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Americans Still Hostage in China NewsMax.comIf you thought China freed all its U.S. hostages when it released the EP-3 flight crew in early April, think again. Though the mainstream media and U.S. authorities rarely deign to notice, Beijing is still holding kidnapped Americans. Now pressure is building for the release of these hostage Chinese-American U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Amnesty International issued a scathing report Wednesday denouncing China's human rights abuses and the American support that enables Beijing. At a Washington news conference announcing the report was Xue Donghua, whose wife, permanent U.S. resident Gao Zhan, a researcher at American University in Washington, has been detained by Chinese authorities since Feb. 11. Xue called the case of his wife and other academics held in China "just the tip of the iceberg," and said the State Department and the National Security Council told him that recovery of the Navy EP-3 plane took priority over efforts to gain his wife's freedom. "It looks like the airplane on Hainan Island was a bigger priority for them," he said. "I wrote a letter to President Bush and told him that human beings are more important than a very expensive airplane."
The couple and their 5-year-old son were apprehended as they tried to return to the United States after visiting relatives. Beijing says Gao is accused of spying but has yet to charge her, United Press International reported Wednesday. She has been denied access to a lawyer and medical care, her husband said.
Xue, who like his son is a U.S. citizen, urged the United States to make his wife's case a higher priority than that of the American reconnaissance plane hit by a Chinese fighter jet April 1. (Washington demanded the plane's release, and this week China finally agreed. China held the 24-member U.S. crew hostage for 11 days before freeing them in April.) Sen. George Allen, R-Va., made Senate speech May 8 on Gao's birthday. "Gao Zhan's detention is part of a larger and disturbing pattern of arrests, of which Senator [Jim] Jeffords is well aware, in China and the pattern of arrests of United States-based academics and residents that predates the incident involving detention of our 24 Navy crew members." The other detained academics, referreed to as "the other American hostages in China" in an April 28 editorial in the Williamsport (Pa.) Sun-Gazette, include:
"The Communist Chinese government appears to regard 'spying' as any visit to Taiwan or any contact with Taiwanese media organizations - common occurrences for serious China scholars."
His father, Li Honglin, a well-known liberal scholar, was charged by Beijing with playing a hidden role in the pro-republican Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. ``It is totally nonsense. I totally believe my husband has done nothing wrong,'' Li Shaomin's wife, Liu Yingli, told Reuters news service.
Non-academics held hostage in China have received even less media attention. Eighteen other Chinese-Americans with permanent resident alien status in the U.S. are being held hostage by Beijing, NewsMax.com has reported. Perhaps the best-known of these is U.S.-based Chinese businessman Liu Yaping, who was noted in Sen. Allen's speech May 8. Liu was arrested and kept incommunicado since March despite a potentially life-threatening medical condition, AP reported May 17. The U.S. response to these abductions has been mild. President Bush on May 11 said merely that he expected the hostages to be treated properly. ``Our relations with China are relations that are going to be based upon a consistent message,'' Bush said at a White House news conference. ``One, we expect there to be trade ... but, two, we expect people to be treated fairly inside that country.'' In fact, Bush announced Tuesday that he wanted Congress to extend normal trade with China.
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