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Chinese dissident finds refuge in Wash. Sq. Village

[media-credit name=”Photo by Jefferson Siegel ” align=”aligncenter” width=”600″][/media-credit]
Chen Guangcheng arriving at Washington Square Village on Saturday. His wife, Yuan Weijing, is to the right of him.
BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL | Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng arrived at N.Y.U.’s Washington Square Village complex Saturday night after a flight from China. Guangcheng, hobbling on crutches, broke his foot a month earlier after a dramatic, secret escape from his home.

Guangcheng, his wife, Yuan Weijing, and his two children arrived at Newark Airport Saturday night after a 13-hour flight. They were the first to disembark from the plane and were taken in a van directly to Manhattan where they were greeted by more than 100 news photographers and reporters.

“I believe that, no matter how difficult the environment, nothing is impossible as long as you put your heart to it,” Guangcheng said, speaking to reporters through a translator. He will be studying law at New York University School of Law. Standing by his side was N.Y.U. Law Professor Jerome Cohen, who helped Guangcheng achieve his departure from China as a visiting scholar at the Greenwich Village school.

John Beckman, the university’s spokesperson, said, “Mr. Chen will be a special student in law, and he will reside in university housing while he is with us. Over the coming days, after he and his family have had an opportunity to settle into their new surroundings, he will meet with faculty members in the School of Law, including Professor Jerome Cohen, with whom he has worked in the past, and Professor Frank Upham — the co-directors of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute — who will act as advisers to him in pursuing his studies.”

Beckman said that, due to federal privacy laws, the university is prohibited from discussing the details of Guangcheng’s academic program.