Hopes an elderly US engineer held in China for 19 months on spying and bribery charges could be soon freed were dashed yesterday after a one-day trial ended with no verdict.
"The trial has been completed," said US consular official William Laidlaw outside the Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court where Chinese-American Fong Fuming, 66, had been tried.
"The decision of the court will be made in three to five weeks," he said. "As is customary in Chinese law, Fong Fuming will remain in detention during the period."
Fong had gone on trial only hours after US President George W. Bush left China at the end of the APEC summit in Shanghai.
"The court heard all the evidence as was presented by the defense and the procuratorate, we provided what assistance we could to Fong Fuming throughout the day," Laidlaw said without elaborating.
Another US embassy spokesman said that due to new evidence introduced during yesterday's seven-hour trial, a supplementary hearing would be held at a later date.
"The court said there will be an additional hearing to consider new evidence raised during the trial," the spokesman said.
Observers had expected the possibility of a guilty verdict against Fong, followed by his immediate release as was the case with several US-based Chinese scholars recently charged and convicted by Chinese courts of spying for Taiwan.
The trial, one of a series in China involving US citizens or residents this year, could renew tensions eased in the run-up to the APEC summit.
The length of time Fong -- who is reportedly in poor health -- has spent in detention has caused concern in Washington, with State Department spokesman Richard Boucher saying earlier this month it was "way too long" and "a violation of international standards."
Boucher said that "We've consistently urged the Chinese government to resolve the case as soon as possible and we'll continue to do so."
Fong's trial had been scheduled to take place before Bush's visit but was changed, apparently out of Chinese concerns it could have had a negative influence on Friday's summit between Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
Fong was arrested by public security police in the Chinese capital for carrying technical information on his computer while working as a consultant for US power companies, US media reported recently.
China said last week the charges against Fong, who also works for a Hong Kong power company, related to his illegally obtaining 43 secret state documents through an engineer at the State Power Corporation.
Fong also allegedly gave bribes worth 245,000 yuan (US$29,500), the charges add.
Bilateral relations have been marred over the past year by successive Chinese detentions on spying charges of people with US citizenship or residency rights.
The trials and expulsions from China of three Chinese-American academics in July came immediately after a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The releases, followed by another late last month, helped ease Sino-US tensions. Relations could now take a turn for the worse should Fong be jailed, observers said.
RSS