20000130

FOCUS-China-held US academic freed, heads home

BEIJING: Song Yongyi, a US-based academic detained by China on suspicion of gathering state secrets, left for home on Saturday after Beijing freed him in a gesture ahead of a pivotal Congressional debate on its WTO entry.

Song -- who had been detained since August in a case that triggered appeals to China by US academics, lawmakers and diplomats -- left the Chinese capital at 10.00 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Northwest Airlines flight NW088 to Detroit, a US official said.

The release of Song came after forceful lobbying efforts by US lawmakers, who had urged China's leaders to free Song as a symbolic gesture ahead of a tough Congressional debate on Chinese entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

In a written statement, US Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher, expressed gratitude for the attention to Song's case and called for continued open academic research in China.

"Our embassy is pleased with the result of the Chinese government's decision, and the attention focused on this case by the Administration, Congress and academic community," he said.

Police detained Song in August while he was conducting research on China's 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. He was formally arrested in December and accused of illegally sending documents containing state secrets out of China.

The Chinese-born Song, who worked as a librarian and researcher at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, left Beijing just days after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Song had "confessed everything" and faced criminal proceedings.

A US official who saw Song board the jetliner for the 13-hour flight to Detroit said the 50-year-old researcher was escorted by Chinese officials but walked unassisted. He said he was unable to talk to Song to determine his condition.

WTO PRESSURE SEEN PIVOTAL

Song's release after signs as late as Thursday he would face trial -- a virtual guarantee of conviction in China -- was made possible by "very well-coordinated pressure", the official said.

"From the embassy or from Congress, Chinese at the very top were hearing about this case and they knew it was something that people cared about," the official said.

"I think the Chinese felt that there was more to be gained by releasing him than by keeping him," he said.

US lawmakers who were pressing Song's case indicated they believed China was influenced by its desire to normalise its trade relations with the United States -- something that must be approved by Congress and will be thoroughly debated this year -- as a prelude to joining the WTO.

Matt Salmon, a Republican Congressman from Arizona who met Chinese President Jiang Zemin as head of a bipartisan congressional delegation in mid-January, said the lawmakers -- all of whom favor improving trade with China -- had urged the Chinese president to release Song as a symbolic gesture.

Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who introduced legislation this week to grant US citizenship to Song, said the combination of China's trade ambitions as well as pressure from diplomats, academics and US lawmakers was likely to have prompted the decision.

"China is anxious to get into the World Trade Organisation and I think that there is a realisation that China will have to be respectful of human rights if they are to enter the community of nations as full-fledged partners," Specter said.

DISSIDENT PRECEDENTS

While China firmly denies any link between its decisions on high-profile human rights cases and US pressure, Song's release follows a pattern of carefully timed Chinese concessions to smooth over ties with the United States.

Beijing freed leading dissident Wei Jingsheng on medical parole in November 1997 after Jiang made a successful visit to the United States. Authorities similarly paroled Tiananmen student democracy movement leader Wang Dan in April 1998 to pave the way for Bill Clinton's visit to China two months later.

And amid US criticism in 1995, China expelled US-based human rights activist Harry Wu hours after a court gave him a 15-year sentence for spying.

Song, a US resident for 10 years, had passed his US naturalisation tests and was scheduled to be sworn in as a US citizen in September 1999. He was well-regarded in Congress, where he briefed lawmakers on modern Chinese history.

He is well-known in academic circles for meticulous research of the late Mao Zedong's ultra-leftist Cultural Revolution -- works which conflicted with China's official accounts of the period that left millions dead and many more careers ruined.

Of particular sensitivity to China was Song's research into the role played by Premier Zhou Enlai in the turmoil. Zhou died in 1976 and is one of the few Communist leaders of that era with a spotless official reputation. -Reuters