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Subscribe to RSSIf negotiations are successful, Chen Guangcheng's family will come to the U.S. on a student visa where he would study at NYU. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
Updated 08:31 a.m. ET: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "progress had been made" on a deal over the future of Chen Guangcheng, telling reporters in Beijing she was encouraged by China's suggestions that the blind activist might be allowed to study abroad.
After she spoke, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told Reuters that Chen had been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he could be accompanied by his wife and two children.
"The Chinese Government has indicated that it will accept Mr. Chen's applications for appropriate travel documents. The United States government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these documents, and make accommodations for his current medical condition," she added.
"The United States government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention," Nuland said.
AFP - Getty Images
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner left, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, right, at a closing ceremony of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing Friday.
Clinton said efforts would continue to finalize an agreement over Chen's future, adding that the U.S. ambassador had visited the dissident in hospital.
"We have been very clear and committed to honoring his choices and our values," Clinton said of Chen.
Signs of a deal will provide relief to both the Obama administration -- which feared the case would overshadow the ongoing economic talks, Clinton's main purpose in China -- and the Chinese, who were reportedly keen to resolve the issue while saving face.
Earlier, Chen told The Associated Press that friends who had tried to visit him “have been beaten,” his wife Yuan Weijing had been followed and U.S. officials had been prevented from seeing him in person.
Carlos Barria, Reuters
A doctor from the U.S. embassy arrives Friday at the Chaoyang Hospital, where blind activist Chen Guangcheng is staying.
He added that he had spoken to U.S. officials by phone, but “the calls keep getting cut off after two sentences.”
“Basically I am very worried. Okay? … It is very dangerous here,” Chen told the AP, before the line went dead.
Chen, 40, is a legal activist from Shandong province who campaigned against forced abortions under China's "one-child" policy.
On April 22, he escaped 19 months of house arrest, during which he and his family faced beatings and threats. Supporters then said he was in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which he left after six days to go to the hospital on Tuesday this week after receiving assurances from the Chinese authorities.
Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends
He Peirong, an activist who helped Chen escape from house arrest and drove him to Beijing was released by police Friday. She was taken away by police last Saturday. She tweeted at about 3 a.m. ST that "I'm back, everything is ok, thank you.” She declined to comment to NBC News.
Blind activist Chen Guangcheng: 'I want to leave China on Hillary Clinton's plane'
Lawyer Jiang Tianyong, another of Chen’s friends, was arrested by police Thursday evening and told NBC News Friday afternoon that he had been beaten up. He lost his hearing temporarily and is undergoing a medical check-up now, accompanied by police.
Amid the continuing concern over what will happen to Chen and his supporters, Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Wen in the pavilion, a ceremonial reception hall in the style of a Chinese pagoda, nestled by pine trees and a lake in the middle of Beijing.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to speak out about Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident who is seeking to travel to the United States. NBC's Ian Williams reports.
"This round of the dialogue is highly productive. I can say we achieved rich fruit in this round and some of those are important breakthroughs,” Wen said, according to a translator.
"What is the secret behind the sustained and the steady growth of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue [formal name for talks between the two countries]? I believe the most important thing is that we respect each other and treat each other as equals and have accommodated each other's major concerns,” he added.
China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama
Clinton's prepared remarks for the meeting did not specifically mention Chen, but did say that the responsibilities of a "great nation" included "protecting the fundamental freedoms of all citizens at home."
"All governments have the responsibility of addressing their citizens' aspirations for dignity and rule of law. These are not Western values -- they are universal rights that apply to all people in all places," she said.
Blind activist: Chinese officials threatened my wife
CNBC's John Harwood reports the latest developments in the case of Chinese dissident, Chen Guangcheng's dramatic plea for help in a cell phone call to Congress.
She also talked about North Korea, Iran, Syria, and the Sudan-South Sudan conflict, describing them as "four hotspots" that "are some of the most pressing challenges we face."
Guo Yushan – who was released by police two days ago after helping Chen get to Beijing -- said in a posting on Twitter that on Chen’s first day in the hospital “some unpleasant things happened, bringing some inconvenience and misery to him and his family, making them feel anxious and nervous.”
Blind dissident's case a 'hot potato' for US-China relations
“Among all these things, he worried most about the threat from some Shandong officials to his wife Yuan Weijing,” Guo said, according to a translation. “He hopes that, under massive attention from global public opinion, the Chinese government can abide by the law and deal properly with Shandong local officials' illegal persecution on him and his family.”
Guo said that his friend was “very grateful to the world media's attention and care, and hopes that the media can understand his current complex and delicate situation, and completely understand and respond to his expression and the corresponding emotions.”
University of California, Irvine, economics professor Peter Navarro and Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing discuss the latest wrinkle in US-China relations after Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng asked for asylum in America.
“He did not want to make all his friends who helped him, and are helping him, feel embarrassed and have misunderstandings, for example, the U.S. Embassy's help in the past, he never criticized it, on the contrary, he is only grateful for it. Thank you everyone,” Guo said.
Guo declined to comment to NBC News.
Gu Bo, of NBC News, other NBC News staff, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
If we are going to do it for ONE - we MUST do it for all:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/03/attorney-for-christian-pastor-on-death-row-in-iran-reportedly-sentenced-to/
This guy's no fool. He will be showered with goods and money by well-meaning and sympathetic Americans. He'll make millions in speaker's fees. He, his wife, and his chldren will never have to do an honest day's work in their lives. They will become part of the 1%. Way to game the system, Chenny!
Hmm, So the Federal Govt has given more attention to ONE Chinese activist in ONE week then they have given to the thousands AMERICAN Activist continually protesting everyday in this Country. It just shows us that American People is our Governments last priority.
Actually... They do care about us
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57428067-83/fbi-we-need-wiretap-ready-web-sites-now/?tag=mncol;topStories
...if they didn't love us, they wouldn't want to spy on us would they? The two governments.. Are maybe not that different anymore,,,
Chen is coming to America and Willard (Mitt) has egg (quail, of course) all over his face. Once again, Romney demonstrates he's in way over his head regarding diplomacy and a host of other skills one needs to be president.
This whole event is suspect. It happened in time to create a problem with the US-China meeting, and Chen had immediate access to Congress via phone. The escape was well planned and executed and Chen had easy access to the Embassy. Apparently, Chen had little restriction on use of a cell phone. We need to investigate if the event was staged to impact the election. I think that the current administration had handled the event reasonably well consider how it was blind-sighted and how the political posturing began immediately. Until this election, politics stopped at the border.
Another Leach to live off of the American Taxpayers!
Let this Lawyer leach live off the Clintons, They are worth some 200 MILLION by now. All on the FEDERAL DOLE
I too find this whole thing suspicious... But I don't think it was so much about American politics, as it was about internal Chinese stuff. Who knows what's really going on, but I will say that I no longer find Chen to be a particularly sympathetic character any more.
USA should help its citizen illegally blocked in China for 4 years come home!!!
USA should help its citizen illegally blocked in China for 4 years come home!!!
/www.change.org/petitions/help-my-father-dr-zhicheng-hu-come-home
MORE TO MY CONSIPRACY THEORY: Please take the time, read
below and tell me if you think that this current event is a “coincidence” or a
set-up to embarrass the administration and in particular Secretary. Clinton…..
This Chen guy is very well connected to the US Evangelical and Anti-Abortion
communities. I mean… very well connected…?Can MSNBC take a deeper look? I am giving you old news?
Nobody is reporting on this connection
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chen Guangcheng is a
Chinese civil rights activist. He is best known for exposing alleged abuses in
official family-planning policy, often involving claims of violence and forced
abortions.
In 2005, he became
internationally known for organizing a class-action lawsuit against the city of
Linyi in Shandong for excessive enforcement of the one-child policy.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that a number of US
supporters and admirers had attempted to penetrate the security detail that
monitors Chen's home to visit him.
“”U.S. Congressman Chris Smith”” attempted to visit Chen in November
2011, but was not granted permission.
Chris Smith (New Jersey politician)
Smith is one of the strongest opponents of abortion in
either house of Congress. Smith has worked to stop abortions in military
hospitals. He has also worked to reinstate the Ronald Reagan-era restrictions
that would deny federal funds to family planning organizations that distribute
literature abortions abroad. The ensuing struggle lasted more than two years,
with Smith leveraging his opposition to the family planning money to prevent
passage of the Clinton administration's high-priority efforts to reorganize the
State Department, pay U.S. dues to the United Nations, and provide $18 billion
for the International Monetary Fund. Smith finally was forced to yield in the
1998 and 1999 omnibus spending bills, but he won in return White House
agreement to restrict support for international abortion education. George W.
Bush restored the Mexico City Policy in an executive order in his first full
day in office, but it has since been repealed by President Barack Obama.
Smith also was a prime mover of legislation to ban
partial-birth abortions; the House voted to override Clinton's vetoes, but
Smith's side fell a few votes short of the two-thirds needed in the Senate. In
a January 22, 2004, press release, Smith stated, "Americans want the
abortion holocaust to end." and referred to abortion as "child
slaughter".
With Americans suffering from a mountain of college dept, You give this guy a free ride BS
To many people come to this country, we need to close the borders, not enough jobs or money for american families. Our hard earned tax dollars are supporting foreigners that live in our country. We need to take care of Americans and not worry about other people from other countries.
I wish my Country would treat me and my family members like we lived in China, Clinton and Obama what are they doing, take care of our people get out of the business of being the worlds caretaker if he would have just not started talking about his Goverment (thinking he could do that because hey I am blind) he could have got out of china years ago. we do not need any more welfare familys.
We don't need anymore Fukin Lawyers in the USA, We are already INFESTED with them. Expecially at the US WH and US CONGRESS.
Sorry Chen but you ran to the wrong people if you were protesting the forced abortion policy in China. This administration is as abortion friendly as there Chinese counterparts. You should have waited until November the next administration would be more sympathetic to your cause.
Another illegal immigrant being given amnesty by the Obummer Administration!
Next the Obummer Administration will give him Disneyland tickets as he enters the country! Just like they do for illegals coming across the US's Southern borders.
Here's an "impressive" list of Obama accomplishments!
NOBAMA2012..... Time for a REAL Change, and then we'll have Hope!
You libtards are going bye bye in 2012! There's your hope and change!
Mitt Romney's behavior has been disgraceful during this episode. While at the very time he could not gracefully handle even one of his staff being forced to resign because he is gay, he was viciously attacking the Obama administration for it's handling of this affair EVEN AS delicate negotiations were underway. These negotitations affected the lives of the dissident and his family, and they affected the course of our relatinship with China on trade and other matters. But Palin/Bachmann/Gingrich/Santorum-like, the mittster couldn't resist an opportunity to try to make some cheap political hay with the ilk of the Ted Nugent contingency. Shame on him!! He is unworthy of any office, much less the the office of the president. His moods are too unpredictble. Is it the moon or his hormones??? What a TWIT!
This guy is a trouble maker and it is wrong to offer him fellowship.