University of Washington offers fellowship to blind activist Chen Guangcheng
May 9, 2012, 5:51 AM | Updated: 6:58 am
Blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, center, holds hands with U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke, right, and U.S. State Department legal advisor Harold Koh, left, at a hospital in Beijing. (AP Photo/U.S. Embassy Beijing Press Office, HO)
(AP Photo/U.S. Embassy Beijing Press Office, HO)
The University of Washington is offering blind activist Chen Guangcheng a fellowship.
Chen Guangcheng is a blind, self-taught legal activist who made a daring escape from brutal house arrest in his rural town into U.S. diplomatic custody in Beijing more than a week ago, setting off a diplomatic standoff.
Chen gained recognition among human rights campaigners at home and abroad for crusading for the disabled and fighting against forced abortions in his rural community.
His dramatic flight from abusive house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing last month, the bargaining over his fate and the arrangements that may let Chen and his family go the U.S. made him the focus of global news.
The activist, who is in a Beijing hospital where he was taken to receive medical care and was joined by his wife and two children, said he has asked hospital staff to help him with the paperwork for him and his family to obtain travel documents.
As part of the deal, China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that Chen can apply for travel permits to study abroad.
New York University had also issued an invitation to Chen.
“We’re giving him another option,” UW spokesman Norm Arkans told The Seattle Times.
On Wednesday, Chen said paperwork for his travel is mostly finished on the U.S. side, but not on the Chinese side. He said he is recuperating from the broken foot bones sustained during his escape and from chronic intestinal problems. Mostly, though, he said he needs a break after seven years of prison and house arrest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
