Reuters: US Dollar Report: UPDATE 1-US says never spoke to Chen about any threats to his family

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UPDATE 1-US says never spoke to Chen about any threats to his family May 2nd 2012, 17:58 Wed May 2, 2012 1:58pm EDT WASHINGTON May 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department sought on Wednesday to counter reports that Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng may have left the U.S. embassy in Beijing because of physical or legal threats to his family, saying that it never discussed any such threats with him. "At no time did any U.S. official speak to Chen about physical or legal threats to his wife and children. Nor did Chinese officials make any such threats to us," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in an emailed statement. "U.S. interlocutors did make clear that if Chen elected to stay in the Embassy, Chinese officials had indicated to us that his family would be returned to Shandong, and they would lose their opportunity to negotiate for reunification," she added. In a report from Beijing, the Associated Press cited Chen as saying that a U.S. official had told him that Chinese authorities threatened to beat his wife to death if he did not leave the American Embassy. ChinaAid, a U.S.-based rights advocacy group that has been the main source of information about Chen, also said the blind dissident made the decision reluctantly because of a "serious threat to his immediate family members" by China's government. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said there were three choices when Chen came to the embassy: seeking a U.S. visa and subsequently applying for asylum, negotiating through the United States to stay in China or staying at the U.S. mission in Beijing indefinitely. "At no point during his time in the Embassy did Chen ever request political asylum in the U.S. At every opportunity, he expressed his desire to stay in China, reunify with his family, continue his education and work for reform in his country," Nuland said in her statement. "All our diplomacy was directed at putting him in the best possible position to achieve his objectives," she added. Chinese rights activists disputed U.S. accounts that Chen had told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is in China for high-level talks, that he wanted to "kiss" her. The U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said three U.S. officials were in the car when Chen spoke to Clinton and they heard him say "kiss" in English. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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