China lawyer?s wife seeks US asylum after escape
 

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BEIJING: Chen Guiqiu fled China on foot with her two daughters, only to end up in a Thai prison until US officials helped them sneak out dramatically through a back door.

**w Chen is safe in Texas with her daughters, hoping to obtain US asylum after her extraordinary caper across the world.

But her husband, prominent human rights lawyer Xie Yang, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to inciting subversion during a one-day trial in central China this week.

While US President Donald Trump has been accused of glossing over human rights abuses in certain countries, Chen’s account shows US officials went to great lengths to help her escape China’s clutches.

Chen had been a vocal defender of her husband, whose case drew international concern after he accused the police of torturing him.

She said that because of her activism authorities interrogated her repeatedly, harassed her family members and threatened to evict her and get her fired from her job as professor of environmental engineering at Hunan University.

She and her daughters, who are aged four and 15, first tried to take a train to Hong Kong from southern Guangdong province earlier this year.

"That’s when I realised we were on a travel blacklist. At the train station, they prevented us from boarding then separated me from my older daughter and detained her somewhere I couldn’t see. My heart hurt, **t k**wing what she was feeling," Chen told AFP.

They left their home in central China again in mid-February with only bare essentials in their backpacks.

They spent four days walking long distances to evade border guards.

On their way to Thailand, supporters escorted them on different legs of the journey, travelling by foot and car, until they arrived in a safe house in Bangkok.

But Thai officials took them to an immigration court, which ordered them to leave the country.

Chen was **t worried because they had permits to travel to the US. But while they were in the immigration detention centre, Chinese agents showed up to take them away, Chen said.

"I was in shock and my daughters were terrified. Inside the immigration prison, my phone was taken away and I was **t expecting any rescue... I really can’t thank the Americans e**ugh," she said. The US diplomats convinced Thai officials to let the family leave the facility.

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