AP: China rejects appeal of U.S.-based [group] member

5/13/01 6:20 AM

BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese court upheld a three-year spying sentence against a China-born U.S. resident who helped publicize Beijing's crackdown on the Falun Gong [group], a human rights group said Sunday.

Teng Chunyan, 38, was sentenced by a Beijing court on Dec. 12 for spying and leaking state secrets. Teng used the pseudonym Hannah Li when tipping off China-based foreign reporters to protests by Falun Gong adherents and arranging interviews with them.

On Friday, the Beijing Higher Peoples Court rejected Teng's appeal, and she was taken to an undisclosed prison to begin her sentence, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said.

A Chinese citizen with U.S. permanent resident status -- a green card -- Teng is one of several U.S. residents or American citizens of Chinese descent who have been detained in China in the last year as part of a tightening of controls on critics of the [party' name omitted] regime.

Teng returned to China early last year to focus attention on the crackdown on Falun Gong, which the government banned in July 1999 as a social menace and threat to the [party' name omitted] Party's monopoly on power.

She was detained in May 2000 and put on secret trial in November. Chinese authorities did not confirm that her trial had taken place until two days after her sentencing.

While she awaited her appeal, Teng underwent three months of "thought reeducation," the human rights center said. An official at the court refused to comment.

Detentions of U.S.-linked academics, writers and business people prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a travel warning to Chinese-born Americans, particularly those who have criticized the Chinese government.

At least seven U.S. citizens and permanent residents have been detained, and most are still in custody. They include Gao Zhan, a researcher at American University in Washington seized Feb. 11 and later charged with espionage. Her 5-year-old son, an American citizen, was also briefly held.

China also stepped up arrests of its own citizens who use the Internet to criticize [party' name omitted] rule. One was Guo Qinghai, sentenced to four years on April 26 for posting essays that called for political reform.

Falun Gong has been the most obvious target of the crackdown. Beijing has rounded up tens of thousands of [group] members, and human rights groups say more than 100 have died in police custody.

[...]

Thumbing their noises at Beijing, Faun Gong members held a celebration of their movement and its founder Sunday in Hong Kong, where it remains legal.

With flowers, balloons, and banners, more than 300 members celebrated what they called "World Falun Dafa Day" with slow motion set to music and a march to a park.

"Our activities have become a symbol of the strength of freedom, human rights and the spirit of the rule of law in Hong Kong," said Kan Hung-cheung, a local Falun Gong [coordinator]. "We will be able to prosper amid greater public and overseas awareness."

Falun Gong has been under the scrutiny of authorities in relatively liberal Hong Kong. The [group] claimed that more than 100 of its overseas members were barred from entering Hong Kong during a global business forum last week.