ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION
Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States on Saturday (May 19) after China allowed him to leave a hospital in Beijing in a move that could signal the end of a diplomatic rift between the two countries.
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 controversy 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. (2200 GMT) on Saturday, said a Reuters witness on board the flight.
He traveled to New York University in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood. Chen, one of China's most prominent dissidents, is going to study as a fellow at the NYU School of Law, the institution said on Saturday.
