- The State Department says Chen's paperwork on the U.S. side is complete
- The U.S. is ready to receive Chen and his family, a spokeswoman says
- Chen Guangcheng tells U.S. lawmakers that his brother and nephew were beaten
- The nephew faces "trumped-up" homicide charge, Chen says via telephone
Washington (CNN) -- The United States says it has taken all the necessary steps on its side to admit Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese human rights activist who ignited a diplomatic frenzy when he escaped house arrest last month.
"We are ready when he and his government are ready," said Victoria Nuland, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman, on Tuesday. "We have been for more than a week now in terms of his visa to come pursue his studies."
China has said that Chen can apply to study abroad. But for the time being, he remains in the Beijing hospital room in which he has been staying since he left the refuge of the U.S. Embassy two weeks ago, awaiting his travel documents.
The U.S. authorities have completed all the processing for Chen, his wife and two children to travel to the United States, where Chen has been invited to study by New York University, Nuland said at a regular briefing.
"He is continuing to work with his government," she said. "Our information is that those conversations, contacts, and processing continue."
Nuland's comments came on the same day that U.S. lawmakers listened to Chen describing reprisals that he said his relatives continue to suffer at the hands of the authorities in China.
"My elder brother was taken away by these thugs without any reasoning and then they came back and started beating up my nephew, and they used stakes and violently beat him up," Chen told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a telephone call from his hospital room.
Chen added that his relatives' homes had been broken into and they had been beaten by government thugs.
Chen said his nephew Chen Kegui tried to defend himself and now faces a "totally trumped-up" charge of homicide.
"After my nephew was beaten up, he actually was waiting to surrender himself and the police come back again and violently beat up my sister-in-law," Chen said.
He added that he is no longer able to talk with his relatives "because all their communication tools are confiscated."
Chen thanked the lawmakers for their interest in his case, saying it "shows you care about the equality and the justice. Those are universal values, and I'm very grateful to all of you."
Last month, Chen, who is blind, escaped more than 18 months of house arrest in eastern China.
After spending six days in the U.S. Embassy, the prominent human rights activist left for a hospital, but has since pleaded to be allowed to leave China.
Rep. Christopher Smith, R-New Jersey, described Chen's confinement to his hospital room with his wife and their two children as "virtual house arrest." Smith said Chen believes he made an oral application on Sunday to government officials for him and his family to leave the country, but he has not been notified of any action on it.
Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed, told the committee members that the freedom of Chen, his wife and their two children "is not secure yet." She urged the members "to compel China to honor its own laws."
Chen said last Tuesday that he was having daily phone conversations with U.S. Embassy officials about his condition, though the Americans were still barred from regularly entering his heavily guarded hospital building.
He said representatives of China's central government had pledged to help him obtain a passport and look into the allegations of brutal treatment that he and his family say they suffered at the hands of officials in their home in Shandong province.
Chen was sentenced in 2006 to four years and three months in prison for "damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic" -- charges that his supporters maintain were trumped up by the authorities to punish his legal advocacy for victims of what he called abusive family-planning policies, including forced abortions and sterilization.
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency published no immediate reaction to Chen's comments.
