pelley: good evening. just when the obama administration was expecting progress in relations with china there s a new crisis. one of china s leading human rights dissidents escaped from house arrest and is believed to be with american diplomats in beijing. the timing is incredible. tonight the secretary of state and treasury secretary are leading a delegation of 200 americans on a long-planned trip to china to iron out foreign policy and economic issues. china is our second largest trading partner behind canada. now the relationship is facing a dilemma: stand up for human rights or make progress on other issues that affect millions. we have reports from both capitals tonight, first, celia hatton in beijing. no one has heard from chen guangcheng s wife and six-year- old daughter since the blind human rights activist made a daring nighttime escape from house arrest last week. chen s said to be under u.s. protection in beijing, but his wife and daughter stayed behind in thei
exposing a program of forced abortions to conform to china s strict one-child policy. for the past 19 months, chen was a prisoner in his own home. guards surrounded the property, you could see them here captured on video smuggled to the outside world last year. chen said he and his wife were beaten regularly by police. for a time their daughter was prevented from going to school. journalists like this german crew never got past the security. but last sunday chen managed what seemed to be impossible. according to an activist who helped plan the escape, chen waited until the shift change of the guards when he wouldn t be watched, climbed the wall surrounding his home, it took him 20 hours to reach a rendezvous point. finally he met he pierong, a friend and activist who was waiting for him. he drove him more than 300 miles to beijing. at a safe house chen recorded a video where he begged chinese authorities not to hurt his family. he said he feared insane retribution at the hand
it s true or not. : captioning sponsored by cbs this is the cbs evening news with scott pelley. pelley: good evening. just when the obama administration was expecting progress in relations with china there s a new crisis. one of china s leading human rights dissidents escaped from house arrest and is believed to be with american diplomats in beijing. the timing is incredible. tonight the secretary of state and treasury secretary are leading a delegation of 200 americans on a long-planned trip to china to iron out foreign policy and economic issues. china is our second largest trading partner behind canada. now the separation is facing a dilemma: stand up for human rights or make progress on other issues that affect millions. we have reports from both capitals tonight, first, celia hatton in beijing. no one has heard from chen guangcheng s wife and six-year-old daughter since the blind human rights activists made a daring nighttime escape from house arrest last week. che