AFP: U.S. Senator to Help Detained Chinese Scholar Win Citizenship, Says Human Rights Group

BEIJING, Mar 29, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) A U.S. senator is planning to introduce a private bill to grant citizenship to a U.S.-based scholar detained in China on charges of spying, a human rights group said Thursday.

Republican senator George Allen told Gao Zhan's husband, Xue Donghua, he will soon introduce the bill, the New York-based Human Rights In China (HRIC) said in a press release faxed to Beijing.

Gao, a U.S.-resident and Chinese national who was a researcher at American University, was detained at the Beijing airport February 11 along with her husband and five-year-old son.

Gao's husband and the couple's son Andrew, a U.S. citizen, were released March 8 after 26 days in detention.

Gao remains in detention, with the Chinese government saying she has confessed to accepting funds from overseas intelligence agencies for spying activities in mainland China.

Xue, who has denied all allegations of espionage lodged against his wife by the Chinese government, said her detention should not hinder her naturalization.

Before Gao and Xue went to mainland China to visit their families, they had each completed the necessary legal procedures to gain citizenship, HRIC said.

"Gao Zhan is a committed and conscientious sociology scholar. Any social activities in which she has participated are related to her research," Xue said in a statement released along with the HRIC press release.

Gao has researched women's role in the family in China and visited Taiwan to research their part in the democratic process there.

"No matter from which foundation she has received funding, that funding has always been used for academic research. It is impossible that she would receive funding for anything other than academic research and even more impossible that she would participate in so-called espionage activities."

The detention of Gao's son, a U.S. citizen because he was born in the United States, prompted protests from the U.S. government as the Chinese government failed to inform the U.S. side of the detention.

The father alleged the boy was kept apart from his family for the entire period of their detention despite repeated pleas for him to be reunited with his parents or grandparents and for the U.S. embassy to be informed of his whereabouts.

China has denied the boy was detained, saying he was placed in a kindergarten with his parents' consent and that he was well cared for. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)