Chen Guangcheng

HOUSTON -- When news broke today that blind Chinese human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng plans to stay in China rather than seek asylum in the U.S., Bob Fu may have been one of the few people who was not surprised. Fu, who has advocated for Chen and other Chinese human rights activists through his Midland, Texas-based nonprofit ChinaAid, said he has been in touch with Chen, 40, before the activist's dramatic escape to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on April 22. "He's not interested in seeking political asylum or refugee" status, said Fu, 44. "If the Chinese government offers him a security guard and meet some of his demands to punish some of the officials, if that's a risk he wants to take, he may just choose to stay in China.

Ai Weiwei isn't able to leave Beijing because of his ongoing legal battles with the Chinese government, but the world comes to him. The artist is keeping busy with projects that include a planned heavy-metal album and a new movie. Ai's debut album will be released in about three weeks, according to a report from  Reuters. The album is expected to be titled "Divina Commedia," after the epic poem by the Italian poet Dante. The title is also a pun on the artist's  nickname "Ai God. " (In China, the word for God is similar to the Chinese for "Divine Comedy.

Here's a question for all you armchair secretaries of State: What would you do if a blind Chinese dissident escapes house arrest and shows up at the American embassy in Beijing? The Obama administration was roundly panned by Republicans and human-rights activists this week for a deal it brokered with Chinese authorities on behalf of Chen Guangcheng, the aforementioned blind dissident. Under that deal , which Chen supposedly endorsed, the activist would have been allowed to leave his home in Shandong province, where he'd been detained, to attend a Chinese university.

Her eyes showing anguish behind her glasses, Liu Xia whispers urgently into the ear of one of the Chinese activists who barrels past the guard at her Beijing apartment - a place that has become her prison. The brief video of their Friday encounter, which spread online Monday, did not capture her words. But fear appears written on her face. In her whisper, Liu expressed concern that she and her family would suffer for the activists' audacious move, Chinese dissident Hu Jia told reporters days after the rare visit.

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng will publish a memoir in 2013 with Henry Holt & Co., the Associated Press reported Tuesday. In April, Chen made a dramatic escape from house arrest by scaling a wall and making his way from rural Dongshigu to Beijing, 75 miles away. The incident immediately drew international attention. Chen, 40, had sought refuge at the American Embassy in Beijing. At one point, Chen appeared ready to stay in China , apparently over concerns for the safety of his family and friends.

WASHINGTON - When Bob Fu's cellphone rang halfway through a congressional hearing concerning detained Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, all the West Texas pastor had to do was gesture for the congressman in charge, Rep. Christopher H. Smith, to disappear with him into a nearby room. Soon after, Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, returned with a stunning announcement: "Bob Fu has made contact with Chen Guangcheng in his hospital room. " Smith invited Fu to the dais, where Fu knelt next to the congressman, put Chen on speakerphone from Beijing and translated.

LINYI, China - At the turnoff for the sleepy farming village of Dongshigu, a man wearing a straw hat appears to be selling watermelons at a rough-hewn stand. But when an approaching car slows, burly young men dart out from behind the nearby concrete house and rush to head it off. "It's not a real fruit stand. They're pretending to sell watermelons so they can spy on people coming in and out of the village," said a 44-year-old farmer surnamed Sun from a village across the road.

When a self-taught lawyer and activist named Chen Guangcheng went public with reports of forced abortions and other abuses by family-planning officials in China's Shandong province, he became a local hero. He also became a state threat. Roughly a year later, despite international pressure, widespread support from lawyers and an acknowledgment from national officials that many of his disclosures were accurate, the 35-year-old Chen remains in custody.

A blind Chinese activist who attracted international attention by defending villagers forced to undergo late-term abortions went on trial Friday, but only after Chinese authorities arrested his main lawyer. Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer, has been charged with illegal assembly and intent to damage public property.

A blind activist who drew international attention by exposing China's harsh family planning policies was sentenced by a court Thursday to four years and three months in prison, the official New China News Agency reported. Chen Guangcheng was tried last week, without his own attorney present, on charges of damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." He was represented at his two-hour trial by a pair of court-appointed lawyers he had never met.

BEIJING - Ai Weiwei is out of the box. China's most famous provocateur is once again tweeting and tweaking, taunting and generally making a nuisance of himself as a critic of the Chinese Communist Party. After an 81-day stay in detention and a year of lying low, Ai is suddenly seemingly everywhere at once. Last month, his first major museum show in the United States opened at the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum in Washington. He is the star of a documentary, "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," and guest-edited (via Skype, since he can't leave China)

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng will publish a memoir in 2013 with Henry Holt & Co., the Associated Press reported Tuesday. In April, Chen made a dramatic escape from house arrest by scaling a wall and making his way from rural Dongshigu to Beijing, 75 miles away. The incident immediately drew international attention. Chen, 40, had sought refuge at the American Embassy in Beijing. At one point, Chen appeared ready to stay in China , apparently over concerns for the safety of his family and friends.

LINYI, China - At the turnoff for the sleepy farming village of Dongshigu, a man wearing a straw hat appears to be selling watermelons at a rough-hewn stand. But when an approaching car slows, burly young men dart out from behind the nearby concrete house and rush to head it off. "It's not a real fruit stand. They're pretending to sell watermelons so they can spy on people coming in and out of the village," said a 44-year-old farmer surnamed Sun from a village across the road.

WASHINGTON - After years of detention and a bold escape to the U.S. Embassyin Beijing, blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States, a bittersweet moment in a harrowing journey that had touched off a diplomatic crisis and poses continued challenges for U.S.-Chinese relations. The human rights leader and his family were whisked quickly and suddenly out of Beijing, as Chen expressed gratitude but also concerns about the safety of the relatives he was leaving behind in China.

The "deal" for Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng to leave China for legal study in the United States is not without pitfalls, but other outcomes could be worse. Even if Chinese authorities honor the promises apparently made to U.S. officials to let him travel, they have conceded little on human rights. One thing is clear: Whether Chen stays or goes, his story is emblematic of the failure of legal reform in China today. Chen's hope is to study law and live in peace with his children and wife, Yuan Weijing, an English teacher and activist who helps her husband, who is blind, with reading and writing.

Re "Pall cast over U.S.-China dissident deal," May 3 Demands for the United States to apologize for impugning China's reputation by interfering in the case of dissident Chen Guangcheng strike me as spectacularly disingenuous. If China's reputation has been damaged in this affair, it is a self-inflicted wound. Lorraine Gayer Huntington Beach ALSO: Letters: Down on drones Letters: San Onofre vs. solar Letters: Not sold on the Dodgers

WASHINGTON - A blind Chinese dissident who escaped from house arrest is under U.S. protection, his supporters said Saturday, creating a dilemma for Washington before a visit this week by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chen Guangcheng, a civil rights activist who has exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in rural areas, escaped a week ago from his heavily guarded home in Shandong province in eastern China. U.S. officials declined to comment Saturday and have not confirmed reports that he sought protection atthe U.S. Embassyin Beijing.

BEIJING — Tapping a visa track to America used by thousands of Chinese students, U.S. officials say they have struck a face-saving compromise with China over the fate of a blind Chinese human rights activist, possibly resolving a messy diplomatic dispute that brought deep embarrassment to both countries. The U.S. State Department said Friday that it had secured Chinese agreement to allow Chen Guangcheng to apply to study in the United States, apparently accompanied by his family, under terms that would not require him to seek formal political asylum.

BEIJING — Tapping a visa track to America used by thousands of Chinese students, U.S. officials say they have struck a face-saving compromise with China over the fate of a blind Chinese human rights activist, possibly resolving a messy diplomatic dispute that brought deep embarrassment to both countries. The U.S. State Department said Friday that it had secured Chinese agreement to allow Chen Guangcheng to apply to study in the United States, apparently accompanied by his family, under terms that would not require him to seek formal political asylum.