Political critic flees Chinese police

[dArKeR]

AFP AND AP , BEIJING AND SHANGHAI
Saturday, Mar 20, 2004,Page 6

A leading Chinese social critic and political activist has fled China amid widespread concerns that he could be arrested and tried for subversion, a rights group and his Beijing-based office said yesterday.

Cao Siyuan (???), a key proponent of constitutional and political reform, left China recently despite a heavy police presence that has monitored his home and office 24 hours a day, officials at his office said.

"Since the meeting , a lot of police have been monitoring our movements from outside our office," an official at the Beijing Siyuan Merger and Bankruptcy Consultancy Company said.

"Cao Siyuan left in recent days for an overseas academic tour, we are not sure when he will be back, this is a sensitive issue," he said.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/03/20/2003107062