By Joe McDonald/AP
On Feb. 11, Gao Zhan, a political scientist at Washington’s American University, was ready to fly back to the United States after the end of a family visit. But at the Beijing airport, Gao, her husband and their 5-year-old son were taken into custody by Chinese police. Some six weeks later, the professor remains in police custody. Her family was released 26 days after their arrest.
The incident has complicated President George W. Bush’s meetings with Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen, during which the boy’s fate was intermingled with high policy issues. Bush stressed the need for good relations with China, but told Qian during their meeting on March 22 that the United States will meet Taiwan’s defense needs and encourage human rights reform in China.
China is accusing Gao of harming national security, and she is being held at an undisclosed location. According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi, Gao admitted to criminal acts. He would not give details, but said an investigation was still under way.
The vague, sweeping charge has been leveled at dissidents and activists seeking independence for Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang in the northwest.
“We didn’t have a chance to look at each other,” Gao’s husband, Xue Donghua, said on Friday in an interview on ABC TV. “They blindfolded me, I guess they blindfolded my wife. I’m not sure about Andrew.”
Asked if there is any possibility his wife could have been involved in intelligence gathering, Xue replied, “Absolutely not. She was a scholar and teacher, a researcher.”
As for his wife’s condition, he said, “The only thing I know is she is alive, according to the Chinese government.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher urged China to release Gao immediately.
Gao is the third Chinese-born researcher in as many years to be detained during a visit home. Hua Di, a Stanford University expert on China’s military, arrested in 1998, was sentenced last month to 10 years imprisonment on espionage charges. Hua was sentenced to prison last month on charges of leaking state secrets, his family says. He fled China after criticizing the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989. His family said he had received assurances that he could safely return.
In 1999, a librarian from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania was detained for six months while doing research on the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Song Yongyi was accused of stealing state secrets. Chinese authorities claimed he confessed and repented, though Song later denied having committed any crime.
Gao, 40, is an unpaid faculty fellow at American University and has done research on women’s issues, economic reform in China and Chinese-Taiwan relations. She also is treasurer of the Association of Chinese Political Studies, an American scholarly group. She has traveled twice with a study group to Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing views as a breakaway province.
Her son, Andrew, is a U.S. citizen. Sun, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, confirmed that Chinese authorities did not inform the U.S. Embassy of the case. A consular treaty requires notification when an American is detained, but Sun said Andrew was never formally detained.
“Her son was not detained, but rather cared for in a kindergarten. The child’s parents did not demand that the Chinese side notify the embassy, so there is no question of violation of the consular treaty,” Sun said.
But a U.S. Embassy official said the treaty requires notification for detention of any kind — even of children in the custody of authorities while their parents are detained by police. The official asked not to be identified.
Xue said in a statement released by Human Rights in China that police refused to let him see his son unless he gave them damaging information about his wife; police questioned him repeatedly about her research and two visits she made to rival Taiwan. “I completely believe that my wife is innocent,” Xue was quoted as saying.
Xue also said police refused to let Andrew stay with his grandparents, and that the boy was traumatized by the long separation.
Sun said Andrew’s legal guardian consented to sending him to the state school.
U.S. diplomats in Beijing declined to discuss the case, but said they believed Human Rights in China’s report was accurate.
The senior U.S. official, who briefed reporters after the Bush-Qian meeting, said the Chinese official told Bush that Gao may not have been aware that she violated Chinese law.
Bush was asked during a photo session with Qian how he planned to protect human rights in China. He did not answer the question directly, but said “it would be a lot easier” for American-Chinese relations to move forward when “people with whom we conduct our affairs honor religious freedom within their borders.”
According to the senior official, Bush reassured Qian during their talks, “Nothing we do is a threat to you, and I want you to tell that to your leadership.” Qian said during the photo session that maintenance of friendly relations between the United States and China serves the interests of the peoples of Asia and the rest of the world.
U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan are potentially the most explosive issue for Washington and Beijing. Qian warned of “very serious” consequences if the United States goes ahead with the sale to Taiwan of destroyers with state-of-the-art radar.
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act says the United States must meet Taiwan’s legitimate defense needs.
“We have obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act, and we’ll honor those obligations,” Bush said. “No decision has been made yet as to the sale of weapons to Taiwan.” |
