Pressure on blind Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng’s family shows that his flight does not mean China will relax its grip on dissent.

Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng said on Saturday he has left a hospital in Beijing and believes he will be headed on a flight to the US.

Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng will escape Chinese persecution if he leaves for the US but will find life tough life abroad, current exiles say.

Chen Guangcheng — one of China’s best-known human rights icons — was prepared to spend years in the US embassy as he weighed his next move.

China is demanding an apology from the US over the standoff involving activist Chen Guangcheng, who has now left the US embassy in Beijing.

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is now under US protection in Beijing after fleeing from house arrest, a US-based rights group said on Saturday.

Chinese state security forces have arrested one of the country’s most prominent civil rights activists in an apparent crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics. Hu Jia — who…