BEIJING – All 29 Chinese fishermen held for almost two weeks by a North Korean crew were released and returned home on Monday, ending a hostage crisis that had outraged many in China and strained relations between the normally close friends.

China's state-run Xinhua News quoted an official at the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang as saying that they had been informed that the three fishing vessels detained by the North Korean coast guard on May 8 were on their way back to China.

The sailors were in good health "with sufficient food and healthcare" after 13 days in North Korean waters, Xinhua quoted the official as saying.

---

The official's statement runs counter to reports by owners of two of the ships captured in the Yellow Sea who said that the crews had been given little to eat and had very little rest since the boats were taken.

The incident came as a surprise because China is North Korea's closest ally, and most important source of food aid and gasoline despite international sanctions meant to punish the country for its nuclear program and rocket launches.

Chinese netizens abuzz over reported boat hijackings by N. Korea

Questions shrouded the affair even as the sailors were set free.

Xinhua and other state media did not report whether a ransom had been paid, although it was earlier reported that the captors had demanded 900,000 yuan ($140,000) in exchange for the release of the vessels and their crew.

It also was not clear whether the North Koreans involved in the kidnapping and reported ransom negotiations were working on behalf of the North Korean government or alone.

Fishermen who operate in the waters where the boats were taken told the Chinese newspaper Global Times about previous incidents.

"The North Korean coast guards took almost everything, even pencils and clothes,” the newspaper quoted one fishermen as saying about a previous robbery. “They also pumped the fuel out of seized boats, leaving just enough for the journey home."

Even as it tried to cover the day’s news, the Global Times appeared to contradict its own reports.

While a news story reported that the latest kidnapping wasn’t the first incident involving North Korea’s coast guard, a Monday editorial in the same paper refuted the fisherman’s story.

"Currently there are rumors about misbehavior from North Koreans in the border areas between the two countries [and that] China does not seem to be taking a tough attitude toward them," the editorial stated. “Both should take effective measures to eliminate such rumors.”

Are China & North Korea happier than America?

But, right after news of this most recent incident broke in early May, Chinese officials ordered hundreds of fishing boats in the area to restrict their operations to 50 miles within China’s territorial waters. 

While the recent hijacking prompted an outraged response online and in China’s highly-controlled state media, on Monday journalists seemed to have reverted to a friendlier attitude, working overtime to dampen anger they had generated and fueled.

For example, the same Global Times editorial urged China to work on improving relations between China and North Korea.

"The case should be a turning point for China in its handling of border disputes between China and North Korea,” the editorial said optimistically. “China and North Korea have a solid geographic basis for their friendship [and] both attach strategic importance to this friendship.”

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Updated at 11:15 p.m. ET: Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States on Saturday after China allowed him to leave a hospital in Beijing in a move that could end a diplomatic tussle between the two countries, NBC News reported. 

Chen's escape from house arrest in northeastern China last month and subsequent stay in the U.S. Embassy was a huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic rift while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing for talks to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies.

---

A United Airlines plane carrying Chen, his wife and two children, landed in at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, said NBC News' Bo Gu, who was on board the flight.

During his flight out of China, Chen told Gu that he had to escape because his health was deteriorating quickly. He had a cast on his right leg but said he is recovering from an injury sustained during his escape.

He said he believes China’s central government is good-willed and all the evil done to him and his family was by the Shandong authorities. He said he hopes the central government will investigate.

Chen was promised he could return to China anytime he wants, he told Gu. He said his children were not happy to leave China, though.

He also said he is concerned about his nephew, charged with attempted murder for injuring officials who broke into his house on the night Chen escaped.

He expressed concern that "acts of retribution may not have abated" in his hometown. The village of Dongshigu, where Chen's mother and other relatives remain, is still under lockdown.

Chen said after going on to New York that he was gratified the Chinese government had been dealing with his situation with "restraint and calm," Reuters reported.

"I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people," Chen, speaking through a translator, told reporters outside a New York University housing building in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

"I'm very grateful for the assistance of the American Embassy and also (for) receiving a promise from the Chinese government for protection of my rights as a citizen over the long term," he said. "I believe that the promise from the central government is sincere and they are not lying to me."

"I believe that no matter how difficult the environment nothing is impossible as long as you put your heart to it ... I hope everybody works with me to promote justice and fairness in China," he said. "Equality and justice have no boundaries."

Chen is going to study as a fellow at the NYU School of Law, the institution said Saturday. 

Earlier: Blind Chinese activist Chen leaves Beijing on flight to US 

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Updated at 7 a.m. ET: BEIJING – Blind Chinese social activist Chen Guangcheng began the final leg of his long odyssey to freedom, leaving Beijing Saturday on a flight to the United States.

Early Saturday morning NBC News called Chen at the Beijing hospital where he has been held since leaving the U.S. Embassy on May 2. Chen said he still didn’t know when he was leaving but remained optimistic that it would be soon.

---

Moments later, NBC News made a second call to Chen, during which a group of Chinese officials were heard entering the room.

One of them was heard telling Chen, “wrap up, you are leaving today.”

During a 10-minute conversation, Chen was told he would undergo some final medical check-ups and then he and his family would be taken to the airport. 

At one point, Chen, 40, reminded the officials that the investigation into his detention in Shandong should continue after his departure. 

After the officials left, Chen got back on the phone. He sounded excited about his imminent departure and said he had left the phone on so that NBC News could hear the conversation.

Why did blind activist Chen Guangcheng anger Chinese authorities?

News of Chen’s release from hospital and departure to the United States caused a stir online and foreign journalists rushed to Beijing’s Capital Airport.

At the airport, it was largely business as usual, with no apparent additional security around. 

Shortly after he arrived at the airport, he appeared to be uncertain that he would actually be leaving. "I'm at the airport now. I've already left the hospital. But there are many things that are still unclear," he told Reuters, saying he had not got his passport.

'Thousands of thoughts'
But NBC News watched as two security officers walked up and checked in plain black suitcases, apparently the family’s luggage, and a ticket counter representative confirmed that Chen and his family had checked in on the flight.

"Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen told The Associated Press by phone. 

To his supporters and others in the activist community, Chen expressed gratitude and indicated that he hoped to return. 

"I am requesting a leave of absence, and I hope that they will understand," he said. 

The flight took off shortly before 6 a.m. ET. Chen is expected to travel to New York, where he has been offered a fellowship at New York University.

His departure brings to an end a saga lasting weeks that has put a strain on US-China relations and underscored continued human rights issues in the mainland.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer who has worked to expose forced abortions under China’s tough one-child policy in his home province of Shandong, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property.

Upon his release, he was placed under house arrest until his daring escape last month to the American embassy in Beijing.

Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends

Chen initially stated he wished to stay in China to help bring about reform, but later changed his mind and said he wished to leave for the United States.

At a U.S. Congressional hearing on May 4, Chen pleaded for help and requested again to be brought to America.

Chinese officials earlier this week had begun the process of preparing a passport for Chen and his family, but Chen told China Aid’s Bob Fu -- a friend of Chen’s –- that he and his family had still not received any passports from Chinese authorities.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.

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Some 63 percent of Americans would be in favor of taking military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, according to a new survey.

The Pew Research Center asked 26,210 people in 21 different countries to give their views on Iran’s alleged plans to get nuclear weapons, finding widespread opposition to the idea in the West and also in some countries in the Mideast.

---

More than nine in 10 people in the United States, U.K., France and Germany were against Iran getting nuclear weapons. Two percent of Americans said they were in favor.

About 61 percent of Democrats and 79 percent of Republicans backed military force to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, with 31 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of Republicans saying this should be accepted if it happens.

The survey found that 76 percent of Jordanians, 66 percent of Egyptians and 62 percent of Lebanese people were also against the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.

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Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, and says it has no intention of making weapons.

“In most countries, there is majority support among opponents of a nuclear-armed Iran for international economic sanctions to try to stop Tehran’s weapons program,” the Pew report laying out the findings, “A Global ‘No’ to a Nuclear-Armed Iran,”  reads.

“The Chinese and the Russians are notable dissenters in this regard. The poll also found majorities in Western Europe and the United States disposed to taking military action to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Again, the Russians and Chinese disagreed,” it added.

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Some 77 percent of Russians were against a nuclear-armed Iran, but of those only 46 percent backed tougher sanctions and just 24 percent approved of military action. In China, 54 percent were opposed, and of those 38 percent backed more sanctions and 30 percent would support the use of force.

Roughly half of Washington’s European allies would support military action to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, the survey found.

Iranians already feeling pain of sanctions

Some 50 percent of people in Pakistan were in favor of Iran acquiring nukes, compared to 11 per cent against, with a large number of people not expressing an opinion.

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Lebanon was split along religious lines, with 73 percent of Shiite Muslims, 31 percent of Christians and just 5 percent of Sunni Muslims in favor. Iran is overwhelmingly a Shiite country.

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BEIJING – In what appears to be a rare public spat between longtime neighbors and allies, 29 Chinese sailors have been kidnapped in the Yellow Sea by North Koreans, according to Chinese media reports.

Three Chinese fishing ships were operating in waters between North Korea and China on May 8 when they were boarded, 29 crew members taken hostage and the vessels hijacked, the reports said late Wednesday. 

The vessels reportedly were then taken to North Korean waters where they have remained since. One fisherman was said to have escaped.  

---

One of the ships’ owners, Sun Caihui, said that the hijackers’ ship was a North Korean naval vessel and that some of the men were wearing uniforms of the Korean People’s Navy, according to a report on Netease, a popular Chinese web portal.  

 

How Sun was able to determine whether the hijackers’ ship was a North Korean military vessel, much less whether the kidnappers were working on behalf of the North Korean government or were pirates working independently, remains unclear.  

Immediately after the incident, the hijackers allegedly asked one of the Chinese captains to call Sun to tell him that the hijackers were demanding 1.2 million yuan ($190,000) in ransom for the three ships captured. Sun said he has not been in contact with his crew since that call, but new reports late Thursday suggested that the kidnappers are now seeking around 900,000 yuan ($140,000) for their release.

North Korea’s government has not made any public comment on the case. Likewise, China’s government would not publicly confirm any details about the reported incident. 

China is North Korea’s key international ally, with Beijing having been Pyongyang’s main supplier of food aid and oil despite strict international sanctions over the reclusive country’s nuclear ambitions and rocket launches. 

"China is maintaining close contact with North Korea through the relevant channels and we hope this problem will be appropriately solved as soon as possible," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily briefing. 

"We have also stated to North Korea that it should ensure the legitimate rights of Chinese ship personnel."

The owner of another ship involved, named Zhang Dechang, said that during a talk with his ship’s captain on May 9, he was assured that no direct threats had been made against the sailors themselves. However, in an article Thursday in the Chinese newspaper Global Times Zhang said he had received a call from the hijackers on Tuesday threatening to “dispose” of the ships and the fishermen if the ransom was not paid by May 17.

Conditions on the boats are said to be cramped and the fishermen reportedly have not been well looked after. Both Zhang and Sun said their ship captains have told him that they don’t have much to eat and that they’ve had little rest.

Sun said the incident has brought feelings of anger and helplessness. “Relatives of the sailors – parents, children, wives – came to us for their men, weeping,” he said, “We could do nothing.”  

Anger among Chinese 
The incident has raised the ire of China’s netizens, who have wondered why it has taken so long for news of the alleged hijacking to be released and why Beijing has reacted so gently on this matter. 

On China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, the issue was the top trending topic Thursday. “Has North Korea forgotten how China aided North Korea in the Korean War?” wrote one user. “Why are our fishermen always being arrested by foreigners, our waters always occupied by other countries? Don’t bully us, OK?” 

Others Weibo users were more belligerent. “If they dare to execute hostages, we should immediately destroy them!” declared another. 

In general, there appears to be a growing public frustration in China over the government’s seeming desire to not react to the incidents aggressively, perhaps best summed up by one Weibo user who wrote: “I wish the Chinese government could be stronger and stop chanting slogans like ‘harmony’ and ‘peace.’” 

NBC News’ Horace Lu contributed to this report. 

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BEIJING – Speak a little English and are willing to relocate? Well, you’re probably qualified to be an English-language instructor in China. 

As long as you are white, that is.

Chinese teaching agencies are constantly seeking candidates to teach English to the growing number of children who are looking to get a leg up in China’s rigorous academic environment. The opportunity is quite lucrative and requires little or no knowledge of Chinese. 

But the ads recruiting these teachers come with a catch.

---

Take, for example, Mike Lee and Will Evans, students from the U.S. and Canada, respectively, who applied to be English teachers through the New Development School, a teacher-placement agency in Beijing. Being fluent speakers of English, both believed they would make competitive candidates. 

What they didn’t know is that recruiters would not be evaluating them just on their English fluency or academic credentials. Instead, they were judged primarily on physical appearance. 

“We want him [pointing to Evans], but we don’t want you [to Lee],” the recruiter told them, as the two stood side by side at the front counter of the school. “Unfortunately, parents of our students don’t really want someone Asian to be teaching.”

Lee, who is Korean-American, was rejected from the school despite having previous experience teaching English as a second language (ESL). Evans, a white Canadian, was hired on the spot. 

“I was shocked – back home this wouldn’t be acceptable,” Lee told NBC News. “I’ve never been discriminated (against) in that way.” 

White, Caucasians only
Racial discrimination is a harsh reality within China’s ESL industry, where recruiters actively seek the blond-hair, blue-eyed all-American archetype (along with similarly equipped Britons, Australians and other native speakers close behind). While brown hair also is acceptable, having a white face is a near-absolute requirement. 

Byron Vogue, who works for the corporate English training company Stanford English, said that Chinese recruiters will always prefer to hire Caucasian applicants over their non-white counterparts.

“There’s this concept that if you send your children to English class, the parents are expecting their children to be taught by a white English teacher versus an Asian-American or … a black American,” he said. 

A post by Vogue on a popular online forum and classifieds site, The Beijinger, explicitly spells out the phenomenon:

“In Beijing this is the general pecking order in terms of a company's recruitment (by Chinese managers):

1. White Americans/Canadians

2. White British

3. White Australians/New Zealanders and South Africans

4. European Nonnatives/Black Americans/Black British

5. American Asians/Black Aussies (Australians) and Kiwis (New Zealanders)/Filipinos/Africans”

The discrimination comes, Evans said, because Chinese parents simply do not believe a non-white person can possibly be a native speaker. Thus, this logic continues, hiring a white person is the simplest and easiest way to ensure that the teacher is truly fluent.

“I was told that it was nice for parents to see foreign or white-looking teachers around the school,” Evans said, adding that he was encouraged to walk outside and greet parents. 

Advertisements for English teaching positions are up-front in their bias. A search for “English teacher” in The Beijinger’s classifieds section reveals dozens of ads that include language such as “Job requires American or Canadian white teacher” or “white color is preferred.”

The ESL teaching industry isn’t the only job market in China where being Caucasian is an asset. So-called “face jobs,” where companies temporarily hire a white person to be a fake employee during an important event or business meeting, also are common in China. 

Wanna sell something in China? Hire a white guy

‘Makes you feel like crap’

The preference for Caucasian employees angers many Asian-Americans and other English-speaking ethnic Asians.

“It makes you feel like crap,” said Lee. “We all came here on the same boat, at the same time, looking for the same opportunity. I didn’t know the color of my skin was going to be an issue. I find it weird to be discriminated against for being Asian, while I’m in Asia.”

BEIJING - Blind Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng said on Sunday that a nephew, arrested on charges of attempted murder, was the victim of vengeance by officials incensed at Chen's escape, which cast a global spotlight on his 19 months in house arrest.

Chen confirmed reports that his nephew Chen Kegui was arrested on charges of attempted homicide over a confrontation that erupted after officials in their home village found Chen Guangcheng had escaped, defeating a seemingly impenetrable barrier of guards, video surveillance and walls.

---

His escape last month humiliated China's domestic security forces and led to a standoff with Washington after Chen sought protection for six days in the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

Why did blind activist anger Chinese authorities?

Chen, who is now receiving treatment in a Beijing hospital and preparing to go to the United States to study, said his nephew was a scapegoat of officials angered by Chen's audacious escape and demands that they be investigated.

US-bound Chinese activist says relatives suffer police revenge

Officials in his home province of Shandong in east China were "mad right now, they are desperate and capable of anything, and this was revenge," he told Britain's Independent newspaper. 

"It's their final battle," he told Reuters by telephone from the Beijing hospital where he is being kept.

'They beat him savagely'
Citing descriptions from relatives, Chen said his nephew acted in self-defense, picking up a kitchen cleaver after police and guards stormed into the home of Chen's older brother, where he was staying, after midnight.

"They beat him savagely," Chen said of his nephew. "He was beaten so badly that his face was covered in blood. I heard he was beaten so badly that three hours later his face was still bleeding," Chen said.

The activist has often said he is worried that his relatives will bear the brunt of his political activities and escape from house detention.  He told The Wall Street Journal last week that he had heard of at least four family members, apart from his nephew, who being taken questioned by authorities.

Contention over the nephew is one of a bundle of uncertainties clouding Chen's plans to spend time in the United States after his audacious escape put him at the heart of international negotiations and boosted his fame as a representative of China's beleaguered "rights defense" movement. 

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng: 'I want to leave China on Hillary Clinton's plane'

Chen, a self-taught legal activist, came to national fame for campaigning for farmers and disabled citizens, and exposing forced abortions around his hometown in Shandong, where officials were under pressure to meet family planning goals. 

In 2006, Chen was sentenced to more than four years in jail on charges -- adamantly denied by his wife and lawyers -- that he whipped up a crowd that disrupted traffic and damaged property. 

Passport application
He was formally released in 2010 but remained under stifling house arrest. Officials had turned his home into a fortress of walls, security cameras and guards in plain clothes. 

Chen, 40, said he has received no word on his application for a passport, which he needs to leave for planned study at New York University. 

Officials in Yinan County, Shandong, where Chen escaped from have not answered calls from reporters about the case and the charges against the nephew, Chen Kegui. The same was true on Sunday, when police and government phones were not answered.

Freedom from Chinese labor camp comes thanks to leader's downfall 

Chen said that his nephew had injured, but not killed, men who invaded the village home after discovering Chen had fled, and he said his nephew acted in rightful self-defense. 

"This was fully in keeping with legitimate action under Chinese criminal law and regulations. Nobody has the power to storm over a wall into someone's home at midnight and then beat up people," said Chen. 

More China coverage on our Behind The Wall blog

He repeated his demand that the central Chinese government investigate and punish the Shandong officials whom he accuses of turning his village home into a virtual prison where and his family suffered beatings and abuse. 

Chinese authorities have confiscated a lawyer's license and threatened to do the same to another after they volunteered to defend Chen Kegui. 

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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BEIJING -- Westerners spreading Christmas cheer with their holiday lights last year probably didn’t realize that some of the warm glow came courtesy of a prison labor camp in China, and partially thanks to a former inmate named Fang Hong.

After serving a year making Christmas lights in grueling conditions, Fang Hong was released on April 24 from the Drug Rehabilitation and Re-Education-Through-Labor Center in China’s southwestern mega-city of Chongqing.

Fang’s crime? Before their fall, he criticized Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai, two formally powerful Chongqing officials, now with their own legal problems.

---

Wang is the ex-police chief of Chongqing, who fled to the American consulate in Chengdu for protection in February, allegedly after a fall-out with Bo.

Bo is the former Party Secretary of Chongqing, who had been a hot contender for one of China’s most powerful political positions on the standing committee of the Communist Party's politburo, but is now under investigation for corruption. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Thin and energetic, 45-year-old Fang has never been shy about speaking out. Before his imprisonment, he worked at the Fuling District Forestry Bureau in Chongqing, but spent most of his spare time writing blogs that challenged wasteful public spending and criticizing government corruption.

It is unclear whether a post he wrote last April was the last straw. In it, he mocked a lawsuit that implicated Li Zhuang, a lawyer who defended a businessman during Bo’s controversial crackdown on gangs started in 2009. While defending the businessman, Li himself drew criticism and was accused of inciting perjury. 

“Bo Xilai took a dump, and asked Wang Lijun to eat it,” Fang wrote. “Wang passed the dump to the public prosecutor, and public prosecutor passed it to the court. The court then passed it to Li Zhuang. Li’s lawyer said, Li is not hungry. Whoever took the dump can eat it.”

City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy

The mocking scatological references obviously irritated someone within the police force, who then summoned Fang on the same evening that the blog post was published.

Fang was told by police to delete his post. He did, but his ordeal had just begun.

The next day, Fang received a summons again from the Chongqing police. He refused to go, but soon found his home surrounded by more than 20 policemen and a fire truck. The standoff lasted a whole day.

Fang was detained, and four days later received a written decision without trial, sentencing him to one year in a labor re-education prison for “spreading rumors and disturbing social order.”

Fang’s son and his girlfriend were also forced to “take a vacation” to prevent them from talking to lawyers and journalists.

Fang told NBC News he had to work about 10 hours every day, including weekends. He said he was locked in the prison along with about 1,000 other inmates. He shared a room with 11 others, most of whom were serving sentences for petty crimes such as gambling, fighting, stealing a neighbor’s chicken, or taking lewd photos.

Fang said his job was to weld Christmas light bulbs for a Shenzhen-based company called Kingland Lighting, and also screw in wires for notebooks for another company, Chongqing Baogen. He also made straws for Fuling Taiji Group for its health drinks. Kingland’s website says it exports its Christmas lights to Europe.

Fang made 8 Yuan a month, about of $1.27. He told NBC News he was not allowed to eat meat and had no connections with anyone on the other side of the iron bars. A chain smoker, Fang said he eased his nicotine withdrawal thanks to a cellmate who smuggled in cigarettes for him. Chinese prisons allow inmates to smoke, but Fang had been stripped of this privilege.

In February, a lawyer who came to see Fang told him Wang and Bo were in trouble.

“The whole labor camp was in ecstasy,” said Fang. “Everyone was jubilant and saying, the oppressive official is now a traitor! The red song singer is a traitor!”

On April 24, Fang was finally released.

What did it feel like to regain his freedom? Fang simply shook his head and calmly said: “Nothing. I have no feeling. Nothing is too shocking in this country. Unfortunately, I was born in China.”

With the help of a few lawyers, Fang is now suing the Education-through-Labor Office of Chongqing, demanding that his conviction be overturned and asking for compensation.

Whether his case will be heard by the Chongqing's Third Intermediate Court is uncertain. Pu Zhiqiang, one of the lawyers fighting for Fang, told NBC News he’s optimistic.

“If the court rejects his case, it shows its cowardice to the whole world. It tells people the court cannot meet a citizen’s expectations,” Pu said.

Fang and his lawyers hope that by making his case known to the world, China will one day abolish the decades-long re-education through labor system.

“We should pursue the answer to one question: Is a labor camp legal?” said Pu. “Is it based on laws? It’s so brutal and completely up to some individual’s decision to arrest anyone, without trail and any legal procedure. Victims have no way to help themselves. It’s against the Chinese constitution and international laws. The labor camp system should be permanently abolished.”

(NBC News contacted Chongqing Third Intermediate Court on May 15. The court confirmed Fang's case will be heard but declined to give more comments at the moment.)

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Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese lawyer who escaped house arrest and now is expected to leave his country for the United States, says that police have detained his sister-in-law and a nephew in retaliation against his high-profile case, The Guardian reported on Thursday.

Chen’s escape in May from his home village in Shandong province, only to resurface in U.S. protective custody at the American Embassy in Beijing exposed the harsh tactics of local officials, embarrassed China’s security apparatus, and forced the start of awkward diplomatic wrangling over his pursuit of refuge.

According to the Guardian, Chen is no longer concerned about his own safety, but worried about relatives left behind.

---

"The crazy retaliation against my family has started," he told the Guardian by phone. "My sister-in-law was arrested and is now released on bail. They have accused her of harboring a fugitive, but they didn't say who."

Chen’s nephew is under investigation over the stabbing of village security agents who entered his home in search of the fugitive.

Chen is expected to travel to the United States after China’s foreign ministry said it would accept his bid to study abroad. He has been offered fellowships at New York University and the University of Washington.

A network of human rights activists in China said the retribution against Chen is extensive, the Associated Press reported.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders told AP that about a dozen of Chen's relatives in his home village of Dongshigu are under some form of house arrest, including Chen's cousin and the cousin's son.

"Even when the international spotlight is on Chen, his extended family has been cut off from communicating with the outside world, and his nephew is in police custody," said Wang Songlian, a researcher with the group, AP reported. "What is going to happen once the spotlight shifts? It is extremely worrying."

Chen is a self-taught legal activist who gained recognition overseas for battling forced abortion in his province and championing the rights of the disabled. He has served four years in prison on what many observers believe were trumped up charges. After his prison release, local officials kept Chen and his wife and young daughter under house arrest during which time both of the adults say they suffered physical abuse.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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• 88,000-mile voyage? Plastic card found after 33 years
• Hell-raising holy men: Boozy monks caught gambling
• Sources: Spy who uncovered underwear bomb plot is a Brit
• Video: Murder and corruption scandal rocks China
• Move over, Al Roker! Prince Charles becomes weatherman

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