Forty US Senators have urged Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to free an academic and permanent US resident who has been jailed in China on illegal entry and spying charges, saying his release would help Sino-US relations.
Yang Jianli (
He was was sentenced to five years' jail in May last year.
"We strongly urge your government to use its discretion, in accordance with Chinese law, to release Dr. Yang," the senators said in a letter obtained by the group Freedom Now, which has represented Yang's family since his detention. "We believe a decision to release Dr. Yang would be welcomed by all those who seek to improve the bilateral relationship between the United States and China."
The signatories included John Kerry, Elizabeth Dole, Edward Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.
Yang's wife, Christina Fu (
"I feel very encouraged by this very strong support," she said from Boston. "I am optimistic, very hopeful that my husband will be granted medical parole."
Jared Genser, of Freedom Now, said he hoped Yang would be freed before Hu visits the US in September.
"We hope that President Hu will heed this letter from 40 senators and will recognize that unless this case is resolved it could be a substantial problem for him when he comes to this country," he said.
Meanwhile, a writer arrested in January after he tried to mourn the death of deposed leader Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽) is to be secretly tried next week for subversion, a rights group said yesterday.
Zhang Lin (
Lawyer Mo Shaoping (
Zhang is a core member of a committee set up by prominent dissidents to honor the memory of Zhao -- a move likely to have angered China's rulers.
Zhang was picked up at the train station in his home city of Bangbu on Jan. 29 after his request to attend Zhao's funeral was rejected.
A document cited an example of Zhang's subversive writing by quoting the lyrics he used from a Chinese punk song, which said: "The Yellow River should run dry, this society should collapse, this system should be destroyed, this race should become extinct, this country should perish."
"The use of the words of a punk-rock song to charge Zhang Lin with subversion shows the lengths to which the Chinese authorities feel compelled to go in persecuting and suppressing those who exercise freedom of expression," Human Rights in China head Liu Qing (
China also confirmed yesterday that Chinese Academy of Social Sciences sociologist Lu Jianhua (
Lu had ties to Ching Cheong (程翔), a Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, who was detained by Chinese agents on April 22.
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