Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist who was believed to have been sheltering in the US embassy in Beijing, has left the embassy to seek medical care and join his family, a US official has said.
A senior US official said on Wednesday that "Chen Guangcheng has arrived at a medical facility in Beijing where he will receive medical treatment and be reunited with his family".
The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chen did not ask for asylum and is staying in China after receiving assurances that he will be treated as a normal citizen.
The official said that the activist was brought into the US Embassy because he was in need of medical care and that Chinese authorities promised Chen will be relocated to a safe environment where he can study at a university.
Chen, a legal activist, had angered Chinese authorities by exposing forced abortions and sterilisations under the "one-child" policy.
Beijing has demanded that the US apologise for sheltering Cheng in its embassy, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Liu Weimin, foreign ministry spokesman, said: "China is very unhappy over this. The US action is an interference in China's internal affairs and China cannot accept it."
"Chen Guangcheng, a native from Yinan County of eastern China's Shandong Province, entered the US Embassy in Beijing in late April and left of his own volition after a six-day stay in the embassy," he said.
Both the countries have broken their silence over the issue after avoiding public comment in recent days.
The development comes as Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has arrived in China (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/05/20125204742735756.html) on an official visit.
President Barack Obama on Monday dodged the issue at (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/04/201243013749589577.html) a Washington news conference, declining to confirm that he was under US protection in China or that American diplomats were attempting to negotiate an agreement for him to receive asylum.
"Obviously, I'm aware of the press reports on the situation in China, but I'm not going to make a statement on the issue," the president said. "Every time we meet with China the issue of human rights comes up."
Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said: "She [Clinton] has said very little about Chen. The US administration in general has said very little about it, and not even confirming whether the Chinese activist was in US hands in Beijing."
"What we do know that a very senior state department official, US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell, incharge of East Asian affairs, has been engaged in talks since Saturday," he said.
Al Jazeera