U.S. senators appeal to China's Hu to free scholar

John Ruwitch

BEIJING (Reuters) - Forty U.S. Senators have urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to free a scholar and permanent U.S. resident jailed in China on illegal entry and spying charges, saying his release would help Sino-U.S. relations.

Yang Jianli, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was arrested in 2002 after entering China on a friend's passport and traveling for a week on a fake identity card to observe large-scale labor unrest in the northeastern rust belt.

He 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 emailed to Reuters 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."

Among the 40 signatories were John Kerry, Elizabeth Dole, Edward Kennedy and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Yang's wife, Christina Fu, said his health was poor and she was hopeful the political pressure would pay off.

"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 United States in September.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China attached importance to the letter, but disputed Fu's claim that Yang's health was poor and said his term was not up for another two years.

"We have also communicated with the U.S. side, including U.S. senators, on relevant questions," he told a news conference.

"Such communications are frequent and are conducive to enhancing the understanding between the two sides. However, the Chinese side will still handle relevant questions according to law."

The senators' letter expressed concern over Yang's health, saying he was allegedly beaten and tortured by prison guards, but his requests to see his lawyer to file charges had been denied.

The detention and poor treatment of Yang, 41, contradicted China's claim in a report on its own human rights that China had brought violations by government officials under control, it said.

China confirmed on Thursday that a prominent sociologist and an official from the country's top government think-tank were detained earlier this year on suspicion of leaking state secrets.

Unidentified sources had first reported the detentions of Lu Jianhua, 45, a sociologist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Chen Hui, an assistant to the director of the CASS General Office, earlier this month.

Lu and Chen are the latest in a series of intellectuals, reporters and dissidents held behind bars in China.

Lu had ties to Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based reporter for the Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, who was detained by Chinese security agents in the southern city of Guangzhou on April 22. (Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng)

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Source: "Reuters".