'Serious mistake' to let Chen Guangcheng leave US embassy

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Washington made a "serious mistake" in allowing blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng to leave its embassy, said a leading Chinese dissident, said on Thursday that Beijing will never allow the man out of the country.

"At present, the situation has become a lot more difficult," said prominent exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng, said.

"Chen Guangcheng is no longer under the protection of the US government and there is no chance that the Chinese government will allow him to leave," said Wei, speaking in Mandarin.

Wei, who himself arrived in the United States in 1997 after spending nearly two decades in prison in China, said Beijing would never accept the "precedent" set by Chen's diplomatically thorny case.

"It would mean that it would accept that any dissident could go into exile by knocking at the door of an embassy and it would amount to accepting US interference in Chinese affairs," he said.

"I think that the US government made a serious mistake in allowing Chen Guangcheng to leave the embassy," Wei continued.

"They should not have been so quick to trust the Chinese government and should have gotten concrete guarantees in writing," he said.

By not doing so, he added: "They have put Mr Chen in danger."

Wei, 61, is considered the father of the modern dissident movement in China for his protests during the 1979 democracy movement. Beijing officials cited health reasons for their decision to allow him to leave China for the United States in 1997.

The United States on today was in talks with Chen about his future, after the blind activist expressed fears for his safety and pleaded to be taken abroad. The crusading lawyer escaped from house arrest in eastern China on April 22 and made his way to the US embassy in Beijing, where he spent six days before leaving yesterday.