Staying would still be the best option for Chen and family

By now, many people would agree that blind activist Chen Guangcheng's odyssey to freedom contains more than enough suspense and fast-moving twists and turns to make a Hollywood blockbuster.

It started on a moonless night on April 22 when Chen scaled a wall surrounding his modest home in Shandong and set off on a desperate flight in which he said he fell more than 200 times before being picked up by one of his supporters.

After being driven to Beijing and hiding in different apartments, Chen's decision to seek shelter at the American embassy elevated his case to the highest international level, with a tinge of spy intrigue of car changing and chasing. A report in The New York Times last week detailed how Chen's car moved into an alley, an embassy vehicle drew alongside, and the lawyer was pulled into the US vehicle. On the way to the embassy, the Americans evaded two vehicles, presumably full of Chinese state security agents.

Then intense negotiations between Chinese and American officials over Chen's fate followed, resulting in a dramatic announcement that Chen would stay in China to pursue legal studies before leaving the embassy on Wednesday. On Thursday, however, Chen apparently changed his mind and made a dramatic plea to the overseas media and some US congressmen that he wanted to leave China and accused US officials of abandoning him at Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing.

That set off another round of intense talks between the Chinese and American officials, resulting in a tentative statement on Friday from Beijing that Chen could seek permission to study abroad, along with his family. All this occurred against the background of bilateral talks between the top leaders and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Now Chen is still holed up in the hospital under tight security, although it seems very likely that he will be allowed to leave the country soon.

Chen's departure from the country could be the most viable ending under such circumstances. But it could have had a much better and more meaningful ending, with far-reaching implications for China's rights movement and even political development, if Chen was able to stay on the mainland as he originally wanted. That did not happen, mainly because of the Americans' gigantic bungling at the last minute.