Blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng must get used to indefinite exile from China and diminished influence after he joined other dissidents in taking refuge far from home, fellow activists said Sunday.

Chen landed in New York Saturday after an extraordinary journey that took him from house arrest in a small Chinese village to the glare of the international spotlight in his new role as one of the world's most famous rights activists.

The self-taught lawyer and his family spent two tense weeks in a Beijing hospital waiting for travel documents. They were only told on Saturday morning that they were leaving for the United States.

Chen has repeatedly said he is not seeking exile in the United States, but wants to go back to China, and has expressed concern about the fate of the relatives he left behind.

But past cases suggest the Chinese government will be reluctant to allow the return of a man whose escape caused international embarrassment and led to a diplomatic crisis with the United States.

"If he wants to come back to China, I think it will be very difficult," retired Shandong University professor and long-time social critic Sun Wenguang told AFP.

"The authorities will not welcome him back. He brought on diplomatic turmoil and became a focus of the international press. The government will not allow him to return easily."

Chen, who has been blind since childhood, won plaudits for his work investigating forced sterilizations and late-term abortions under China's "one-child" population control policy.

He served over four years in prison for his efforts. On his release from jail in 2010, he was subjected to illegal and brutal house arrest in his home village of Dongshigu in eastern China's Shandong province.

Although his house arrest made it difficult for him to continue his legal campaigning work, Chen, 40, became a rallying cause for fellow activists in China who flocked to his village to show their support.

Rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong said that would make Beijing think twice about letting Chen return -- even though the government is obliged under international law to allow its citizens back into the country.

"The Chinese government has agreed to allow Chen Guangcheng to go abroad to study in accordance with his rights as a Chinese citizen," he told AFP, citing Beijing's official explanation for Chen's flight abroad.

"So he should also have the right, as a citizen, to return to China. But under the current political climate, I doubt the government will allow him to return.

"There are many cases where the Chinese government violates domestic and international law and refuses to allow citizens to either leave the country or return."

They include leading dissident Wei Jingsheng, who left China in 1997 on medical parole in a deal brokered by the United States, and Christian activist Bob Fu, a close friend and supporter of Chen who now lives in Texas.

China has also barred the return of numerous activists linked to the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and the Falungong spiritual group that Beijing outlawed in 1999, Jiang said.

"Getting Chen Guangcheng and his family on a plane is the easiest part of this saga," said Phelim Kine, Asia researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"The harder, longer term part is ensuring his right under international law to return to China when he sees fit."

Exiled activists like Chen can take heart from the explosion of social media as Chinese flock to Twitter-like "weibo" services and foreign-based Chinese-language news sources, such as Boxun.com.

Chen has been given a fellowship to study law at New York University and has already moved into a Manhattan apartment with his wife and two young children.

But retired professor Sun said that even under house arrest, deprived of their full rights of freedom of speech and association, Chen and activists like him had more influence in China than they did abroad.

"Even if he was put under house arrest again and not allowed to speak to anyone, he would still be influential because a lot of people would be watching what happens to him," Sun said.

"He has suffered a lot and I congratulate him for succeeding in going abroad where he can still be effective. But I'm afraid he won't be as effective as if he were in China."

Timeline of events in China blind dissident case
Beijing (AFP) May 19, 2012 - A timeline of events surrounding blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, the 40-year-old self-taught lawyer who on Saturday left his homeland for the United States after his dramatic escape from house arrest.

-- August 2006: Chen is sentenced to four years and three months in prison, after accusing authorities in Shandong province's Linyi county of forcing up to 7,000 women to undergo late-term abortions or sterilisations.

The conviction is for "wilfully damaging public property and organising a mob to disturb traffic". Chen's supporters say the charges were trumped up to stop his legal work on behalf of victims of China's "one-child" policy.

-- September 2010: Chen is released from jail but held under illegal house arrest, along with his wife and young daughter, with dozens of security officers posted outside their home in the Shandong village of Dongshigu.

The couple also have a son, who lives with the wife's parents.

-- October 2011: A group of around 30 activists who travel to Dongshigu in support of Chen are assaulted and have their cameras and mobile phones robbed by a group of hired guards.

-- November 2011: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a speech at an Asia-Pacific summit attended by China, calls for Chen's release. China attacks the speech as "interference" in its internal affairs.

-- December 2011: Hollywood actor Christian Bale, along with a group of journalists and activists, is roughed up by police and barred from Dongshigu after attempting to visit Chen at his home.

-- April 22, 2012: Chen, who was blinded by illness in infancy, flees his closely guarded home under the noses of the plain-clothes security officers, with help from supporters.

In a video address to China's Premier Wen Jiabao that is later posted online, Chen says he has suffered repeated beatings, and expresses serious concerns for his wife and family.

-- April 27: Reports emerge that Chen has taken refuge at the US embassy in Beijing.

-- April 28: Rights groups say that Chen is under US "protection" at the embassy and that the Chinese and US governments are in talks over his status, ahead of a scheduled annual meeting between the two sides in Beijing.

-- May 2: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders that were scheduled before Chen's escape from house arrest.

Chen leaves the US embassy and is taken to hospital, with China giving assurances to US officials that he and his family will be safe.

-- May 3: Chen, complaining that he has been abandoned by the United States and threatened by China, appeals to Washington to help him and his family leave the country.

A senior US official says Washington will offer the dissident assistance if required, as Clinton calls at the annual talks for China to respect its people's desire "for dignity and the rule of law".

-- May 4: Chen tells AFP that he is in "great danger" and urges the Chinese government to respect commitments it made about his safety when he left the US embassy.

Hours later, Beijing says Chen can apply to study abroad, offering a possible resolution. Clinton says that is "progress" and Washington confirms the activist has been offered a fellowship by an American university.

-- May 7: The United States should "take necessary measures" to prevent a repeat of the Chen incident, says China, which accused Washington of interfering in its affairs.

-- May 11: Chen says his nephew is facing a murder charge after attacking officials who broke into his home in the search for the blind lawyer after his escape from house arrest.

-- May 15: In a second telephone call to the US Congress from his Beijing hospital bed, Chen accuses Chinese authorities of a pattern of abuse against his family.

-- May 17: Chen tells AFP that China has agreed to issue him a passport within 15 days, allowing him to go to the United States.

-- May 19: The activist leaves China for the United States with his family.