U.S., China outline Chen Guangcheng deal

BEIJING -- With a series of quickly choreographed steps, the United States and China outlined a tentative deal Friday to send a legal activist to America for study and potentially bring a face-saving end to a delicate diplomatic crisis.

The arrangements, if kept, promise to give Chen Guangcheng much of what he wanted: a chance to live with his family in safety and to get a formal legal education. It would also allow Washington and Beijing to put aside a rancorous human rights dispute to focus on managing their rivalry for global influence.

As part of the deal, China's Foreign Ministry said Chen can apply for travel permits to study abroad. The State Department said an American university -- later identified as New York University -- has offered a fellowship for Chen with provisions for his family. Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States expects Beijing to process the travel permits quickly, and once done, visas would be issued.

"I don't think this is empty talk here. I think they mean this is a way out, and it's a dignified way out. It's a good way out for the Chinese government and our government and for Chen and his family," said Jerome Cohen, an NYU law professor who met Chen nearly a decade ago, advised him during the negotiations and arranged the fellowship.

In a sign that not all was settled, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a guarded assessment.

"Over the course of the day, progress has been made to help him have the future that he wants, and we will be staying in touch with him as this process moves forward," said Clinton, who was in Beijing for annual strategic talks.

The progress, however, seemed significant after a bizarre, rocky crisis triggered when Chen, who is blind and an inspirational figure in China's human rights movement, escaped from house arrest in his rural home and reached the U.S. Embassy in Beijing last Friday.

First saying he wanted to stay in China, a smiling Chen emerged from the fortress-like embassy to a hospital reunion with his wife and two children only to say hours later that he changed his mind.

In cellphone calls from his hospital room with friends and foreign media, he said he and his family felt unsafe and he wanted to go abroad, undoing a deal U.S. and Chinese officials worked out to guarantee their safe relocation to a city in China where he could study law.

"My situation right now is very dangerous," Chen told The Associated Press early Friday. On Thursday, he dialed into a congressional hearing to appeal for Clinton's help.

The drama unfolded but did not derail the two days of talks by Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and their Chinese counterparts on irritants that bedevil U.S.-China relations: trade, Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programs, conflict in Syria, and cyberspying.