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The celebrated deal that would have ensured that blind dissident Chen Guangcheng would stay in China began to dissolve publicly with a tweet: “GUANGCHENG TALKED TO ME. WHAT MEDIA REPORTED IS WRONG.” The unsettling Twitter message from Beijing activist Zeng Jinyan began a firestorm of debate over whether Chen had been coerced into the deal with threats to his family, an alarming idea that gutted the most important promise behind the agreement -- that Chen would be kept safe.

as someone who has spent years with the knife edge of the Chinese Communist Party bearing down on my throat for my human rights work, I know that the president is on to something. Tariffs and economic threats may be blunt tools, but they are the kind of aggressive tactics necessary to get the attention of the CCP regime, which respects only power and money. ... It’s about justice, and doing what’s right for ordinary Chinese and American people. Presidents before Trump naively believed that China would abide by international standards of behavior if it were granted access to institutions...

Video at link. A US-based human rights group says the nephew of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has been arrested on suspicion of murder. It says the arrest was made in revenge for Chen's actions. ChinaAid Association on Friday revealed the photo of a notification of arrest issued by police authorities in Shandong Province. The notice says the arrest took place on Wednesday. The group quoted the nephew's lawyer as saying that he wounded 3 intruders with a knife at his home in Shandong Province on April 26th after noticing that his parents had been beaten up. More than 20 people...

The State Department confirmed this morning that it’s reached a deal with the Chinese government in the case of blind dissident Chen Guangcheng: The Chinese Government stated today that Mr. Chen Guangcheng has the same right to travel abroad as any other citizen of China. Mr. Chen has been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he can 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.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is sidestepping questions about how the U.S. might resolve the predicament surrounding a blind Chinese activist who sought refuge in the American embassy and who no longer wants to remain China. White House spokesman Jay Carney referred questions about asylum for the activist, Chen Guangcheng, to the State Department.

Blind Chinese Human Rights activist causes diplomatic crisis after asking Hillary Clinton to take him back to the US on her plane. The blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was prepared to spend years in the US embassy in Beijing if necessary as he weighed his next move after escaping house arrest, the US ambassador has said. But the future of the "barefoot lawyer" and his family is now uncertain, after he agreed to a deal allowing him to stay in China and study, with assurances from the government, only to then change his mind and ask to go to the...

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast’s Melinda Liu, blind dissident Chen Guangcheng says he’s been abandoned by American officials at a Chinese hospital and begs to leave the country on Hillary Clinton’s plane. I’ve known Chen Guangcheng for more than a decade—he’s been through intimidation, beatings, jail, and extralegal house arrest—but through it all I never sensed he was scared. Now he’s scared. Chen, whose case has escalated into a bilateral crisis that threatens to dominate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Beijing this week, was weeping as he talked to me over the phone from his...

The blind Chinese human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest on April 22 and may be under the protection of the U.S. Embassy, was initially detained for exposing the massive abuse of Chinese women under China’s one-child policy. His documentation of forced sterilizations and abortions landed him in jail for four years, followed by a year and a half of house arrest. His daring escape has now triggered renewed attacks on organizations engaged in helping Chinese women keep and feed their infants. Since April 28, the Family Planning Commission of Susong County in China’s Anhui province has been...

A little over 12 hours after blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng was released from the U.S. embassy in Beijing, which he had fled to after escaping house arrest, Chen now says that American officials encouraged him to leave the safe haven of the embassy building, in part by making promises that they failed to keep. In an interview with CNN's Steven Jiang, he expressed deep disappointment with the U.S. and with President Barack Obama personally. He said that embassy officials were no longer picking up his calls and that he already felt his rights being "violated" by the Chinese government,...

He looked reasonably cheerful in photos with U.S. officials after the deal was made. Then, just a few hours later, he told CNN, “We are in danger. If you can talk to Hillary, I hope she can help my whole family leave China.” The most logical explanation for the sudden turnabout is that China reneged on its deal with the U.S. once they had Chen back in custody, but that would be a huge betrayal at a moment when Hillary’s in the country for talks on a variety of issues. I guess it’s possible that the State Department really did...

Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng said a U.S. official told him that Chinese authorities threatened to beat his wife to death had he not left the American Embassy. Speaking by phone from his hospital room in Beijing on Wednesday night, a shaken Chen told The Associated Press that U.S. officials relayed the threat from the Chinese side. After six days in hiding, Chen emerged from the embassy Wednesday after U.S. officials said China had assured his safety. His account contrasts with earlier comments by Chen's supporters saying that he had vowed to stay in China to continue his activism. He...

Exclusive: Chen Guangcheng tells Channel 4 News he left the US embassy for hospital as part of an "agreement" with the Chinese government, but despite promises, no-one from the US embassy is with him. Chen had been under protection at the US embassy in Beijing after escaping from house arrest last Friday. He left the embassy for hospital on Wednesday morning, although he told Channel 4 News this was part of an agreement with the Chinese government rather than because of a medical emergency. "Nobody from the (US) Embassy is here. I don't understand why. They promised to be here,"...

The Chinese government issued a stern warning to the United States on Wednesday after blind dissident Chen Guangcheng ended his weeklong stay at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, saying officials were "strongly dissatisfied with the move" to shelter the activist and demanded an apology from Washington. The scolding tone of the message delivered by a Foreign Ministry official and reported by state-run media raised concerns about China's commitment to whatever assurances officials gave U.S. diplomats during behind-the-scenes negotiations that appeared to resolve the embarrassing standoff. "It should be pointed out that Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese citizen, was taken by the...

A blind Chinese legal activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Washington and Beijing left the U.S. Embassy Wednesday to receive medical care in Beijing and be reunited with this family. Guangcheng said via his lawyer that he is free and has received "clear assurances" from the Chinese government. A U.S. official said Chen did not ask for asylum and is staying in China after receiving assurances that he will be treated as a normal citizen. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that Chinese authorities promised that Chen would be relocated to...

Chinese state media reported that Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng on Wednesday voluntarily left the U.S. Embassy in Beijing after a six-day stay. Chen was reportedly at a medical facility in Beijing where he was to be united with his family, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which cited a U.S. official. Chen sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in late April, sparking what some reports described as a major diplomatic crisis between China and the U.S. ahead of high-level talks on a range of strategic issues slated to begin in Beijing on Thursday.

China dissident Chen Guangcheng is in the US embassy in Beijing following his dramatic escape from house arrest, fellow activist Hu Jia has told the BBC. Mr Hu said Mr Chen - who is blind - had scaled a high wall and was driven hundreds of kilometres to Beijing. Mr Chen escaped on Sunday, activists say, and has since released a video addressed to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. There are reports that his brother and nephew have now been held by police. A self-schooled legal activist, Mr Chen is known for revealing rights abuses under China's one-child policy and has...