Hong Kong’sMing Pao learnt the thrilling story of Chen Guangcheng’s escape from He Peirong (named “Pearl” on the Internet), the Nanjing teacher who brought Chen to Beijing from Shandong.

She said that she received an unexpected email stating, “The bird has left its cage, what shall we do?” She immediately understood what it meant. At that time, she was in Beijing visiting friends. She replied, “message received, I am now in Beijing.” Along with Guo Yushan, a Beijing scholar, and others, she set off for Shandong and arrived at the suburbs of Linyi City at midnight after driving for 6 hours.

It remains a mystery who sent her the message and why she immediately knew what was hinted in the message. It seems to me that there is a secret network of sympathizers to provide assistance to dissidents.

She said that it took two hours to find…