A Place to Call Home (Feature) Justice Department Releases Excerpts of Wen Ho Lee Report (in National News) Ex-Dot-Commers Make the Move to Teaching (in Bay Area News) Get Ready for Cyberwars (in Business) Your Dream Vacation - Softball? (in Sports) Surf's Up (in A&E) Emil Amok: No Evidence of Racism? (in Opinion)

U.S. Helped Free Gao Zhan

Chinese scholar Gao Zhan discusses her imprisonment and trial in China and her return to the United States, while taking part in a Chinese language Voice of America call-in program in Washington Monday, Aug. 6, 2001. Gao says espionage charges against her were politically motivated. Photo by AP.

Immigration officials now look at whether to make her an American citizen

By Pauline Jelinek/AP

The White House, State Department and a pack of U.S. lawmakers pushed for months to win the release of Gao Zhan, the U.S.-based Chinese scholar detained by Beijing on espionage charges.

Now that she’s been found guilty and returned to suburban Washington, immigration officials are studying her Chinese conviction papers as they decide whether she’s fit for American citizenship.

“Welcome to the bureaucratic nightmare known as U.S. immigration law,” said James Lindsay of the Brookings Institution.

At issue is an immigration law that requires candidates for naturalization to be of “good moral character” — a determination the Immigration and Naturalization Service routinely makes after considering any criminal record the applicant may have, among other things.

American University researcher Gao and her husband, Xue Donghua, had previously completed citizenship requirements except for the swearing-in, when they were detained at Beijing’s airport Feb. 11 as they tried to return home from a visit.

Soon after Xue was released in March, he was sworn in at a special ceremony on Capitol Hill arranged by congressmen who had taken up Gao’s cause.

But by the time Gao returned in July, she had the espionage conviction on her record, forcing the INS to consider it before giving her the oath.

Her supporters in Congress had hoped for a speedy swearing-in. But government officials aren’t sure how long it will take because the INS is studying the transcript of Gao’s trial, a task made more arduous because it had to be translated from Chinese.

INS officials can still find Gao of “good moral character” if they decide that the trial was political, as Gao has said — in other words, if they decide Gao is innocent.

During Gao’s five-month detention, the State Department made no comment on her guilt or innocence, but merely urged her release on “humanitarian grounds.”

“This is more than a wrinkle — it’s a giant crease,” said private immigration lawyer Michael Maggio. “I’d love to have this case.

"The question is going to be whether her conviction in China is going to be given full force and credit.”

Immigration officials won’t comment on the case, citing Gao’s right to privacy. The State Department says it is no longer involved.

Senators or congressmen who had championed her cause — even introducing legislation months ago to make her a citizen while still being held in China — didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.

Gao said last week that she is not worried because she knows the government has its procedures.

Lindsay agreed, adding that the INS has become infamous for backlogs in processing applications among other problems.

“Immigration law is extraordinarily complicated, and in many instances, INS has very little discretion in what it can do,” he said. “So you can run into problems when the letter of the law may be at odds with the spirit.”

President Bush made at least two personal appeals to Chinese President Jiang Zemin for Gao’s release. Her deportation from China after her conviction was seen as a bow to Secretary of State Colin Powell as he headed to China for meetings to set up a U.S.-China summit later this year.

The question of foreign convictions “comes up all the time with people who fled repressive regimes ... and end up citizens because the U.S. decides the cases were politically charged,” Maggio said. “But what makes this particularly dicey is that the charge is espionage and it concerns China and Taiwan.”

Gao was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges she passed damaging information to others that ended up in the hands of Taiwan spies. She said it wasn’t secret information, but rather part of books or articles that were readily available. She said they also focused on her position as board member of a group that sets up academic exchanges in Taiwan.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, and has threatened to use force to capture it. The two sides actively spy on each other, and Chinese authorities are highly suspicious of any academic or political exchanges with Taiwanese groups.

Gao was one of several Chinese-born academics, writers and entrepreneurs with American ties who were detained in China over the past year.

Her case raised particular ire in Washington because the couple’s 5-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, was also taken by authorities the day she was detained. He was separated from his parents for 26 days before he and his father were reunited and allowed to leave China without Gao.