Bush indicates he’s pleased
By Joe McDonald/AP
When Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics on July 13, it was just one more indication that China has become a major player on the world stage. A day later, there were further signals that the country wants to strike better relations with Western world powers.
China convicted Li Shaomin, an American businessman and professor, of spying for Taiwan and then ordered him deported, apparently trying to remove an irritant in relations with Washington.
President George W. Bush, who was spending the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat in western Maryland, made it known that the United States was pleased by Li’s release.
“The president welcomes this action,” said Jennifer Millerwise, a White House spokeswoman.
Li is one of five Chinese-born intellectuals with U.S. ties accused by China over the past year of spying for rival Taiwan. Detained Feb. 25, he was the first to go on trial in the crackdown, which has spread unease among China scholars.
“This has been a matter of great concern to many people in the United States and one that we have raised at high levels with the Chinese government,” a State Department official said. “We continue to urge the Chinese government to promptly resolve the cases of those who have been similarly detained ... so that they may also be reunited with their families in the United States.”
Li was convicted in a closed trial at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. The official Xinhua News Agency said the court had a “large amount of confirmed evidence” that he spied for Taiwan and damaged Chinese security.
Chinese officials said before the trial that Li had confessed. His wife denied the accusations and said she doesn’t know which activities Beijing considered suspicious.
The U.S. Embassy was allowed to send a diplomat to watch Li’s trial, but wouldn’t give any details of the proceeding. A spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Embassy wouldn’t comment on why Li was deported instead of receiving a prison term. Under Chinese law, spying can carry a sentence of three years to life in prison.
Âi, 44, came to the United States in 1982. He later became an American citizen and received a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He has lectured in China and worked as a U.N. adviser to Beijing.
The U.S. Congress passed a resolution last month demanding Li’s release. China specialists in Hong Kong issued a statement in May saying the case had left many researchers — especially those from Hong Kong — uneasy about visiting the mainland.
Beijing has indicated in recent weeks that it wants to restore amicable relations. But four Chinese-born intellectuals with American ties — one of them a U.S. citizen — are still in Chinese custody on spying charges.
They include Gao Zhan, a sociologist at National University in Washington. She was picked up Feb. 11 at the Beijing airport during a family trip to China. Gao’s detention caused a diplomatic uproar because Chinese authorities also temporarily held her 5-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, without notifying the U.S. Embassy as required by treaty. Gao is a Chinese citizen but has U.S. permanent resident status. Gao’s husband says academic contacts with Taiwan might have attracted the attention of Beijing, but he insisted she wasn’t involved in espionage.
Another detainee is Wu Jianmin, a naturalized U.S. citizen and writer from New York City who was picked up April 8 and accused of espionage. |
