Blind Chinese activist in '100% safe location': supporter

BEIJING - Agence France-Presse

This picture taken on March 28, 2005 shows blind activist Chen Guangcheng outside a house in Dondshigu village, in northeast China's Shandong province. AFP photo

Chen Guangcheng is in a "100 percent safe" location in Beijing, a supporter said Friday, amid speculation the blind Chinese lawyer had sought refuge at the US embassy after escaping from house arrest.
 
Chen fled his closely guarded home in the eastern province of Shandong last Sunday, escaping from under the noses of dozens of plain-clothes security officers with the help of his supporters.
 
His exact whereabouts are unknown, but Bob Fu, a US-based activist in close contact with Chen, told AFP the lawyer was "now in a 100 percent safe location in Beijing".
 
No one at the US embassy in Beijing returned calls for comment on whether Chen, who won worldwide acclaim for his campaigning on forced sterilisations and late-term abortions under China's "one-child" policy, had sought refuge there.
 
He has been under house arrest along with his wife and young son since he was released from a four-year jail sentence in September 2010.
 
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has repeatedly called for Chen to be released from his house arrest, is due in China on Wednesday for the annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing.