China releases scholar ahead of its leader’s visit to US

The White House does not expect that planned sanctions on Chinese individuals and businesses in response to recent cyberattacks will interfere with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States next week.

Chinese authorities on Tuesday released on bail a prominent activist and academic who helped blind dissident Chen Guangcheng flee to the USA embassy three years ago after he had spent 11 months in detention, the scholar’s wife said.

But William Nee, Amnesty International’s China researcher, said Mr. Guo’s release should not distract the White House from a string of troubling abuses by the Chinese government, including a campaign against Christian churches in coastal Zhejiang Province that has led to the removal of hundreds of crosses from church buildings.

“It is not convenient for me to speak to friends from the media”, she told the agency.

Guo Yushan, a 38-year-old economist and social campaigner, was detained last October as thousands of pro-democracy protesters flocked on to the streets of Hong Kong and security forces in mainland China rounded up dozens of suspected sympathisers. “His mental state is pretty good”.

Rights groups are also urging Obama to make human rights a priority during Xi’s visit.

Mr Xi’s visit comes after President Barack Obama’s trip to China in November a year ago.

“The United States continues to review China’s revised negative list and assess next steps in the negotiations”, the USTR spokeswoman said in an emailed statement late on Monday.

The United States severed formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 but is obligated by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and arms sales always deeply anger China.

“We’ve made very clear to the Chinese that there are certain practices that they’re engaging in that we know are emanating from China and are not acceptable”, Obama said last Friday at Fort Meade.

New and forthcoming legislation means that nongovernmental groups will likely also see their funding curtailed, while peaceful criticism of the government will be framed as a threat to state security, it said. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.