New York)--Human Rights Watchtoday denounced the trial and conviction of Dr. Gao Zhan, a U.S.-based sociologist. Gao, a U.S. permanent resident, was convicted in a closed trial on charges of collecting intelligence for Taiwan and sentenced to ten years in prison.
She has applied for medical parole and could be expelled and returned to the United States ahead of a scheduled trip to China by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on July 28.
"This case was a miscarriage of justice from the beginning," said Saman Zia-Zarifi, Academic Freedom Director for Human Rights Watch. "The basis for the charges was unclear, the supposed confession was almost certainly made under duress, and the outcome was preordained."
Gao met with her lawyer for the first time on July 10. It was her first meeting with the outside world after she was arrested February 11 at Beijing airport, as she was heading home after visiting family with her husband and five-year-old son. She was not indicted until July 17.
Gao's trial followed by ten days the trial and conviction of Dr. Li Shaomin, a naturalized U.S. citizen convicted of spying for Taiwan. At that trial, the prosecutors put into evidence a deposition from Gao, the first time the two cases had been explicitly linked. Beijing's No.1 Intermediate People's Court heard both cases.
While a U.S. consular official and interpreter attended Li's trial, Gao's trial received no such outside scrutiny; she is a U.S. permanent resident but not a U.S. citizen, and received no such privileges. Her husband, Xue Donghua, a newly naturalized citizen was denied a visa to attend her trial.
"If and when Li and Gao are deported from China, it's essential not to forget the other academics still in detention," Zia-Zarifi said. "China should not be rewarded for detaining scholars and others engaged in legitimate academic or business pursuits."
Among the remaining detainees are three U.S.-based individuals. They are Wu Jianmin, Liu Yiaping, and Tan Guangguang (also written as Qin Guangguang). Wu is a writer and former staff member at the Communist Party School in Beijing; Liu is a businessman; and Tan is a pharmaceutical expert. Another scholar, Xu Zerong, has been in detention for nine months. He holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University, where his dissertation was on the role of the People's Liberation Army during the Korean War. It is crucial that international pressure be maintained for the release of all four.
Noting that U.S. President George Bush had personally intervened on the cases of Gao and Li, Human Rights Watch said it was important for the international community to remain engaged on behalf of all others arbitrarily detained in China and for Powell to press for significant progress on human rights prior to Bush's scheduled visit to China in late October.
