【英语中国】中国判处美华裔地质学家八年监禁

A Chinese court sentenced an American geologist to eight years in prison for trying to buy data about the Chinese oil industry, a heavy penalty that legal experts said is a warning to foreign businesses and a rebuke to Washington after a personal appeal from U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court fined 44-year-old Xue Feng 200,000 yuan, or about $30,000, in addition to the prison sentence Monday, on charges of attempting to obtain and traffic in state secrets.

Tong Wei, Mr. Xue's lawyer, called the sentence -- coming a year after the conviction -- 'harsh' and said few details of the allegations against Mr. Xue were made public.

The lawyer said options for a possible appeal will be considered later. Three Chinese nationals were convicted as accomplices, he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said Washington is 'dismayed' at Mr. Xue's sentence, announced during the U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend. The Embassy called for Mr. Xue's 'humanitarian release' and deportation.

The U.S. government has taken a strong interest in Mr. Xue's case. But it mounted a quiet diplomatic campaign to win clemency since he was detained in late 2007.

President Obama last year urged Mr. Xue's release during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, and other U.S. government officials have raised the issue privately. U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman took an interest in the case, visiting Mr. Xue in detention and attending Monday's 40-minute sentencing.

For foreign companies, Mr. Xue's case is the latest to highlight questions about the legality of conducting market research in China. Unlike more-celebrated allegations involving Chinese secrets, Mr. Xue's case stems purely from his attempt to purchase commercially available data on the oil industry, according to people involved in his defense.

The case illustrates China's sensitivity that certain data in the hands of foreigners may weaken national security, even while Beijing remains vague in its definitions of what constitutes secret information.

In comparison, this year's prosecution and conviction of four Rio Tinto PLC executives revolved around their alleged possession of steel-industry secrets, but their convictions also hinged on evidence they took millions of dollars in bribes.

The Rio Tinto case concerned mostly iron-ore pricing data. Less is known about the nature of the information Mr. Xue was trying to buy.

Mr. Xue was seeking data on behalf of his then-employer, an information-services business now known as IHS Inc., based in Englewood, Colo. He had switched jobs shortly before he was detained for his work for IHS.

'IHS is extremely disappointed at the news and is very sympathetic to the situation,' Ed Mattix, a spokesman for the company, said in a statement. 'We are continuing to work with our advisers on the issue.'

Like Stern Hu, the Australian national at the heart of the Rio Tinto affair, Mr. Xue was born in China, a reminder that ethnic Chinese may be more vulnerable to pitfalls of the country's legal system than other foreigners. In both cases, the men initially were denied contact with consular representatives, in Mr. Xue's case for months.

Mr. Xue obtained a doctorate in geology from the University of Chicago and lived in Texas, where he has a wife and two children, before returning to China for IHS to work in the natural-resources sector.

Monday's sentence 'sends a very bad signal to the foreign business community if they care to examine what happened,' said John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco group that assists those detained in China and that was involved in Mr. Xue's case.

'Where is the damage to justify this?' asked Mr. Kamm, who himself is a former chemical-industry executive in China.

China's government appears to be taking a harder line with foreign nationals than it once did, according to legal experts who cite repeated instances of harsh penalties for foreigners in the face of calls for leniency by their governments.

In March, Rio Tinto's Mr. Hu was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In December, a British national was given a lethal injection for carrying drugs into China, and four Japanese men were executed on drug charges in April.

Mr. Xue's case has underscored the limits of the U.S. government's ability to influence the conduct and outcome of Chinese-espionage charges. The verdict's announcement over the U.S. holiday -- a year after the conviction -- appeared to be a calculated act of defiance.

'One notable aspect of this case was the Chinese government's thumbing its nose at the [U.S. government's] efforts to support Xue,' said Jerome A. Cohen, a New York University law professor and authority on China's legal system.

But the case also raises questions about the effectiveness of Washington's decision to remain mostly quiet about Mr. Xue, despite concerns about how he was treated by Chinese authorities after his detention in November 2007. Although people close to Mr. Xue have lobbied the White House starting in 2008 to address it, the case wasn't publicly known until a November 2009 Associated Press report that Mr. Xue had been tortured in detention and that his case was otherwise mishandled by Chinese authorities.

China's Foreign Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment Monday.
Detained in November 2007, Mr. Xue was formally arrested in April 2008 and tried in July 2009.

中国一法院判处一名美国地质学家有期徒刑八年，罪名是试图购买中国石油行业数据。法律专家说，这个重刑是对外资企业的警告，也是在美国总统奥巴马亲自求情之后对华盛顿的斥责。

David Rowley/Associated Press薛锋1993年在中国的照片。北京市第一中级人民法院周一判处44岁的薛锋有期徒刑八年，同时处以人民币20万元（约合3万美元）的罚款，罪名是试图获取并买卖国家机密。

薛锋的律师佟伟（音）称判决“非常重”，并且说法庭没有公布对薛锋的指控细节。对薛锋的宣判是在定罪后一年作出的。

佟伟说，随后可能会考虑上诉。他说，有三名中国公民因被法庭认定是同谋而被判刑。

美国驻中国大使馆说，华盛顿方面对薛锋的判决感到“震惊”。判决日适逢美国国庆日假期。美国大使馆呼吁“出于人道主义释放”并驱逐薛锋。

美国政府对薛锋案有着强烈的关注。不过，自2007年底薛锋被关押以来，为获宽大处理，美国政府发起的是一场不事声张的外交行动。

去年，奥巴马在与中国国家主席胡锦涛的会晤期间敦促释放薛锋，其他美国政府官员也私下里提出了这个问题。美国驻华大使洪博培(Jon Huntsman)也关注此案，他探视了关押之中的薛锋，并旁听了周一为时40分钟的宣判。

对于外资企业来说，薛锋案再次凸显了外界对在华从事市场研究的合法性的疑问。据参与薛锋案辩护的人士说，与更有名的涉及中国机密的案件不同的是，薛锋案纯粹源于其试图购买商业途径可以获得的石油行业数据。

该案反映中国很在意外国人掌握某些数据，从而可能削弱国家安全，但何为机密信息，北京仍然没有一个清晰的定义。

作为对比，今年对力拓公司(Rio Tinto PLC)四位管理人员的起诉和宣判涉及的是他们所谓对钢铁行业机密的获取，但判决结果还依赖于显示他们收取数百万美元贿赂的证据。

力拓案主要涉及的是铁矿石定价数据。薛锋企图购买的是什么性质的信息，外界所知相对较少。

薛锋是代表他当时的雇主、总部位于科罗拉多州的信息服务公司IHS Inc.获取数据。在因此事被拘留之前不久，他换了一份工作。

IHS发言人马蒂克斯(Ed Mattix)发表声明说，IHS对这一消息极度失望，对薛锋的处境深感同情；我们仍在就此事同我们的顾问进行合作。

就像处于力拓案旋涡中心的澳大利亚公民胡士泰(Stern Hu)一样，薛锋也出生在中国，这提醒世人，与其他外国人相比，华裔或许更有可能落入中国司法体系的陷阱。在这两起案子中，当事人起初都曾被拒绝与其本国的领事官员见面，在薛锋的案子中这一过程达几个月。

薛锋在芝加哥大学(University of Chicago)获得地质学博士学位，在返回中国为IHS公司从事自然资源方面的工作前，他与妻子和两个孩子居住在美国得克萨斯州。

Associated Press薛锋的妹妹（左）和她女儿周一在北京市第一中级人民法院外。旧金山民间团体中美对话基金会(Dui Hua Foundation)的执行总干事康原(John Kamm)说，如果外国商界留意的话就会发现，周一对薛锋的判决向他们发出了一个非常坏的信号。中美对话基金会向在华遭到监禁的人提供帮助，它也参与了薛锋的案子。

曾在中国担任化学公司管理人士的康原问道：能证明对薛锋判决合理性的损害事实在哪里？

法律专家们说，中国政府对外国人的态度似乎比以往强硬了。他们说，不断有事例显示，尽管外国政府呼吁中国政府对其本国公民宽大为怀，但中国还是对这些人作出了严厉处罚。

今年3月，力拓公司的胡士泰被判处10年监禁。去年12月，一名英国人因携带毒品进入中国被执行了死刑。今年4月四名日本人也因携带毒品入境罪被中国处决。

薛锋案突出表明，美国政府影响中国间谍罪指控的过程和结果的能力有限。中国在确认薛锋有罪一年后，于美国国庆日假期期间宣布对他的判决，这似乎是一个有计划的挑衅行动。

身为中国司法体系问题权威的纽约大学(New York University)法学教授科恩(Jerome A. Cohen)说，薛锋案一个值得注意的方面是，中国政府对美国政府支持薛锋的努力不屑一顾。

但此事也使人对华盛顿依然对薛锋案大体保持沉默之举产生了质疑，尽管薛锋在2007年11月被中国拘禁后，华盛顿曾对中国当局对待他的方式表示了关注。虽然从2008年起与薛锋关系密切的人一直在游说白宫出面解决此案，但直到2009年11月美联社(Associated Press)报导薛锋在监禁期间曾被严刑折磨、中国当局对他的案子处理不公前，此案并未被公众知晓。

中国外交部周一没有回应记者的置评要求。

薛锋在2007年11月被监禁。他于2008年4月被正式逮捕，于2009年7月受审。