Associated Press
Saturday, July 21, 2001; Page A20
BEIJING, July 20 -- An American University scholar accused of espionage
will go on trial here next week -- just days before Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell arrives for a visit aimed at improving strained relations.
Bai Xuebiao, a lawyer for sociologist Gao Zhan, said the trial is
scheduled to begin Tuesday. The timing suggested China did not want
Gao's case to cloud Powell's visit.
China's
detentions of Gao and other scholars and business people with U.S.
links have added to tensions between Beijing and Washington. The trial
will come one day after Clark Randt takes up his post as U.S. ambassador
to China.
Gao was detained at Beijing's airport Feb. 11, during a family trip
to China. Chinese authorities held her 5-year-old son, a U.S. citizen,
for 26 days, without notifying the U.S. Embassy, as required under
a treaty. Her husband was also detained.
Bai said he was heartened by a court's decision on July 14 to deport
rather than jail Li Shaomin, a scholar who was convicted of spying.
However, Li is a U.S. citizen. Gao is a Chinese citizen and a permanent
resident in the United States.
Prosecutors alleged that Li spied for Taiwan. But Bai said Gao's
indictment does not mention Taiwan. Gao denies the charges.
By Philip P.
Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 19, 2001; Page A24
BEIJING,
July 18 -- American University researcher Gao Zhan appeared to be
in good health and denied she was a spy for Taiwan during a meeting
with her Chinese lawyer last week, the lawyer said today.
The
meeting was Gao's first contact with the lawyer, Bai Xuebiao, since
State Security Ministry agents detained her on Feb. 11 as she was
leaving Beijing to return to Washington. Bai said the government allowed
him to meet with Gao for 2 1/2 hours at a ministry detention center
on July 10. He said prosecutors formally indicted on her on espionage
charges Monday and could bring her to trial as early as next week.
The developments suggested China may be preparing to release Gao,
41, a U.S. green card holder, before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's
visit to China on July 28, or soon after his visit, in a gesture intended
to signal the Chinese government's desire to improve relations with
the United States.
On Saturday, a Beijing court convicted U.S. business professor Li
Shaomin of spying for Taiwan and ordered him deported. The court could
do the same to Gao, but her prospects are less certain. Unlike Li,
a naturalized U.S. citizen, Gao is a Chinese citizen. She moved to
the United States in 1989 and was waiting for citizenship when she
returned to China to visit her parents.
Gao and Li are among several Chinese-born U.S. citizens or permanent
residents detained by Chinese police in recent months whose cases
have become sore points in U.S.-China relations. During their first
phone conversation earlier this month, President Bush pressed Chinese
President Jiang Zemin for their release and some members of Congress
have urged him to cancel his October visit to China if Beijing does
not respond.
Gao's
case in particular has angered U.S. officials because Chinese authorities
also detained her husband, Donghua Xue, and their 5-year-old son,
Andrew, for 26 days. Andrew, a U.S. citizen, was separated from his
parents and held in a state kindergarten, and China failed to notify
the U.S. Embassy of his detention as required by a bilateral agreement.
Bai said Gao asked about her family during the meeting last week
and was eager to see them again. He also said she appeared in good
spirits and was being held in conditions better than those in other
Chinese jails.
Gao's husband met today in Washington with Sen. George Allen (R-Va.)
and Clark Randt, Bush's nominee for ambassador to China. Randt said
that Gao's release was at the top of his agenda and that he would
raise it in meetings with Chinese leaders if she were not freed after
trial, Xue said.
Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu in Washington contributed to this report.
The
Taiwanese Government says it is investigating a local newspaper report
that a retired Taiwanese military officer defected to mainland China
and is now serving in the People's Liberation Army.
The newspaper the mass circulation China Times quoted intelligence
sources as saying that former Lieutenant-Colonel Liu had been promoted
by the Chinese to the rank of colonel, serving in China's army in
the Nanjing military zone for the last year.
Colonel
Liu was reported to be one of a number of Taiwanese veterans who have
joined the People's Liberation Army - most are said to have been assigned
to military teaching establishments.
The newspaper said it believed his recruitment was part of a plot
by Beijing to lure retired Taiwanese soldiers with offers of promotion
and family settlement.
China
Signs $2 Billion Deal To Buy Russian Fighter Jets
Aircraft to Strengthen Beijing's Ability to Attack Taiwan
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 20, 2001; Page A27
BEIJING,
July 19 -- China has signed a contract with a Russian aircraft manufacturer
for another batch of ground-attack jets, Russian news reports and
diplomats said, in a move that would allow China's modernizing armed
forces to improve their ability to launch an assault on Taiwan.
Russian news reports and diplomats said Chinese officials signed
the contract with the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Production Association
to supply upward of $2 billion worth of Su-30 MKK ground-attack planes.
One report, by the Russian Tass news agency, put the number of jets
at 38.
Another
report, by Russia's Military News Agency, said the factory's 5,000
workers would be working overtime until 2003 to fulfill the terms
of a foreign contract. In 1999, China concluded a $1.8 billion deal
for 40 Su-30s. So far, 10 are believed to have been delivered.
The Su-30 will provide China's air force with a potent ground-attack
element to complement the Su-27 fighter that China first purchased
from Russia in 1992, analysts said. So far, Russia has delivered between
70 and 100 Su-27s to China, and the two countries are currently co-producing
the fighter in an aeronautics factory in Shenyang, China. Ten are
believed to have rolled off that production line.
News of the contract came after China and Russia concluded on Monday
their first treaty since their military alliance of 1950 that collapsed
10 years later. China's President Jiang Zemin and his Russian counterpart,
Vladimir Putin, signed the treaty on the second day of Jiang's four-day
visit to Russia, the second of four summits scheduled between the
two leaders this year.
The treaty contains provisions for military technology cooperation
but falls far short of the previous, ill-fated alliance. After it
collapsed, relations degenerated into sporadic border clashes in the
1960s and 1970s.
The new treaty, which has a duration of 10 years, commits Russia
and China to unite wherever possible to work against "hegemonism,"
which analysts say is a code word for the United States. Moscow also
reiterated its support for China's stance on Taiwan: that the island
of 23 million people is an inalienable part of China, and China has
the right to attack Taiwan if it declares independence.
Jiang's delegation did not include senior weapons procurement officials,
diplomats said, so the deal was signed either before or just after
he left.
China's
modernization of its military is of concern to the United States because
it is aimed at Taiwan, an island 100 miles off China's coast that
the United States issomewhat vaguely committed to defending. The United
States is most concerned with a buildup of China's missile bases opposite
Taiwan, but other areas of Beijing's military modernization, specifically
its air force and navy, are also of concern to Washington, Western
diplomats said.
Ken Allen, a former U.S. Air Force officer and an expert on the Chinese
air force, said the purchase of the Su-30s was even more significant
than China's decision in 1992 to buy the Su-27 fighters. The reason
is that China has now obtained a sophisticated ground-attack aircraft
after years of relying on its 450 A-5s, a slightly redesigned MiG-19
with no ability to defend itself and a short range.
"China had tried for years to make the Su-27 into a ground-attack
aircraft and it didn't work," Allen said. "The Su-30 gives
them a long-range, air-to-ground attack aircraft. That's arguably
more important than having the Su-27."
Allen said that combined with the Su-27, the Su-30 could constitute
a potent threat to Taiwan. The Chinese could use the Su-27 to attempt
to gain air superiority and use the Su-30 in its primary role as a
ground-attack aircraft.
However, Taiwan's air force also has potentially powerful countermeasures:
U.S.-built F-16 fighters, French-built Mirage 2000s and a Taiwanese-designed
fighter.
Allen said the Su-30 deal also marked another major step toward increasing
China's dependence on Russian military technology. Russia is China's
biggest foreign arms supplier and China now constitutes Russia's biggest
arms market -- accounting for between 30 percent and 50 percent of
Russia's foreign military sales, according to a recent report by the
Interfax news agency.
An
example of this dependence is the Su-27 co-production arrangement.
The fighters are assembled in Shenyang, but the parts are made in
Russia. And there is little sign that Russia is willing in the near
future to transfer the technology needed to manufacture important
parts of the plane, such as its avionics and engine, in Shenyang.
And, most important, jet fighters need to have their airframes overhauled,
usually after about 800 hours of flight time, and this can only be
performed on the Su-27s and Su-30s in Russia.
"This means that China is going to be shipping the pride of
its air force back to Russia," said an Asian diplomat. "Think
about it. No wonder China is so interested in ensuring good ties with
Moscow."
The pair are believed to be negotiating a deal to provide China with
an airborne early warning radar system as well as advanced in-flight
refueling technology.
China
has concentrated its military buildup on ensuring that it will have
military superiority in the Taiwan Strait. The Pentagon has predicted
that the military balance will begin to shift between 2005 and 2010.
China's purchases, particularly of Kilo-class submarines, Su-27s,
Su-30s and Sovremenny-class destroyers equipped with Sunburn supersonic
anti-ship missiles, are designed, analysts say, not to simply threaten
Taiwan but to make U.S. commanders in the region hesitate to engage
China in a fight if China attacked Taiwan.
Allen said the sale is also another indication that China's plans
to create an indigenous ground-attack aircraft, called the F-10, are
far behind schedule.
