Activist Admits Sending China Technology

AP ^ | Nov 26, 2:25 PM (ET | CURT ANDERSON

[Nachum]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A human rights activist whom the U.S. government helped free from a Chinese prison in 2001 pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally sending $1.5 million worth of high-tech items to China.

Gao Zhan entered the plea in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to one count of unlawful export and another count of tax evasion. Her husband, Xue Donghua, also pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

Gao, a permanent U.S. resident alien, was arrested by Chinese authorities in February 2001 and convicted of spying for Taiwan. She was released after five months in jail under intense pressure from the U.S. government and worked until spring 2002 as a researcher at American University here.

According to federal prosecutors, from August 1998 through 2001 Gao ran Technology Business Services, a business specializing in exports of technology to China. The exports were made to Chinese companies tied to "institutes" which perform research and development for the Chinese government, including the Chinese military.

Among the items sent to China were microprocessors that can be used in digital flight control and weapons systems, including identification of targets. Although these microprocessors also have commercial uses, they cannot be exported without permission of the U.S. government.

Gao was paid $1.5 million by China for the microprocessors and other items, but prosecutors say she and her husband did not report most of the income on their tax returns.

Gao faces a maximum of 37 months in prison, with her husband facing up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

Prosecutors say they will ask for a reduced sentence because Gao has been working with the U.S. government to identify people in the Chinese government who are seeking to import sensitive American goods.

Gao was one of several Chinese-born academics, writers and entrepreneurs with ties to America who were detained in 2001 by China, contributing to tense U.S.-Chinese relations at the time.

Her release was secured in part by direct intervention from President Bush in a phone call to Chinese President Jiang Zemin and came only a few days before Secretary of State Colin Powell was due to visit Beijing.

U.S.-China relations also were strained in 2001 when a Navy spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter over the South China Sea and was forced to make an emergency landing. China finally released the plane to the U.S. after three months, enough time to possibly remove some sensitive equipment.

[HarleyD]

Sounds to me like a double agent. Kick her out or bring up espionage charges.

[Texas_Jarhead]

TREASON!

[PhiKapMom]

Let me get this straight -- we free this turkey from prison in China and he rewards the US by sending $1.5 million in high tech equipment to the Country that imprisoned him?

Am missing something here. What ungrateful people -- we should throw him and his wife both in prison. Might want to think twice before we help free anymore political prisoners in China.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Articles like this one is why FreeRepublic is great, pieces like this educate. But will the lamestream media ever pick up stories like these...I don't think so. I guess Jacko/S.Peterson/ParisHilton/B.Spears are more important.

[jempet]

Don't we shoot traitors anymore? Oh, guess not..otherwise Clinton would have been shot for doing something similiar.

[lelio]

Is there a C Michael Armstrong angle in this story?

[PhiKapMom]

Correction -- I meant to say she not he but I say send them both to prison and throw away the key!

[Grampa Dave]

This is a she, and this is a follow up on the story that broke earlier this year.

Notice how the left wing maggots refer to her as a Human Rights Activist instead of as a traitor!

[boris]

There are dozens--maybe hundreds--of PRC front companies acquiring U.S. technology on a daily basis.

--Boris

[Jalapeno]

Let me get this straight -- we free this turkey from prison in China and he rewards the US by sending $1.5 million in high tech equipment to the Country that imprisoned him?

Not quite, they were paid $1.5 million for technology they sent to China. It's value to them i proabably worth much more. One of these days we may pay with more US lives as well.

[stylin19a]

Hes a she and she sent the stuff prior to being arrested -( notice - during X42i's term) by the Chinese. I'm thinking the US wanted her free so they could get their intelligence mitts on her.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I sent a fork and spoon over there. I guess I shouldn't have shared that technology to them. I just called UPS and stopped the shipment of a toilet and some soap.

[JohnGalt]

This looks pretty low level compared to the stuff Richard Perle helped Loral get away with or what Richard Perle was trying to do with Global Crossing.

Looks like they only prosecute the unconnected. Judicial Watch Targets Richard Perle For Aiding Communist Chinese

[HighRoadToChina]

bump

[Lazamataz]

Notice how the left wing maggots refer to her as a Human Rights Activist instead of as a traitor

That's because, To the left, the only treason that exists is when someone salutes an American flag.

[Grampa Dave]

Or dares to go to a church or temple as a believer. If you do both, you are a vile right wing fascist.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Now we have an idea how much the Clintons got.

[dogbyte12]

Any idea where the US Currency used to pay her came from actually?

Ho-ho-ho, and have a very Wal-Mart Christmas.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Probably in consecutively numbered cashier's checks on the Lippo Bank. Same as Algore got from the Buddhist "nuns."