In Crisis Over Dissident, U.S. Sends Official to Beijing

Source: New York Times

The Obama administration scrambled on Sunday to contain a growing diplomatic crisis between the United States and China, sending a senior diplomat to Beijing to discuss the fate of a blind dissident who fled house arrest last week.

Amid intense secrecy, including a nearly blanket refusal to comment, the administration sought to negotiate over the safety of the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, who is said to be in American hands in Beijing — though it remained unclear late Sunday whether he was in the embassy, in a diplomatic residence or somewhere else.

The senior diplomat, Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, arrived Sunday to meet with Chinese officials concerning Mr. Chen’s case, and to try to keep the matter from undermining the administration’s longstanding effort to improve economic and security relations with China, senior officials and diplomats in Washington and Beijing said.

A senior American official said that China’s leadership met Sunday to work out their response to Mr. Chen’s escape before scheduled meetings this week with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to leave Washington for China on Monday night, assuming the trip proceeds.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/world/asia/us-official-in-beijing-to-discuss-chen-guangcheng.html?pagewanted=all