“I don’t really feel that happy, but rather sentimental,” he said in the brief interview. “After all the suffering for years, I don’t have those tearful moments anymore, but I do feel something inside.”

He looked calm, but his hands shook as he talked about leaving a country he has tried to change from within for years.

“I’m very clear what kind of role I’m playing right now,” he said. “Opportunity and risk exist at the same time.”

In Washington, the State Department praised the Chinese government in a statement that reflected the United States’ handling of the case from the start: understated and nonconfrontational, despite the emotions and high stakes involved for both countries. “We also express our appreciation for the manner in which we were able to resolve this matter and to support Mr. Chen’s desire to study in the U.S. and pursue his goals,” the State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said.

Her statement referred to the complex understanding — the Chinese were loath to call it a deal — in which Mr. Chen will be allowed to attend law school on a fellowship rather than seek asylum, which the authorities in Beijing would have considered an affront. School officials said they had already stocked a faculty apartment with Chinese food and new furniture for him.

His departure from Beijing — after two weeks of waiting — avoided a major embarrassment for the Obama administration, which was criticized by Chinese activists and some Republicans in Congress who accused the administration of releasing Mr. Chen too quickly into Chinese custody and, they said, seeking an expedient solution to a nettlesome problem ahead of Mrs. Clinton’s visit to China in early May. Since then, activists have been mainly supportive of the United States’ efforts to help Mr. Chen.