Chen Guangcheng's Plea for Protection Deepens a Crisis Pool photo by Jason Lee Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, at an exhibition on Thursday, has been caught up in a diplomatic crisis in China. WASHINGTON - The Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng's abrupt reversal and plea for protection from the United States has deepened a diplomatic crisis and exposed the Obama administration to withering criticism that its diplomats miscalculated when they negotiated his departure from the American Embassy in Beijing. Mr. Chen's request for help from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton - repeated in an urgent telephone call played on speaker during an emergency Congressional hearing on Thursday - frayed a fragile deal American officials negotiated a day before the start of high-level talks between China and the United States. Mr. Chen has now proposed that he and his family be allowed to visit the United States temporarily, rather than request permanent asylum there, according to an American lawyer, Jerome A. Cohen, who has advised him this week. The proposal, Mr. Cohen said, could be a face-saving solution for China, defusing a situation that threatens relations between the two countries. As the State Department tried frantically to reassess the options for Mr. Chen, who is now at a hospital in Beijing being treated for an injured foot, senior American officials privately acknowledged missteps in the handling of the case. The United States failed to guarantee access to Mr. Chen at the hospital, they said, leaving him isolated and fearful that China would renege on its pledge not to harass him and to allow him to resume his legal studies. The diplomats also rushed their negotiations with the Chinese government to try to resolve the situation before the start of two days of talks with China on economic and security issues, led by Mrs. Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, these officials said. That left no time to obtain firm, detailed assurances from Chinese officials on how they would treat Mr. Chen, a blind lawyer and activist who had been exposed to years of house arrest and beatings in his home village in eastern China and last month escaped to the United States Embassy in Beijing. With Mr. Chen expressing fears for his safety and pleading for President Obama to intercede on his behalf, the administration faced a barrage of criticism from Republican lawmakers and human rights activists that its bungled handling of the case had left one of China's most prominent dissidents at the mercy of the Chinese police. The Chen case has rapidly become an issue on the campaign trail, with Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, accusing the American diplomats of racing to reach an agreement with China and then failing to verify it. "We've heard some disturbing things from across the world that suggest that, potentially, if the reports are true, some very troubling developments there," he said on Thursday in Portsmouth, Va. The administration defended its actions, saying it had made extraordinary efforts to bring Mr. Chen to safety inside the embassy and honor his wishes once there. Mr. Chen, officials said, had left of his own free will after a plan had been worked out with the Chinese government that he and his family could relocate to a city close to Beijing where he would pursue his law studies. "At no point during his time in the embassy did Mr. Chen ever request political asylum in the U.S.," said the White House press secretary, Jay Carney. And at every opportunity, he expressed his desire to stay in China, reunify with his family, continue his education and work for reforming his country. All of our diplomacy was directed at putting him in the best possible position to achieve his objectives. Guo Yushan, a friend of Mr. Chen's who spoke to him by phone Thursday night, said Mr. Chen was not interested in seeking asylum outside the country; his desire, he said, was to go to the United States for a few months and then return to China. "He never complained, either directly or indirectly, that the American Embassy had "forced" or induced him to leave the embassy," Mr. Guo wrote on Twitter and Weibo, a Chinese microblog service. He left the embassy voluntarily and appreciates from his heart the American Embassy's help during the past week. Mark Landler and Steven Lee Myers reported from Washington, and Jane Perlez from Beijing. Reporting was contributed by Sharon LaFraniere and Michael Wines from Beijing, Andrew Jacobs from New York, and Ashley Parker from Portsmouth, Va. Edy Yin, Li Bibo and Mia Li contributed research from Beijing.