Dissident Chen Guangcheng accuses NYU of giving in to China's Communist Party

Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng , whose dramatic escape from house arrest to the US embassy in Beijing last year sparked a diplomatic crisis, has accused New York University of ending his fellowship there after coming under "unrelenting pressure" from China.

The pressure from the Communist Party was so great that "after we had been in the US just three to four months, NYU was already starting to discuss our departure with us", he said in a statement yesterday.

He said that "academic independence and academic freedom in the US are being greatly threatened by a totalitarian regime". He added: "Communist rulers want me to be too busy earning a living to spend time on human rights. But I will never bow my head to evil or to lies."

Chen has continued to be outspoken on human rights abuses on the mainland since arriving in the US in May last year.

Chen, a high-profile activist who spent years in extra-legal detention and jail for exposing forced abortions in rural Shandong province, put Sino-US relations to the test last year when he fled house arrest in his village and took refuge in the US embassy in Beijing.

Responding to Chen's claims, Jerome Cohen, a law professor who has been Chen's mentor and arranged for him to study at NYU, said he had "failed as a teacher". "Unsupported conspiracy theories lead to unfair accusations," he said. "I am against past attempts [by China] to interfere with other jurisdictions but we should all respect facts."

Chen did not respond to repeated requests for evidence of his claims.