Chen Guangcheng escape overshadows US diplomat's China visit - The Guardian

Kurt Campbell, front, arrives at a hotel in Beijing. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP

A senior US diplomat has arrived in Beijing amid political aftershocks following the escape from house arrest of a blind Chinese civil rights activist who is believed to have sought sanctuary in the US embassy.

Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state, arrived in the capital as Chinese police moved to detain activists and relatives suspected of being involved in the dramatic bid for freedom last week by Chen Guangcheng.

After more than six years of jail and house arrest, Chen climbed over the wall of his home last Sunday night and evaded checkpoints and dozens of guards, before meeting a supporter who drove him to Beijing. According to friends and overseas human rights groups, he is now under US diplomatic protection.

Texas-based ChinaAid said on Saturday that "high level talks are currently under way between US and Chinese officials regarding Chen's status".

But neither government has yet spoken publicly about the issue, which could hardly have come at a more politically sensitive moment for the world's two biggest economies. Campbell was originally expected to visit China later this week. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, are due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday night for two days of strategic dialogue.

If Chen is confirmed to be in the embassy, negotiations about his future could overshadow efforts to improve the bilateral relationship. Friends say Chen does not want to leave China, but he will not put himself into the hands of the authorities unless there are guarantees for the safety and liberty of himself, his family and associates.

Diplomatic sources described the situation as messy, with the potential to affect US-China relations for several months. With the US presidential election looming, the White House will not want to hand over a high-profile civil rights campaigner who exposed illegally enforced abortions by officials.

The Chinese government is months away from a transition of power and still struggling to overcome a scandal sparked by the death of the British businessman Neil Heywood that brought down the municipal party leader Bo Xilai.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan, of Hong Kong University, said that if Chen was at the embassy, the two governments would probably try to downplay the issue, at least until the end of this week's bilateral talks.

"Then the Obama administration will try to find a solution that may not be asylum, but an assurance from Beijing that they will stop harrassing Chen; but if that does not work, asylum will eventually be granted," he said.

Nicholas Bequelin, of Human Rights Watch, said it was unlikely the Chinese government would accept Chen's demands for an investigation into his case. In the interim, he said, Washington should offer to take Chen and his family to the US for "medical reasons".

"If Beijing is not ready for that either, they should be ready to shelter Chen for a longer time, until a solution is negotiated," Bequelin said.

Human rights groups emphasise that negotiations should also focus on the plight of Chen's family and supporters. Several were targeted by police at the weekend. He Peirong, who drove Chen to Beijing, was detained on Friday.

Another alleged collaborator, Guo Yushan, not been heard of since Saturday and is thought to have been taken away by police. The activist Hu Jia, who was photographed with Chen after his escape, was held and questioned for more than a day. The whereabouts of Chen's wife and daughter remain unknown. His nephew Chen Kegui has been arrested for allegedly fighting local officials, activists said.

In a separate case, a Chinese writer who fled the country last year alleged that officials had detained a friend for seven months in the mistaken belief that he funded the escape. Liao Yiwu, now living in Germany, urged writers and campaigners to call for Li Bifeng's release.

Liao said a court was likely to consider Li's case on 8 May, although prosecutors had twice rejected attempts to charge him with economic crimes. "The pretext provided this time was too far-fetched even for the Communist party," he wrote.

"I recently learned from several channels that the police arrested Li Bifeng because of me. The police suspect [he] financed my escape – this is a groundless lie." Liao slipped across the border into Vietnam last July after authorities had denied him permission to leave China 17 times.

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Rupert Murdoch reveals meetings with Michael Gove over free schools - The Guardian

Rupert Murdoch revealed at the Leveson inquiry that Michael Gove met with News Corporation and News International executives over establishing a free school. Photograph: Rex Features

News International expressed an interest in applying to set up a free school, after plans to establish an academy in east London fell through, according to Rupert Murdoch's witness statement to the Leveson inquiry.

The statement, published online on Wednesday, also reveals details of several meetings Murdoch and other News International and News Corporation executives had with Michael Gove, the education secretary and former Times journalist, to discuss this project and other education issues.

Murdoch disclosed that in May last year. a representative of News International exchanged emails with two members of staff at the Department for Education, asking about whether the Sun and Times publisher might apply to set up a free school and what the deadline would be. Previously, the company had expressed an interest in helping to finance an academy school.

Free schools were a key part of the 2010 Conservative election manifesto, allowing parents, teachers and charities to set up their own "big society" schools. The first 24 opened last September.

According to the statement, Murdoch said: "I understand that the [free school] idea was not progressed any further. I believe that we had planned to discuss Nl's interest in supporting a school with Mr Gove at a breakfast meeting in May 2011 but do not recall if we reached that topic."

James Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, then News International chairman and chief executive, respectively, and James Harding, editor of The Times, were also at this breakfast meeting last May. The statement says the meeting was "devoted to education reform".

The relevant email exchanges between the department and NI have not been published.

In the statement, Murdoch praises Gove's "distinguished record" as a senior Times journalist and said that their recent interactions had focused on education reform.

He reveals that Gove and former Labour schools minister Lord Adonis attended his home for dinner last January with Joel Klein, the lawyer who ran New York's public schools system before joining News Corp.

Gove also had dinner at Murdoch's house in June last year, along with Klein, where there were discussions "on multiple subjects, including education," the statement says. A list of all the contacts between Murdoch and Gove has been published by the government.

Giving more detail of NI's interest in a school in England, Murdoch said that the company "showed an interest in supporting the running costs" of a new academy in Newham, east London.

The statement said that NI representatives attended various meetings with the London Development Agency, with local authorities, and with the DfE, in July, October and November 2010. A visit to the potential site of the academy, attended by Boris Johnson and Gove, took place on 30 November 2010.

Murdoch's statement says: "Nl's objective was to create a lasting legacy in east London, through an academy school with a focus on media and technology. The project also required government funding; lack of government funding was the reason the project fell through in January 2011."

The statement says that the topic may have been raised when Murdoch had dinner with Gove in January 2011.

In his statement, Murdoch reiterated his view that today's classroom is "the last holdout from the digital revolution".

He said: "The future belongs to those nations that best develop their human capital. I fear that the United States and the United Kingdom are lagging behind in this effort."

Klein, a former White House counsel to president Bill Clinton, was hired to lead an education division that would "help to spark technological change", according to the statement. The new division's first action was to acquire Wireless Generation, an educational technology firm. Klein addressed a conference on free schools during his visit to the UK in January 2011.

The focus of the classroom technology business has been exclusively in the US, the statement says. "Accordingly, to date there has been no exploration or development of such interests in the UK."

The DfE said that three contacts between NI and Gove in 2010 were "arranged by the department and related to the official business of the department". These were a dinner with Murdoch, Brooks and Gove on 17 June 2010, a discussion betwen Klein, Gove and others in September the same year and the academy site visit in November.

In response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, the department said: "Due to the nature of these meetings (two meals and one site visit), we did not produce a formal record of the meetings, and following a search of the department's paper and email records, I can confirm that the department does not hold records of any notes produced during or after the meetings."

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