China dissident ready to open new chapter in his life

China dissident ready to open new chapter in his life

Chinese activist at Beijing airport

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: A flight carrying Chen Guangcheng to New York is due to take off soon
• NEW: Chen is expected to start a new chapter in his life as a student at NYU
• China has said blind human rights activist can apply to study abroad
• U.S. authorities have completed the paperwork for him to travel to the United States

Beijing (CNN) -- Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese human rights activist who ignited a diplomatic frenzy when he escaped house arrest last month, says he is at Beijing airport Saturday and is getting ready to fly to New York.

He and his family checked in and are expected to travel on a United flight from Beijing to Newark International Airport.

The plane was expected to take off soon after 5 p.m. local time (5 a.m. ET), carrying Chen to a new chapter in his life as a student at New York University.

Chen earlier told CNN he, his wife and two children were waiting to clear security, although they had had not yet seen their own passports.

China has said that Chen, who is blind, can apply to study abroad.

Profile: Chen Guangcheng

ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian human rights organization, said its president, Bob Fu, had spoken to Chen Saturday.

Chen told him that Chinese officials had instructed the family to pack up and leave for the United States that day, ChinaAid said in a statement.

"ChinaAid and (the) Chen family deeply appreciate the international community's tireless efforts for Chen and his immediate family's freedom," the statement added.

Chen told CNN the short notice for his departure did not surprise him.

Chen said Wednesday he had received passport applications for himself and his family.

U.S. authorities have completed all the processing for Chen, his wife and two children to travel to the United States, where Chen has been invited to study by NYU, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said this week.

"He is continuing to work with his government," she said. "Our information is that those conversations, contacts, and processing continue."

Activist's escape like a Hollywood thriller

Earlier this week, U.S. lawmakers listened to Chen describing reprisals that he said his relatives continue to suffer at the hands of the authorities in Shandong Province in eastern China.

"My elder brother was taken away by these thugs without any reasoning and then they came back and started beating up my nephew, and they used stakes and violently beat him up," Chen told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a telephone call from his hospital room.

Chen added that his relatives' homes had been broken into and they had been beaten by people working for the government.

Family suffering reprisals, Chen tells lawmakers

Chen said his nephew Chen Kegui tried to defend himself and now faces a "totally trumped-up" charge of attempted homicide.

"After my nephew was beaten up, he actually was waiting to surrender himself and the police come back again and violently beat up my sister-in-law," Chen said.

The authorities in Linyi, the city that oversees Chen's village, had issued a statement accusing Chen Kegui of injuring government officials with a knife and saying he would be dealt with according to the law. They have declined to comment on the matter since.

ChinaAid urged the international community to continue to monitor the situation for Chen's extended family in China, amid concerns over possible reprisals by the authorities.

After spending six days in the U.S. Embassy following his escape from house arrest, the prominent human rights activist left for a hospital, but then pleaded to be allowed to leave China. His spell in the U.S. Embassy caused a diplomatic firestorm, coming as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was about to visit China.

Chen was sentenced in 2006 to four years and three months in prison for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic" -- charges that his supporters maintain were trumped up by the authorities to punish his legal advocacy for victims of what he called abusive family-planning policies, including forced abortions and sterilization.

CNN's Steven Jiang contributed to this report.

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