Gao Zhan (高瞻), a permanent US resident accused of spying for Taiwan, has been indicted and will probably stand trial later this month in Beijing, one of her lawyers said Tuesday.
Her indictment comes just days after her friend and fellow scholar, Li Shaomin (李少民), was convicted of spying in a related case and ordered deported from the country. Gao's fate is less certain than that of Li, however, because unlike Li, a naturalized American, she is a Chinese citizen.
"Li, as a foreigner, could be deported, but she's a Chinese national," said Jerome Cohen, a law professor at New York University who represents Gao's family in the US. Cohen has urged China to release Gao because the charges against her are even weaker than those made against Li.
The arrests of Li and Gao, as well as those of several other Chinese-born American citizens or permanent residents, have complicated US-China relations at a time when both sides are eager to mend fences following the April collision of an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.
Earlier this month, in a telephone conversation with China's president, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), US President George W. Bush urged that all the cases be resolved promptly.
But Gao's case now threatens to mar a visit to China by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in two weeks. More important, perhaps, her case and others like it have cast a pall over academic research in China, where it is often difficult to tell what information is regarded as classified and what is free to be distributed abroad.
Gao was arrested at Beijing's airport on Feb. 11 as she, her husband and their son were preparing to board a flight to the US after visiting her parents. Li was arrested two weeks later after he crossed into China from Hong Kong, where he worked as a professor of marketing at City University of Hong Kong.
The Chinese government said that both confessed to spying for Taiwan, though Li was not indicted until June 18 and Gao's lawyers were not informed of her indictment until Tuesday. It was not until Gao was able to meet with a lawyer for two and a half hours on July 10 -- her first and only communication with the outside world in more than five months -- that it became clear that her case and Li's were related.
Gao and Li, both sociologists working on topics related to China, became acquainted at academic conferences. When Gao was pursuing her doctorate at the University of Syracuse a decade ago, she asked Li's advice about paying for her studies. Li introduced her to academic foundations in Taiwan, a common source of financial support for Western-based scholars studying China.
Later, Cohen said, Li asked Gao for help in collecting documents regarding China's analysis of cross-strait relations and the general situation in Taiwan. Gao, in turn, asked for help from a mainland friend who had access to such material, and was given photocopies of speeches, magazine articles and book excerpts on the subject, which she passed on to Li.
According to Cohen, Gao knew that some of those articles and excerpts came from so-called neibu (
Gao told the lawyer on July 10 that she was not aware when she obtained the materials that any of them were considered state secrets, a higher level of classification intended for restricted distribution.
"She didn't see the originals," Cohen said Tuesday by telephone from New York. "Nothing on the photocopies indicated they were state secrets."
Li was accused of collecting the materials for the Military Intelligence Bureau of Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense, precipitating both Gao's arrest and his own.
Now that Gao has been indicted, her conviction is virtually assured because such cases rarely advance to the point of court proceedings unless the government is confident of the verdict.
But her attorneys are hoping that her sentence will not exceed the time she has already served in detention, given that her case is apparently less serious than that of Li, who drew no sentence at all other than deportation.
Although Li was originally accused of passing state secrets to Taiwan, the official New China News Agency reported only that he had been convicted of harming national security by collecting qing bao, (
In August 1999, Song Yongyi, a researcher at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania who had been collecting published documents from the Cultural Revolution, was detained on charges of sending state secrets abroad but was eventually released without being indicted after it was determined that the material in question fell under the looser classification of "intelligence."
But because Gao has been indicted, she faces a greater risk than Song did. If she is convicted under Article 110 of the criminal code, the provision under which Li was originally indicted, she could face a prison sentence that usually ranges from 10 years to life.
Gao's case will be heard in a closed session by three judges of the Beijing Intermediate People's Court No. 1, the same court in which Li's trial was held. Because she is not an American citizen, however, no American diplomat will be present to observe the proceedings, as was the case at Li's trial.
Defendants and their lawyers normally have little time to prepare for trial because the prosecution's evidence is only made available after the court has received the case, and the trial can begin as soon as 10 days after the court notifies the parties that there will be a trial.
It is not clear where Li or Gao are being held, or when Li will be deported or even where he will be deported to. A written verdict in Li's case was issued late Monday afternoon, and so his deportation could come at any time. His home is in Hong Kong, but that is part of China and it isn't clear whether or not he will be allowed to return there.
The US Embassy said Tuesday that it was seeking details of Li's release, although according to the two countries' bilateral consular agreement, China is not obligated to notify the US of Li's deportation.
An embassy spokesman said that Washington continues to "urge the Chinese government to promptly resolve Gao's case so that she may be reunited with her family."
The spokesman said the US is also urging the Chinese government to resolve the cases of others who have been similarly detained.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from