guangcheng has arrived in Taiwan for an 18-day trip that is likely to anger Beijing
“I am impressed by the success of Taiwan’s democracy. Taiwan should be proud of it,” he said, adding that democracy was “an important treasure”.
Chen Guangcheng is scheduled to speak in parliament and meet members of the opposition and human rights groups.
His visit is being hosted by the Association for China Human Rights, which has described it as “a trip for freedom and human rights”.
The group is linked to Taiwan’s political opposition. Chaperoning Chen Guangcheng will be many Taiwan democracy activists and individuals who have criticized China in the past.
According to AP news agency, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou is not scheduled to meet Chen Guangcheng. Ma Ying-jeou has made improving the island’s ties with China one of his key policies.
Chen Guangcheng has been a fellow at New York University (NYU) since mid-2012. He is due to leave the university this month.
The self-taught lawyer, who had campaigned against forced abortions under China’s one-child policy, has linked his departure to “unrelenting pressure” on NYU from Beijing – something NYU roundly denies.
NYU says Chen Guangcheng’s fellowship had always been expected to last a year at most, and that he is in discussions with two other institutions about potential opportunities.
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Cao Haibo, a Chinese internet cafe worker who posted pro-democracy articles online, has been sentenced to eight years in prison, his lawyer says.
A court in the south-western city of Kunming jailed 27-year-old Cao Haibo for “subversion of state power”, said his lawyer, Ma Xiaopeng.
Cao Haibo had set-up web chat groups on social issues, said a US-based rights group.
The case comes shortly before China’s once-a-decade power handover at this month’s Communist Party congress.
In the run-up to the opening of the congress on 8th of November, authorities have clamped down on the work of political activists and dissidents in China, analysts say.
Cao Haibo was detained at his home in Yancheng in October last year after he set up a website and online chat groups advocating democracy and constitutional government, said Human Rights in China.
His trial was held in secret in May because the Kunming Intermediate People’s Court said it involved state secrets, his wife, Zhang Nian, was quoted as saying.
Cao Haibo was detained at his home in Yancheng in October last year after he set up a website and online chat groups advocating democracy and constitutional government
Zhang Nian said the court had presented evidence that her husband had “created an online discussion group, and published articles on foreign websites”.
She added that the trial had not been held in open and told the Associated Press that she was urging him to appeal.
“All he did was express his opinions on the internet. I think it is excessive of the court to give him such a harsh sentence for that,” she said.
Kunming Intermediate Court has so far not commented on the case.
Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is in the US embassy in Beijing following his dramatic escape from house arrest, said activist Hu Jia.
Hu Jia said Chen Guangcheng had scaled a high wall and was driven hundreds of kilometres to Beijing.
Other, unconfirmed, reports say Chen Guangcheng is under “US protection” while talks take place with Chinese officials.
Chen Guangcheng escaped on Sunday, activists say, and has since released a video addressed to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
There are reports that his brother and nephew have now been held by police.
The rights group Human Rights in China quoted a source, who knew about Chen Guangcheng, and said his nephew Chen Kegui was taken away from his home by more than 30 police officers.
Chen Guangcheng’s escape complicates already tricky relations between China and the United States and could overshadow a visit to Beijing next week by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She has repeatedly called for the dissident’s release.
The US state department has refused to comment on the claim that Chen Guangcheng is in its embassy. The US embassy in Beijing has also not commented.
In the latest development, the Texas-based ChinaAid group released a statement on Saturday saying it had “learned from a source close to the Chen Guangcheng situation that Chen is under US protection” in Beijing.
“High-level talks are currently under way between US and Chinese officials regarding Chen’s status,” said the group, which is led by Bob Fu, an American-based human rights campaigner and friend of Chen Guangcheng.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said she was concerned for the wellbeing of Chen Guangcheng and his family, who live in Dongshigu town, Shandong province.
“I’m disturbed to hear reports that other family members, including his brother Chen Guangfu and nephew Chen Kegui, have now been detained,” she said in a statement.
Unconfirmed reports say Chen Guangcheng is under "US protection" while talks take place with Chinese officials
Blogger Yaxue Cao says he spoke to Chen Kegui on Friday at about 01:30 local time, and he has transcribed the interview on his blog Seeing Red in China.
The transcript suggests that at the time of the interview Chen Guangfu had already been detained.
Chen Kegui was awaiting police arrest, having initially resisted an attempt to detain him by unidentified men less than two hours before by slashing at them with kitchen knives.
“Around midnight, about two hours ago, they entered our property by jumping over the enclosed walls, they pried open the locks and kicked on the doors. I heard my mother crying inside, helplessly: <<Please don’t come in! Please don’t come in!>>”
Chen Kegui, who often sobs during the interview, insists: “I did not take knives to go out to kill anyone. I was defending myself in my own home. They attempted to apprehend me without showing any warrant.”
The interview ends with Chen Kegui saying: “I don’t know whether the police are coming. Perhaps they will send a sniper to kill me. They would accuse me of killing. It’s all possible.”
Chen Guangcheng, 40, was placed under house arrest after being released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010. Reports suggest authorities only realized he had escaped on Thursday.
Hu Jia – a friend of Chen Guangcheng and himself a prominent activist and dissident – said he had met him in the last 72 hours, since his escape.
He said Chen Guangcheng had fled to the US embassy in Beijing.
In his video addressed to Prime Minister Wen, delivered from a darkened room, Chen Guangcheng said outwitting his guards had not been easy.
In the appeal, posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, he asks that:
• Prime Minister Wen investigate and prosecute local officials Chen Guangcheng says beat up his family members
• The safety of his family be ensured
• Corruption in general in China be dealt with and punished according to the law
The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathizers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up.
A self-schooled legal activist, Chen Guangcheng is known for revealing rights abuses under China’s one-child policy and has accused officials in Shandong province of forcing 7,000 women into abortions or sterilizations.
He Peirong, another China-based activist who had also campaigned for Chen Guangcheng, has also been detained at her home in Nanjing according to other activists.
The Chen affair comes at an unwelcome time for China’s leaders, who have been embroiled in a lurid political scandal involving disgraced former party boss Bo Xilai.
Chen Guangcheng
• Born 12 November 1971
• Nickname: The Barefoot Lawyer
• Went blind as a child
• Campaigned for women forced to have abortions or sterilization under China’s one child per family policy
• Jailed for four years in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property
• Released from jail in 2010 placed under house arrest
• Daughter barred from school during much of 2011, reports say
• Escapes house arrest, April 2012
