Blind activist Chen Guangcheng offered fellowship from US university The US government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these documents... The US government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention. Earlier, Liu Weimin, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign ministry said: "If [Mr Chen] wishes to study overseas, as a Chinese citizen, he can, like any other citizen, process relevant procedures with relevant departments through normal channels in accordance with the law." Mr Chen is likely to travel as soon as he recuperates from three broken bones he sustained while escaping from the guards at his home village. Mr Chen, who has been blind since early childhood, said he had vaulted over a series of high walls and then crawled, bloodied and in severe pain, for nine miles before reaching a rendezvous with He Peirong, a friend and activist who drove him to Beijing. Once in the city, he moved through a series of safe houses before it became clear that he urgently needed medical attention and he approached the US embassy. Gary Locke, the US ambassador, said it had been a "Mission Impossible" task to retrieve Mr Chen, after US cars were tailed by Chinese security as they tried to pick him up. China has roundly condemned the US for the way it sheltered Mr Chen and for meddling in its "internal affairs." Editorials in Beijing's main newspapers yesterday accused Mr Chen of being a "tool" of the West, and Mr Locke of seeking as much attention as possible, for example by personally pushing Mr Chen's wheelchair into Chaoyang hospital. While it appears a new deal has been brokered, Mr Chen remained under police guard in the hospital on Friday and it was not possible to contact him by telephone. However US officials said that, unlike on Thursday, they now had access to Mr Chen and had seen him for 45 minutes. Mrs Clinton underlined that while "progress has been made to help him have the future he wants," there was "still more work to do," suggesting that the United States is waiting for China to approve Mr Chen's travel before the matter is concluded. Throughout the two days of negotiation, China kept to its side of the bargain, allowing Mr Chen to remain with his family, speak freely on his mobile phone - including to a US Congressional committee - and sending an envoy from the Communist Party's Central Committee to interview him about the abuses he suffered in his home village. While Mr Chen's friends and fellow activists were muzzled from speaking to the media, by Friday night they all appeared to have been released from custody. He Peirong sent out a message on Twitter: "I am home. All is well. Thank you everyone. However, one of Mr Chen's friends, the lawyer Jiang Tianyong, said he had been badly beaten by national security officers as he tried to visit the hospital on Thursday morning. Mr Jiang was left unable to hear and was prevented from receiving medical treatment. The whereabouts of two members of Mr Chen's family, his brother and nephew, are also unknown, and his elderly mother is thought to remain in his home village, possibly under the guard of police.