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But in September 2005, just hours after one of my meetings with him, Chen was picked up in Beijing by Linyi security officials who hustled him into a car and drove him home. From that point on, his life was spent under lock and key. In 2006, he was sentenced to four years in jail for "disturbing traffic" and "destroying property," particularly inventive charges, since he was under house arrest when he supposedly committed those crimes. When he was released in 2010, he enjoyed no freedom. Instead, he and his immediate family were placed under a house arrest that the central government refused to admit was in place. When diplomats and activists tried to visit him, hoodlums repelled them with stones and fists. They also subjected Chen and his wife to beatings.
For months, Chen had been planning his escape from a confinement for which there was no legal justification. Staying in bed for hours at a time, he got the sentinels outside accustomed to his long hours out of sight. He had evaded the guards once before. In 2005 when he made his ill-fated journey to Beijing, local hooligans had tried to keep him at home. But he sneaked out at night because, as he told me, darkness confers an advantage to the blind. Throwing handfuls of pebbles into a cornfield to confuse the men pursuing him, he and a nephew made their way to a waiting car. This time, on the evening of April 22, the plan was similarly daring. Chen climbed a wall around his house and tiptoed past the security presence that he believes received $9.5 million in funding over the years. During the long hours of his escape, he fell as many as 200 times and injured his leg. "Chen was covered with mud and blood and water," says Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid and a friend of Chen's. "He was a very wounded man, except in spirit."
For the Americans, denying asylum to former top cop Wang, with all his political baggage, probably wasn't a tough call. But Chen, an unblemished character who has never called for the party's overthrow, had told U.S. officials while under their protection that as long as his family was safe, he preferred to stay in China. Instead of the ambiguous existence of an exile, Chen wanted to continue his legal advocacy on behalf of people whose basic rights are enshrined in China's constitution. "The masses see their only hope is to invoke legal protections," says Cohen. "They have nothing. They're not party members. They don't have access. They have no money, so they can't bribe people. Their only defense is words on a piece of paper."
Now that he claims threats from the Chinese side, Chen may again show how vulnerable ordinary Chinese are to their rulers. In Beijing, Clinton had already hinted at the pitfalls of trusting a government that has a poor history of protecting activists. "Mr. Chen has a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future, including the opportunity to pursue higher education in a safe environment. Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task." Ensuring them may be harder than ever.