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April 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is traveling to China amid tension over the escape of a blind human rights lawyer now said to be in U.S. hands. NBC’s Ian Williams and Andrea Mitchell have the details.
Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under U.S. protection after an bold escape from 19 months under house arrest, sources told NBC News on Monday, a revelation that looked sure to complicate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s upcoming trip to Beijing.
“My sources tell me that Chen is, indeed, under U.S. protection in Beijing. Now we don’t know whether that means he’s actually within the walls of the American Embassy compound, or in a diplomatic safe house, but he’s definitely in U.S. hands there,” NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell said on the TODAY Show Monday.
The United States has not given any public confirmation of reports that Chen, who reportedly slipped away from under the noses of guards and bristling surveillance equipment around his village home in Shandong province on April 22, fled the U.S. embassy.
Rights group: China, US in talks over blind activist Chen Guangcheng
But the questions surrounding Chen are casting a pall over the upcoming high-level meeting in Beijing, which would have been challenging for Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner even without a human rights dispute.
“There are very delicate negotiations under way … in advance of Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s annual talks this week,” Mitchell said.
The May 3-4 Strategic Economic Dialogue is the last of such annual consultations before political seasons heat up in the United States and China, giving leaders in both countries less flexibility over contentious economic and security issues.
The United States goes into full campaign mode for the November presidential election, while China’s ruling Communist Party enters a leadership transition in the fall that has been complicated by a scandal that toppled senior leader Bo Xilai.
Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng escapes from house arrest
Bob Fu, whose religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid who has been the chief source of information about Chen, said he had confirmed “intensive talks” between the United States and China began right after the activist took shelter in the embassy.
“I was told the Chinese top leaders have been deliberating a decision to be made very soon,” Fu said on Sunday by telephone from Texas. A “Chinese official response (is) expected in the next day or so,” he added.
China has also declined direct public comment on Chen’s reported escape.
NBC News, msnbc.com and Reuters contributed to this report.
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- Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng escapes from house arrest
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