U.S.
Pressing China 'At Every Level' in Spying Case
Tuesday July 24 5:10 PM ET
By David Storey
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was pressing China
"at every level" to free on humanitarian grounds U.S.-based
Chinese scholar Gao Zhan, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison
for spying for Taiwan.
The
Chinese ruling, days before a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State
Colin Powell to repair frayed relations, also drew an angry response
from members of the U.S. Congress, with one calling it a "diplomatic
slap in the face."
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker told a regular briefing
the administration had been told by Gao's lawyer that she was seeking
parole on medical grounds.
U.S. officials were "engaged intensively with the Chinese"
to urge her early release, Reeker said. "We continue to urge
the Chinese government at every level for her early release on humanitarian
grounds," he added.
Reeker did not comment specifically on the sentencing by the same
court of another U.S.-based academic, Qin Guangguang, but said: "We
remain concerned about the cases of other permanent residents as well,
and we urge the Chinese to resolve all of these cases rapidly."
The cases against several U.S.-related academics in China coincided
with a period of strained relations since President Bush took power
in Washington in January promising to treat the Communist giant as
a "strategic competitor."
Powell's visit was aimed at righting a relationship knocked off course
by a dispute over the collision of a U.S. spy plane with a Chinese
fighter jet in April and Chinese concerns over U.S. missile defense
plans.
U.S.
PRESSING FOR DEPORTATION
Gao, although resident in the United States with her husband and
5-year-old son, is a Chinese citizen.
She was not ordered deported, as was another Chinese-born academic,
Li Shaomin, earlier this month. Li was also accused of spying for
Taiwan but who does have U.S. citizenship.
Li is still being held despite the order and Reeker said, "We're
also engaged very intensively on Mr. Li's release."
U.S.
officials were denied access to Gao's trial. Reeker said they had
had no contact with Gao, a sociologist at American University in Washington,
since she was detained on Feb. 11.
Her U.S. lawyer, Jerome Cohen, told Reuters he was hoping she would
be released in the next few days because of a heart condition, perhaps
before Powell arrives in China on Saturday.
"I am hopeful about that medical decision. That would allow
her to be out of the country before Secretary Powell gets there,"
Cohen said in New York. Gao's Beijing lawyer, Bai Xuebiao, has already
applied for a medical parole.
In recent days, Cohen said, Gao had suffered a recurrence of a condition
characterized by an excessively rapid heartbeat. He said Chinese authorities
had requested her medical records.
The Chinese government has used medical parole in the past to expel
dissidents, including Wei Jingsheng, now living in the United States
after being let out in 1997.
POWELL
TO RAISE THE CASE
An official traveling with Powell in Hanoi said he would be pressing
Gao's case in meetings with the Chinese at a regional conference in
the Vietnamese capital.
In
Washington, Gao's husband Xue Dongha expressed outrage at what he
called a political case. "I think the Chinese government wants
to show Mr. Powell its hard side," he said in an interview with
Reuters Television.
Republican Sen. George Allen of Virginia said he had written to the
Chinese ambassador to urge that Gao be freed on humanitarian grounds
and had asked for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to arrange for a doctor
to visit her.
He also said he was trying to speed up consideration of a special
bill in the Senate to grant Gao U.S. citizenship.
Tom
Lantos of California, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives
International Relations Committee, was more outspoken, echoing the
feelings of many in Congress, where voices have been raised against
Chinese human rights abuses.
"Today's sentencing by a secret tribunal in Beijing of an innocent
U.S.-based scholar on trumped-up spying charges is outrageous,"
he said in a statement.
"And coming on the eve of Secretary Powell's visit, it is a
diplomatic slap in the face," Lantos said.
Speaking to reporters at the National Press Club, Chinese Ambassador
Yang Jiechi defended the action of the court, saying every country
had its concerns about national security and those who would seek
to damage it.
"We have an independent judiciary so we respect the judgement
of the judiciary and we hope that other countries will do the same,"
he said.
