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Tight security for hospital visit and family reunion

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Shi Jiangtaoin Hong KongandZhuang Pinghuiin Beijing

When Xinhua announced at about 3.30pm yesterday that Chen Guangcheng had left the US embassy 'of his own volition' after a six-day stay, the blind legal activist was already on his way to a hospital near the embassy for medical treatment and a reunion with his family.

Accompanied by senior American diplomats, including US Ambassador Gary Locke, Chen was taken to the tightly guarded VIP clinic of Chaoyang Hospital in the eastern part of the capital.

In an apparent part of a hastily arranged accord between Beijing and Washington on the eve of high-level bilateral talks, his wife Yuan Weijing and two children were waiting for him.

Shortly before the reunion, Yuan told The Guardian: 'I'm OK. We don't know yet [what's wrong with him]. He's having a check-up.'

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Yuan and the children - a 10-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl - were escorted to Beijing via a high-speed train from their hometown in Shandong province yesterday morning.

US State Department officials who were involved in negotiations with Beijing on Chen's arrangement said later during a background briefing that Chen suffered a foot injury when he fell over a wall during his escape from his countryside home in Shandong, and was walking with a crutch.

Several overseas reporters said they saw Chen briefly at the hospital as he was being pushed in a wheelchair while surrounded by medical personnel, one of whom was filming with a video camera.

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