Chinese 'Terminal' activist to end airport protest

A Chinese human rights activist camped inside Tokyo airport for three months said on Monday he would end his protest within days after Beijing officials had signalled they would let him come home. Feng Zhenghu has been living in limbo at Narita International Airport since November 4 after China repeatedly blocked him from returning home, in a case supporters have likened to Steven Spielberg's movie "The Terminal." "I have decided to return to China before the Chinese New Year (on February 14)," Feng told AFP by telephone. "It seems the Chinese authorities have decided to allow me to return home," he told AFP by telephone.

"Since November, Chinese embassy officials have visited the airport to see me, and we have discussed my status. "I'm happy to see the Chinese authorities understand me," he added. "It's too early to celebrate until I arrive safely in China." Feng, who has since early November declined to leave the airport despite having a valid Japanese visa, said he would visit his sister and friends in Japan for a few days from Wednesday before flying back to China.

The 55-year-old activist has said he has been denied re-entry to communist China eight times since June and was most recently forced to return to Japan by Chinese authorities at Shanghai airport on November 3. Since then he has been in limbo, alerting passing air travellers to his plight with the message "difficulty returning home" written in Chinese characters on a white tank-top draped over his small suitcase. His case mirrors that of the man in Spielberg's 2004 film who is trapped in New York's JFK airport when he is denied entry to the United States but cannot return home because a revolution there has invalidated his passport. London-based human rights group Amnesty International lists Feng as a prominent activist who has been jailed in the past.

Feng said his ordeal started after he had travelled to Japan in April last year for a break after serving 41 days in detention in Shanghai. He has said that Japan is a safe and comfortable country, but that he wanted to exercise his right to return to his home country. "I don't regret my protest here," he said. "I need to protect my rights.

" While at the airport, Feng has communicated with the outside world through his Chinese-language Twitter microblog and by phone, and overseas supporters have sent him food and supplies via a "Tokyo Airlift" campaign. "My mobile phone was very useful," he said. "I have been able to talk to people, send emails and sent my Tweets through Twitter, even as I have been physically stuck in here." He said "Japanese passengers are very kind.

They have provided me with food and other stuff to survive." He joked that, thanks to the help of others, he now has "enough food to stay here for another two months. I'm mainly eating instant noodles. That's my favourite dish here.

" Now that his Narita stay may be nearing its end, he said that as soon as he gets out "I want to take a shower... That's my first desire in Japan.

"And I need the sun. I have seen sunshine only through the windows."