A US geologist convicted on Chinese state secrets charges and imprisoned in Beijing has been released and returned to the US, a human rights group said.
Xue Feng (薛峰), who was serving an eight-year sentence in Beijing No. 2 Prison, was immediately deported upon his release, the US-based Dui Hua Foundation said in a release dated Friday.
The rights group, which advocates clemency and better treatment for prisoners in China and had repeatedly raised Xue’s case with Chinese officials, said that he arrived in Houston, Texas, on Friday evening.
“Dui Hua is delighted that Dr Xue has finally been reunited with his family in America after a terrible ordeal,” the San Francisco-based group’s executive director John Kamm said in the release.
The US embassy in Beijing said in an e-mail that it was “aware of reports” that Xue had been released, but could add no more due to privacy considerations, directing reporters instead to Chinese authorities.
China’s Xinhua news agency did not immediately carry any articles on the release. A telephone number for the Beijing No. 2 Prison could not be found and the institution’s Web site had no information on Xue’s release.
Xue, a Chinese-born US citizen, was first detained in November 2007 over the purchase of a database on China’s oil industry while working for US energy and engineering consulting firm IHS.
Media contacts at IHS did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
Xue and IHS have said that they believed that the database was a commercially available product. It was classified as a state secret only after Xue had bought it, Dui Hua said.
In February 2011, a Beijing court upheld his 2010 conviction and eight-year sentence.
In November 2012, Xue received a 10-month reduction in his sentence for good behavior, Dui Hua said.
His release means that there are now no US citizens serving sentences in China on convictions of endangering state security, Dui Hua said.
The US repeatedly raised concerns over whether Xue’s rights were being protected and whether he had access to a fair trial.
Rights activists say China routinely abuses its state secrets laws, often as a means of silencing government critics.
Xue’s arrest and other cases have cast a spotlight on potential dangers of doing business in China.
Australian national Stern Hu (胡士泰), an executive with the mining giant Rio Tinto, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010 on bribery and trade secrets charges, in a case severely criticized by Canberra.
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —
‘APOCALYPTIC : An UN official said that Lebanon was ‘the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints,’ and a conflict that involved it would draw in Syria and other nations Israel on Wednesday said that it does not want war in Lebanon, but could send its neighbor “back to the Stone Age.” The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants since the attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which triggered the war in Gaza. Fears those exchanges could escalate have grown in the past few weeks as cross-border attacks intensified and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize