Chinese Dissident Fang May Be Freed in Wake of Beijing Mission : Diplomacy: His release from refuge in the embassy would end a major irritant in U.S.-China relations.

In the wake of National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft’s mission to China, evidence is mounting that the United States and China are moving towards a deal that would free China’s most famous dissident, Fang Lizhi, and his wife from their six-month confinement inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Fang, a prominent astrophysicist who said last year that Marxism “is no longer of much use in China,” took refuge inside the embassy last June, three days after Chinese troops crushed the pro-democracy movement at Tian An Men Square. He was accompanied by his wife, Li Shuxian, also a leading critic of the Chinese Communist Party.

Since then, Fang’s case has become one of the principal obstacles to the Bush Administration’s effort to improve the strained relations between the United States and China. Fang’s release from the embassy would enable the Bush Administration to show it has obtained some tangible results from Scowcroft’s trip to China, which drew intense criticism in Congress.

The first clue that the Administration might be seeking to resolve Fang’s fate came Tuesday, when the White House confirmed that Chase Untermeyer, President Bush’s White House assistant for personnel, accompanied Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger on their trip to Beijing last weekend.

Untermeyer has worked for Bush since the mid-1970s and is one of his closest aides, the man assigned to soothe large egos and disgruntled personnel. He has no foreign policy experience and reportedly did not take part in the formal meetings which Scowcroft and Eagleburger held with Chinese leaders. A White House spokesman explained that while in Beijing, Untermeyer met with two old friends of Bush, whose names were not disclosed.

Asked whether Untermeyer had held talks with Fang inside the U.S. Embassy during the delegation’s 25-hour stay in Beijing, a U.S. official active in China policy replied Thursday: “I just can’t comment on that. . . . It’s probably reasonable for you to assume that he might have, because he is a close friend of Bush’s and had some time on his hands in Beijing.”

While refusing to confirm that a deal is in the works for Fang’s release, this U.S. official replied: “Whatever might be worked out would be strictly in accordance with what Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian want. Nothing will be dictated to them, either by the Chinese or by us.”

On Thursday, in a new indication that the Bush Administration and China are seeking a settlement, the Chinese Foreign Ministry suddenly changed its official position concerning Fang.

For the past half-year, China has refused to take any steps to end Fang’s confinement. The Chinese regime quickly denounced Fang as a traitor and “counterrevolutionary” and issued a warrant for his arrest, insisting that the only possible way out was for the United States to turn him over to Chinese authorities.

“Whoever started the trouble should end it,” a spokesman for China’s State Council, Yuan Mu, said last July. “The final solution lies with the U.S. side.”

But when asked about Fang at a weekly news briefing Thursday in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jin Guihua omitted any harsh condemnation of the Chinese dissident and called the U.S. Embassy’s sheltering of him a “sensitive question.”

“Solving the problem will require effort on both sides,” said the Chinese spokesman, thus acknowledging for the first time that China is willing to help resolve Fang’s case.

It is not yet clear exactly what the outlines of a deal for Fang’s release might be.

The most likely outcome would be for China to let him go abroad. China would have to withdraw its heavy security presence around the U.S. Embassy and permit Fang to be taken out of it, across Chinese soil, to the Beijing airport. That would mean either withdrawing or ignoring the warrant for his arrest.

If Fang is permitted to go overseas, he would probably emerge as an eloquent spokesman and unifying force for the democracy movement among Chinese exiles and students overseas. For that reason, some U.S. specialists have said they believe China might prefer to keep Fang bottled up inside the embassy.

However, a U.S. official said in October that “as long as he (Fang) is in there, he’ll be an obstacle to improvement in our relations. And a big one.”

Both China and the Bush Administration might want to avoid having Fang settle in the United States, where his flamboyant attacks on the totalitarian nature of the Chinese Communist Party would might make him a continuing irritant between the governments. There are more than 40,000 Chinese students in the United States, by far the largest group in any country outside China.

One possible solution would be for Fang to settle in another country. France, for example, has already emerged as a haven for Chinese intellectuals and political dissidents, some of whom have been denied visas to come to the United States. It is unclear, however, whether Fang would go along with a deal between the Bush Administration and China that denies him access to the United States or limits his ability to travel.

On at least one occasion since June, the Bush Administration has sought to curb public recognition for Fang in this country.

This fall, State Department officials sought to dissuade the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation from presenting its annual human rights award to the Chinese dissident on grounds that the award could complicate efforts to end Fang’s confinement.

Foundation officials postponed the ceremonies on one occasion but then went ahead with the award. From Beijing, Fang sent a written acceptance speech in which he said that China’s 1.1 billion people “can and must enjoy the same inalienable rights, dignity and liberty as other human beings.”

The release of Fang would help the Bush Administration to stave off efforts in Congress, in response to the June 3-4 massacre, to enact legislation imposing economic sanctions against China and protecting Chinese students in the United States from being required to return home.

“It (Fang’s release) would be enough to carry a number of Republicans,” said a top Senate GOP aide.

At the White House, press spokesman Marlin Fitzwater was asked Thursday whether he expected any action concerning Fang. “Nothing to report,” Fitzwater replied.

Times staff writer Sara Fritz contributed to this article.