Hillary Clinton: Chen affair showed level of US-China trust Chen, a self-taught lawyer subjected to years of jail and house arrest for exposing abuses in China's one-child policy, escaped from house arrest at his home in eastern Shandong in April and turned up at the US embassy in Beijing. We stood our ground and said 'Look, this is who we are as Americans. We have a chance to make this better than it would be otherwise. Let's work together,' which we had to do not once but twice. Chinese and American diplomats scrambled to find a solution after Chen sought refuge at the US embassy. Once he left the diplomatic mission, he regretted his decision and said he wanted to go to the United States. After being holed up for more than two weeks at a Beijing hospital with his fate still uncertain, Chen was suddenly given notice to pack up his belongings and prepare for departure to New York, arriving in the city on May 19. Clinton told the event that "the fact that we had this strategic dialogue. that I was on my way there ... had everybody invested in trying to work through whatever the difficulties were. "In the end I think it showed a level of confidence and trust in the good faith of each side that enabled us to work through," she added.