Activist says China will probe abuses

BEIJING -- Rights advocate Chen Guangcheng says the Chinese government has quietly promised him it will investigate abuses he and his family suffered at the hands of local authorities, in a rare instance of Beijing bowing to an activist's demands.

Beijing's apparent willingness to look into the blind legal activist's complaints is another sign that his gambit late last month -- when he fled house arrest in his hometown for the U.S. Embassy and set off a diplomatic tussle -- has succeeded in getting high officials to address his concerns.

Chen said an official from a central government bureau that handles citizens' complaints has visited him in his Beijing hospital four times, including to take a statement last Thursday.

"After he took my statement, he said they would launch an investigation as long as there are facts, and that if there are facts about the illegal actions, then the issue definitely would be openly addressed," Chen told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

Chen said it remained to be seen how seriously Beijing would probe abuses by township and county officials, which date to 2005 after Chen angered local authorities by documenting forced late-term abortions and sterilizations in his rural community.

"Will the investigation be thorough? That's hard to say, so we'll have to keep monitoring," Chen said.

The State Bureau of Letters and Calls, as the complaints office is known, did not respond to attempts to seek comment.

But even a preliminary investigation shows the extraordinary attention Chen's case is getting. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Chinese are believed to present petitions every year and only a fraction result in action.

Chen served four years in prison on what were said to be fabricated charges and was then kept under house arrest with his wife, daughter and mother. He has described how besides assaulting him, officials would beat up the women, at one point chasing his wife on the road, pulling her from a vehicle and hitting her. His daughter was also subject to searches and harassment.