If all goes according to plan, New York University’s law school will have a prominent visiting scholar this fall: the Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng.
The arrangement appears to have resolved a diplomatic dispute between the United States and China on the future of the activist, who escaped house arrest and took refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing late last month. He is now recovering from injuries at a Chinese hospital, waiting to get a passport and other paperwork to clear the way for travel abroad.
That a university became involved in easing a high-profile international standoff is primarily thanks to Jerome A. Cohen, an NYU law professor who has been an informal adviser to Mr. Chen throughout the crisis.
Mr. Cohen, who is co-director of the law school’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute, says that as a guest scholar Mr. Chen will study both American and Chinese law, receiving tutorials in Mandarin instead of sitting in classes (he doesn’t speak English). His wife, who has helped the blind activist with his legal challenges on behalf of women and poor people in China, will also participate in the lessons.
With some 80 graduate students from China and Taiwan studying at the institute, Mr. Cohen says his friend will find plenty of academic assistance as well as a welcoming home during his stay, which is expected to last at least a year.
Mr. Cohen met Mr. Chen in 2003, when the activist visited New York on a trip sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Initially he resisted meeting Mr. Chen, who as one of China’s “barefoot lawyers” has no formal legal education. “I saw this fellow’s résumé, and it showed he had never studied law. I said, ‘Look I’m just too busy. Please forgive me this time.’” Eventually Mr. Cohen was persuaded to meet with Mr. Chen, and the two struck up a professional relationship that blossomed into a friendship.
The idea of studying at NYU was proposed by Mr. Chen and U.S. officials, according to Mr. Cohen, and the professor has been charged with helping his friend make a smooth landing at the university, including finding money outside of NYU to pay for the visit.
Now, as he fields dozens of calls from reporters and drafts a formal letter to invite Mr. Chen to NYU, Mr. Cohen is confident that the sensitive deal will hold, allowing Mr. Chen, along with his wife and two children, to come to New York.
Mr. Cohen spoke recently to The Chronicle. An edited version of the conversation follows:
Q. What will Mr. Chen study on the campus?
A. We will organize some study for him and his wife that will introduce the basics of the legal system of both America and China. It’ll be a comparative-law exercise; it’ll be conducted predominantly in Chinese. With our other visiting scholars from China and Taiwan, he’s going to have an immediate community of people who are fluent in Chinese and knowledgeable about law. Then of course there’s the larger community in terms of people studying in social sciences. history, and Chinese society. He’s going to have a ball here.
Q. How will his presence benefit NYU?
A. He’ll give talks from time to time, he’ll take part in seminars, the student newspaper will want to hear from him. He’ll meet informally with members of our faculty and our student body.
Q. How would you describe your role in all this?
A. I was brought in by Chen and the embassy as an adviser, and now I seem to be moving toward booking agent and theatrical representative. We’re going to make some orderly preparations for his arrival.
Q. How do you think Chinese government officials perceive NYU’s role in playing host to a dissident?
A. They know Chinese scholars who are temporary or permanent political refugees want to study and have got to go somewhere. They know we have over 20 years of interest in the Chinese legal system and doing scholarship related to it, some of it quite critical. They also know that we’ve done a lot to help China on other areas like foreign investment, antitrust law, and environmental law. They know the university is going to establish a campus [in China] at the Shanghai government’s request a year from now, and they’re very eager to have that. Nobody at NYU is going to turn the university into some kind of an anti-China clique. We’re all for China.
Q. I’m sure you never expected to play a role in resolving a major diplomatic dispute.
A. No, it’s rather odd. Of course it’s interfering with research plans, travel plans. My poor wife doesn’t know if we’re getting on a plane [to China] Saturday night or not, and if we go how long will we stay.
