Chen Guangcheng

THE DEAL UNDER which Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng left the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday was bold, risky and potentially groundbreaking for human rights in China. It could also prove disastrous. By late Wednesday, Mr. Chen, who was then in a Beijing hospital, was telling Western news organizations that his decision had been forced by threats to his family and that he wished to exit China for the United States. That may or may not reopen a six-day crisis over his status . What's clear is that the Obama administration now bears moral...

JUST A WEEK or so ago, we raised the question on this page about whether the Chinese would keep their promise to investigate abuses against the family of Chen Guangcheng , the blind dissident lawyer who escaped from his illegal home detention in Shandong province last year, was sheltered briefly in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and eventually came to New York. We also questioned the commitment of the United States to keep the pressure on China to honor its pledge at the time Mr. Chen left the embassy and the country.

NEW YORK — When blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng made a daring escape from house arrest this spring and found refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, he instantly became a popular hero in the West and a rallying point for human rights activists everywhere. For abortion opponents in the U.S., however, Chen was much more than that: he was an icon of the pro-life cause, a man whose campaign against forced abortion in China made him a potent champion in the fight against legal abortion in America.

BEIJING — The oldest brother of a Chinese activist who fled house arrest and later settled in the U.S. said he was beaten up Thursday by unidentified men, part of an increase in harassment possibly linked to the activist's plans to visit Taiwan. Chen Guangfu said he was followed by a black car without a license plate while he was on a motor scooter visiting a relative in another village in Shandong province. The car overtook him and blocked his way before two men in their 20s got out...

NEW YORK — The English lesson begins with a review of vocabulary: "equal," "truth," "liberty," "self-evident. " Then comes the hardest term of all to pronounce: "unalienable rights. " The words sometimes sound like gibberish to Chen Guang­cheng , the Chinese legal activist, but he repeats them dutifully, rolling them around his mouth as if to taste their meaning. Five times a week, under the guidance of an English tutor at New York University's law school, Chen has been using the Declaration of Independence as a makeshift...

JUST A WEEK or so ago, we raised the question on this page about whether the Chinese would keep their promise to investigate abuses against the family of Chen Guangcheng , the blind dissident lawyer who escaped from his illegal home detention in Shandong province last year, was sheltered briefly in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and eventually came to New York. We also questioned the commitment of the United States to keep the pressure on China to honor its pledge at the time Mr. Chen left the embassy and...

BEIJING — A year after the blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng escaped from house detention and fled to the United States following intense diplomatic negotiations , his relatives appear to be the targets of escalating retaliation from local authorities. Chen's nephew, who was imprisoned for clashing with officials when they charged into his home looking for Chen, is suffering from severe appendicitis but has been denied medical parole, family members said Tuesday.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng appealed to Congress on Tuesday to press the Obama administration to release what he said were high-level diplomatic agreements made with China when then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton negotiated his departure from China nearly a year ago. U.S. diplomats told him at the time that Beijing would promise in writing not to harm members of his family after he left and to investigate the years of...

BEIJING — The brother of blind activist Chen Guangcheng has fled his village in northeastern China, evading a security clampdown to seek help from lawyers for his son, who has been detained in a case that has become a rallying point among rights activists. Chen Guangfu, the eldest brother of Chen Guangcheng, said in an interview Thursday that he walked out of his home in Shandong province at 3 a.m. Tuesday, eluding sentries near his village by avoiding roads and running through fields.

BEIJING — Chen Guangcheng , the blind lawyer known for his outspoken opposition to China's forced abortion and sterilization policies, has escaped from house arrest and has reportedly sought U.S. diplomatic protection, potentially casting the United States in an awkward position on the eve of high-level talks between the nations. The exact whereabouts of Chen, who posted a dramatic YouTube video calling on Premier Wen Jiabao to investigate his case and protect his family from abusive...

BEIJING — A year after the blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng escaped from house detention and fled to the United States following intense diplomatic negotiations , his relatives appear to be the targets of escalating retaliation from local authorities. Chen's nephew, who was imprisoned for clashing with officials when they charged into his home looking for Chen, is suffering from severe appendicitis but has been denied medical parole, family members said Tuesday.

IT WAS a year ago this week that blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped from illegal home detention in his native village in Shandong province and made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he was given shelter. After days of intense negotiations between senior U.S. and Chinese officials, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a deal was struck under which Mr. Chen left the embassy. A senior U.S. official told reporters that among the commitments made by Chinese officials was that they would...

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng appealed to Congress on Tuesday to press the Obama administration to release what he said were high-level diplomatic agreements made with China when then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton negotiated his departure from China nearly a year ago. U.S. diplomats told him at the time that Beijing would promise in writing not to harm members of his family after he left and to investigate the years of...

BEIJING — Chen Kegui, the nephew of blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng , was sentenced Friday to 39 months in prison for injuring government officials who stormed into his home while searching for his uncle, who had fled house arrest. The Obama administration swiftly condemned the sentence, calling it the result of a "deeply flawed legal process" that lacked basic guarantees of due process. "He was convicted in a summary trial in which he was not fully...

A GLANCE AT THE news from China on Friday might suggest a political system reacting properly to high-level wrongdoing. The former boss of Chongqing, Bo Xilai, once one of China's most powerful regional figures, was expelled from the Communist Party and, according to official news media, faces charges of corruption. Earlier, Mr. Bo's wife was convicted and given a suspended death sentence for the murder of a British businessman. Mr. Bo is a son of one of the party's revolutionary founders, so his punishment...

Last month brought the end of the official period that my political rights were suspended. Under Chinese law, I am now free to say whatever I want. But a week before this happened, local police who for the past year have largely prevented visitors from reaching me began to stop me from going out. And I was beaten. June is a tense, sensitive time in China. There is the anniversary of the Tianamnen massacre on June 4. State security steps up "home surveillance," or house arrest, each year on the people viewed as...

Two Republican senators plan to introduce a congressional resolution urging the Obama administration to grant blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng political asylum despite a tentative deal already struck on Friday to bring him to the United States. An early draft of the resolution by Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) included criticism of the Obama administration's handling of of the diplomatic crisis, support for Chen's work in China against forced abortions and language chastizing China.

NEW YORK — The English lesson begins with a review of vocabulary: "equal," "truth," "liberty," "self-evident. " Then comes the hardest term of all to pronounce: "unalienable rights. " The words sometimes sound like gibberish to Chen Guang­cheng , the Chinese legal activist, but he repeats them dutifully, rolling them around his mouth as if to taste their meaning. Five times a week, under the guidance of an English tutor at New York University's law school, Chen has been using the Declaration of Independence as a makeshift...

The blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng called on the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday to respect its own laws and to live up to its promise to investigate the local authorities who persecuted him over the past seven years. "The problem is not that there are no laws," he said. "We have laws, but they are not being well-enforced. " In a question-and-answer session at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, a modest Chen said that he hoped to help improve the rule of law...