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UPDATE: Chen Guangcheng landed at Newark airport Saturday and was taken toNew York University's campus in Greenwich Village, where he held a brief press conference. Throughout his 17 days of government-imposed isolation at a Beijinghospital, blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng has, with the exception of a brief confab with American diplomats,only had a cellphone as his link to the world. Seven long years ofvarious forms of detention should have taken a greater toll. Yeteach phone conversation we at TIME have had with him, Chen hassurprised us with his calm, soft-spoken demeanor. But early on theafternoon on May 19, Chen s voice changed. He was positivelyecstatic, his excitement thrumming over the phone line. I m atthe airport, and I m going to the U.S., he told my colleagueChengcheng Jiang. I m standing in line and about to go throughthe security check. ( MORE: Chen Guangcheng and Bo Xilai: Murder, Lies, Abuse of Power andOther Crimes of the Chinese Century ) A mundane chore like airport security must have felt like abenediction of sorts for a man who the Chinese authorities havetaken great pains to confound for so long. In 2005, Chen drew theire of officials in China s eastern Shandong province for having the temerity to advocateon behalf of Chinese women who were subjected to forced abortionsand sterilizations stemming from a misapplication of China sone-child policy. Even in 2010, after he was released from jail ontrumped-up charges of disturbing traffic and destroyingproperty, Chen and his wife disappeared into house arrest intheir stone farmhouse. The detention was illegal, but no one ineither the local or central levels of Chinese government didanything to stop it. Diplomats, activists and journalists who triedto visit him were beaten back by plainclothes hooligans. Finally,on April 22, Chen chose the cover of night, when his blindnessconferred a slight advantage, to sneak over walls and past a bevyof guards to freedom. The escape took hours before he met up withcitizen activists who helped spirit him to Beijing, where heeventually sought protection from the American embassy. Stayingthere for six days, he rejected the possibility of asylum in theU.S. and instead emerged on May 2 from the Embassy, after beingpromised by the Chinese side that he would be treated as a normalcitizen. But upon checking in at Beijing s Chaoyang Hospital, where he wastreated for injuries sustained during his dramatic escape fromhouse arrest, the lie in the government s promise to treat himlike a normal citizen was quickly exposed. Far from being allowedfreedom, Chen was confined to his room, unable to even visit thehospital grounds. American diplomats found face-to-face access tohim blocked. Foreign journalists who tried to visit him were warnedthat simply stepping foot in a major Beijing hospital would resultin their visas being revoked. Overwhelmed and aware of the tremendous pressure his family wasunder, Chen soon changed his mind about staying in China tocontinue his legal advocacy. After all, it was becoming clear thathis chances of being allowed to truly effect change through the lawwere slim at best. So Chen voiced a desire to go to America torest, telling a U.S. Congressional committee by phone that hehadn t had a day off in seven years. New York University, wherehis longtime friend and supporter, Chinese legal expert JeromeCohen, is based, ponied up with a fellowship. The Americans said avisa would be no problem. For their part, the Chinese were stillinsisting that Chen was being treated normally, even as he was heldhostage in a hospital room. Chen who had reunited with his wifeand two children at Chaoyang Hospital filled out passportapplications and were told that they would be receiving thedocuments in 15 days time. But given the callousness with whichhe has been treated for long, it seemed foolhardy to take theChinese side fully at its word, even as Chen himself told us thathe believed he would be allowed to leave China. ( MORE: Team Chen Guangcheng: The Friends and Activists Now Also at Risk ) Indeed, the Chinese government appears to have left Chen in thedark until the last moment. In the late morning of May 19, ChaoyangHospital staff suddenly came into his room and told him that he,his wife and their two young children should pack their bagsimmediately because they were going to the airport. Whisked into acar, they arrived at the Beijing airport utterly confused. DespiteChen being told that he was going to board a plane soon to America,he and his family still had no passports or visas in their hands.No Chinese officials were with them, nor were any Americandiplomats. Only staff from Chaoyang Hospital had come with them. All I know is that they will send me to the plane soon, he toldTIME from the airport, soon after arriving. And then I ve beentold that people from New York University will pick me up on theother end. A couple hours later, Chen and his family indeed boarded a directflight to Newark airport, near New York. They were escorted ontothe plane via a special vehicle that drove onto the tarmac andcircumvented normal boarding procedures. The four family membersare expected to arrive in the U.S. on Saturday early evening localtime. "We're relieved that the Chinese government hasrespected Chen Guangcheng's wishes and his right to travelabroad," says Phelim Kine, a senior Asia researcher at theNew York-based NGO Human Rights Watch. "However, Chen'sdeparture for the U.S. does not and should not in any way mark a‘mission accomplished' moment for the U.S. governmentor any other government which values human rights and rule of lawin China. The fact is that getting Chen Guangcheng and his familyon a plane is the easiest part of this saga. The harder, longerterm part is ensuring his right under international law to returnto China when he sees fit." On May 18, the day before he made his way to the airport, I askedChen by phone whether he thought he would be permitted to return toChina after going abroad. After all, exiled Chinese who stand up tothe government don t tend to be allowed back home. The bestoutcome for a Chinese regime that flinches at outspoken criticismis that the wayward citizen ends up living an existence ofirrelevant banishment. Chen answered my question with an explosionof laughter. Catching his breath, he said: I think it s tooearly to talk about that. I haven t even left yet. The centralgovernment has promised me they will protect my rights and freedomsas a citizen. Traveling is one of my rights. So I think I m freeto travel between China and other countries. During his time at Chaoyang Hospital, Chen was forced to stay inhis room, eating food delivered from the hospital canteen. (At thehospital, his wife, who had been under house arrest with him, wasfound to be suffering from severe malnutrition and anemia, asymptom of a life that Chen told us was worse than that of aprisoner. ) But his children, one who was especially harassed backin Shandong, relished life at the Beijing hospital. My kids saidto me the other day, Dad, it s so great to be here, Chensaid on May 18. They said, we can even go out to play for alittle while in the yard. I felt so sad. You can see how much wewere abused in our life in Shandong. ( MORE : Isolated in a Beijing Hospital, Blind Legal Activist ChenGuangcheng Pleads to Leave China ) Back home, his mother is being confined to their farmhouse, whichnow has an electric fence being built around it. Chen s nephewChen Kegui is facing charges of attempted murder, after he slasheda knife at intruders in his home, who turned out to be localofficials furious to discover that Chen had escaped house arrest.Two lawyers who traveled to Shandong to try to represent the nephewwere told that he had given up his right to choose a lawyer. Chenthinks that s ridiculous. That was exactly what they did tome, he said. They forced me to take the lawyer they assigned. Chen says a local official named Zhang Jian led a group of thugsinto his nephew s home in the middle of the night and beat Chen sbrother (who is Chen Kegui s father). Then they began attackingChen Kegui and his mother. They beat him so badly that they evenbroke the sticks they were using as a weapon, says Chen, afterhaving spoken to his family back home. It was under thissituation that Kegui fought back. If he didn t he would have beenbeaten to death. How can they accuse my nephew of murder? The central government has promised Chen that they will investigatethe abuses in Shandong, both toward his family and those related tothe forced abortion and sterilization campaign. Precedent suggests that full justicemay not be meted out. After all, it s impossible that the centralgovernment did not know about Chen s plight for all those years,given the media coverage surrounding his case. Now, it appears theyhave done nothing to stop local officials from continuing to harasshis family and prevent journalists from seeing them. But Chen onMay 18 chose his words carefully: I don t have enoughinformation to judge, he said. I was suffering from an extremelack of information [under house arrest]. We can only judgesomething based on facts. I would rather believe that they didn tknow, but that they know now. As long as they are on the righttrack when it comes to my case, I will trust them. As he left his homeland, Chen may finally have cause for a modicumof trust. But the fate of his family back in Shandong is undecided.Punishment of the officials who oversaw his long detention is by nomeans guaranteed. And I m certainly not convinced that Chen willbe allowed back home after he goes abroad. Still, at least, a braveman who has suffered for years may be able to rest and enjoy a NewYork spring. When my colleague and I spoke to him earlier thismonth, Chen said that he had asked Chaoyang Hospital staff whetherhe could go outside for a little bit of sunshine. The hospitalemployees refused. For a man locked up for so long, the warmth ofthe sun on his face, even in a faraway land, will be a smallmiracle. with reporting by Chengcheng Jiang/Beijing MORE: Poets, Peaceniks and Protesters: Meet China s Leading Dissidents. I am an expert from zogear.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Dental X-Ray Film Manufacturer , China Tooth Polishing Tool, Dental Saliva Ejector,and more.
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