U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says the United States is ready to give Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng a visa right away.
In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, Biden said Washington expects China to stick it its commitment to allow Chen to take up a fellowship offer at New York University. He said the blind dissident's future is in the United States.
Chen, his wife and children are currently at a Beijing hospital where he is being treated for injuries sustained during his escape from house arrest two weeks ago.
China's Foreign Ministry on Friday said that Chen can apply to leave the country to study, "just like any other Chinese citizen."
The announcement followed a series of appeals by Chen, who says he is worried about his safety and wants to travel to the U.S. "for a time."
Chen originally agreed to a deal reached by U.S. and Chinese authorities that would allow him to stay in a "safe" place in China and study law. But he changed his mind hours after leaving U.S. protection, saying his family had been threatened.
Chen is a self-taught lawyer and human rights activist who has been blind since childhood. He was given a four-year prison sentence in 2006 for exposing abuses under China's forced abortion policy aimed at population control. He had been under house arrest since 2010, before fleeing on April 22 to the U.S. Embassy.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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