A conciliatory move by Beijing yesterday to defuse the diplomatic storm over the fate of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng came just hours after he expressed concerns about his safety in a phone call to a US congressional hearing and asked to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Analysts said a foreign ministry statement saying that Chen could apply to study abroad showed, for the first time, Beijing's willingness to allow the human rights crusader to leave the country.
US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said last night that China agreed to process Chen's travel document application 'expeditiously'.
They said such unusual flexibility appeared to be the face-saving result of intense diplomatic manoeuvring between Washington and Beijing on the sidelines of this week's annual strategic and economic dialogue to limit the damaging fallout from Chen's case. The two days of talks ended in the capital yesterday.
Chen was still confined in the tightly guarded Chaoyang hospital yesterday. 'I can only tell you one thing. My situation right now is very dangerous,' Chen told Associated Press in the morning.
Chen's reaction to Beijing's statement is not known. It added a new twist to a saga that has grabbed international media attention since his astonishing escape from house arrest in Shandong nearly two weeks ago and his mysterious flight to the US embassy in Beijing last week.