July 25, 2001; Page 1A
China convicts
two U.S. scholars
10-year sentences threaten relations
By Steve Friess
Special for USA TODAY
BEIJING -- China tested recently improving relations
with Washington on Tuesday when it convicted two U.S.-based
scholars on espionage charges just four days before Secretary
of State Colin Powell is set to visit Beijing.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said Gao Zhan
and Qin Guangguang, Chinese citizens who are permanent U.S.
residents, spied for Taiwan, ''causing a serious threat to China's
national security.'' Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Bush administration officials in Washington
privately predicted that China would move swiftly to expel Gao
and Qin -- possibly while Powell is in Beijing -- rather than
see the incident mar his visit. In past such cases, a trial
verdict has been followed by expulsion.
''It's only Tuesday night, Powell doesn't arrive
until the weekend. Give it a day or two and you may see it's
better,'' said Gao's U.S.-based lawyer, Jerome Cohen.
But State Department officials said Gao and
Qin could receive harsher treatment because they are not U.S.
citizens. There also was concern within the administration that
hard-liners in the Chinese regime could be trying to signal
to China's would-be free thinkers that dissent will not be tolerated.
The White House called for the release of Gao and Qin on humanitarian
grounds.
The State Department said it was engaged ''intensively''
with China to obtain Gao's early release.
''We have an independent judiciary, so we respect
the decision of the judiciary,'' said Yang Jiechi, China's ambassador
to the United States. ''And we hope that foreign countries will
also do the same.''
Gao, 39, an American University researcher who
has studied China-Taiwan relations, was arrested at the Beijing
airport Feb. 11 during a family visit. Her 5-year-old son and
husband, who are both U.S. citizens, were also temporarily held.
Gao, who has heart and breathing problems, is
in solitary confinement. ''I can't imagine how . . . she is
going to take this,'' her husband, Xue Donghua, said.
Qin, a former newspaper editor in China, has
taught at U.S. universities and worked for an American medical
group in Beijing. He was detained in December. A third scholar,
Li Shaomin, who is a U.S. citizen, was ordered deported earlier
this month after an espionage conviction. The deportation happened
today. Two other academics, Wu Jianming, a U.S. citizen, and
Xu Zerong, a Hong Kong-based historian with permanent U.S. residency
status, remain in custody.
A State Department official stopped short of
saying the convictions would cast a pall over Powell's visit
to Beijing on Saturday. The official said the secretary would
raise the issue today with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan
at a security conference in Hanoi, in neighboring Vietnam.
Powell's visit to China was intended to put
relations on a sounder footing after the collision April 1 of
a U.S. Navy surveillance plane with a Chinese fighter jet and
an 11-day standoff while China held the U.S. crew and plane
on the island of Hainan. Powell also planned to prepare for
President Bush's visit to China in October.
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