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Wife of Chinese dissident claims confined during Clinton visit

  • Story Highlights
  • Beijing meetings climax of Clinton's Asian tour, first foreign visit as Secretary of State
  • Wife of dissident alleges she is not allowed to leave home during Clinton visit
  • Activist groups concerned Clinton has not made human rights a top priority
  • Clinton: We will raise rights but it cannot interfere with certain global crises
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From Jill Dougherty and Xiaoni Chen
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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- The wife of an imprisoned AIDS activist in China told CNN that Chinese police Saturday confined her to her home during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Beijing.

"I can't leave home at all, even to buy baby supplies. I have to rely on my relatives," Zeng Jinyan told CNN on Saturday by phone.

Zeng, who is married to jailed AIDS activist Hu Jia, said she does not know when she will be allowed to leave home and there are rumors that other dissidents were not being allowed to leave their residences.

Activist groups voiced concerns that Clinton has not made human rights a top priority during her visit to Beijing.

Clinton said publicly that the United States will continue to raise the issue with the Chinese government.

However, human rights "can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate crisis and the security crises," Clinton said.

Clinton said she plans to attend church Sunday in Beijing.

The church will not be an underground church but a state-approved church, Clinton said. Attending an underground church, she said, could jeopardize the Chinese citizens who attend it.

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China says Christians are free to worship in China as long as they worship in churches registered with the government.

Some Chinese Christians worship secretly in underground churches or at illegal "house churches."

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