A US citizen freed after being held in China for almost 100 days on suspicion of spying for Taiwan said his release was probably due to Chinese President Hu Jintao's (
China-born Xie Chunren (
"They asked me so many questions. I just said, `no, I didn't do anything,'" Xie told Reuters by telephone from his home in New Jersey.
"If there was a case, if I really did something, I don't think they would have released me."
Xie was freed on Sept. 4, the day before Hu left on a trip to Canada, Mexico and the US, and arrived home on Friday. He said he would have faced months more detention if not for Hu's visit.
His wife, who is Chinese, was not arrested.
"I think I'm lucky. President Hu Jintao is going to visit the United States, so I think it was perfect timing for me. Otherwise, at least six months, I think, because six months is the legal time they can keep me," he said.
Hu had been due to hold talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington last Wednesday but the meeting was postponed to enable Bush to focus on the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. The two are now expected to meet in New York this week on the fringes of the Sept. 14-16 UN summit.
China maintains that Xie confessed during interrogations that, under instructions from Taiwanese spy agencies, he had engaged in activities that "threaten China's national security."
The US embassy, in an earlier statement had said that Xie was detained on suspicion of spying for Taiwan and that US officials had been allowed to visit him three times.
Xie's arrest came amid rising fears of infiltration within China's Communist leadership and an expansion of Chinese investigations aimed at ferreting out suspected agents for Taiwan.
Last month, China formally charged Ching Cheong (程翔), 55, a Hong Kong-based correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, of spying for Taiwan after holding him for three months.
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