Chinese activist to study in US

Resolving the diplomatic situation solves a problem that threatened to prove embarrassing to the US president, Barack Obama, in an election year.

BEIJING // After a roller-coaster week, it appeared last night that the blind activist Chen Guangcheng would indeed be able to leave China with his family and study in the United States.

US officials said Mr Chen was offered a fellowship to study at an American university and indicated China would let Mr Chen travel abroad with his wife and two children.

Mr Chen has a letter of invitation from New York University, his friend Guo Yushan said in a Twitter message translated and forwarded to reporters by the US State Department. NYU School of Law professor Jerome Cohen, the co-director of the school's US-Asia Law Institute, is a friend and adviser of Mr Chen, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

The outcome appears to resolve a tense diplomatic situation that overshadowed this week's US-China strategic and economic dialogue and which also threatened to prove embarrassing to the US president, Barack Obama, in an election year.

Last night's news was "very positive", said Wang Songlian, a research co-ordinator for the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Defenders. "I think the Chinese government decided to let him go because the US government pressured them hard at a very high level."

Mr Chen, 40, yesterday remained in Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital, where he was taken on Wednesday after spending six days in the US embassy following a daring escape from house arrest last month.

He may leave China relatively soon. Victoria Nuland, a US state department spokeswoman, said the Chinese government was expected to provide Mr Chen with travel documents and that the activist and his family would be given priority when applying for US visas.

Earlier, in the first indication a resolution to Mr Chen's case was in sight, China suggested it might allow him to leave his home country.

"If he wishes to study overseas, as a Chinese citizen, he can, like any other Chinese citizen, process relevant procedures with relevant departments through normal channels in accordance to the law," the foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said, according to China's Xinhua news agency.

At a press conference in Beijing last night at the end of the two-day strategic and economic dialogue, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said the United States had been "encouraged" by the spokesman's comments, adding "progress has been made in helping [Mr Chen] have the future that he wants".

Mr Chen's case had appeared resolved on Wednesday when he left the US embassy after the Chinese authorities agreed he could enrol in a law course at a university in China away from his home province of Shandong.

That would have given the activist breathing space from the local officials who kept him under house arrest for 19 months after he was released from prison following four years' detention. His imprisonment was linked to his campaigns against forced abortions and sterilisations carried out as part of China's one-child policy.

Yet soon after reaching hospital, where he is being treated for broken bones in his foot sustained when he fled his heavily guarded home, Mr Chen had second thoughts about staying in China when he learnt about threats made to his family.

Earlier yesterday, concerned that US diplomats had been unable to visit him in the hospital, he indicated he still felt uneasy. There have also been reports of fellow activists being arrested or attacked by state security officials in recent days.

"I can only tell you one thing. My situation right now is very dangerous," Mr Chen told media.

Had an agreement not been reached over Mr Chen's future, his case could have left Mr Obama open to criticism his administration had not done enough to protect the activist.

Mr Chen has said he wants to travel to the United States for only a limited period, but the human-rights researcher Ms Wang said "he probably won't come back to China in a short period of time".

Chinese dissidents have sometimes faded from view after moving to the United States, and Beijing may hope this happens with Mr Chen, whose victimisation by Shandong authorities has made him an international cause célèbre.

While several Chinese state-run newspapers yesterday ran articles critical of the campaigner, many Chinese citizens have expressed anger online at his treatment.

The online backing he has received has been "a standout case", said Jeremy Goldkorn, a Beijing internet researcher and founder of the Danwei website. Only Ai Weiwei, the artist detained for more than two months last year, and a few other dissidents have been able to attract "such a high level of popular support".