Chinese-American dissident admits spying for Beijing

A Chinese-American dissident who won global sympathy after Beijing police locked up her five-year-old son yesterday admitted to working as a Communist secret agent.

Gao Zhan pleaded guilty to sending almost £1 million of sensitive American technology to China for use in missiles. She also pleaded guilty in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to tax evasion, as did her husband, Xue Donghua.

Gao told the court she sent 80 computer chips to China without the required authorisation of the United States Department of Commerce.

She faces up to 13 years in prison, and hundreds of thousands of pounds in fines.

Her confession raised the possibilities that she either duped the international human rights community, or that she was blackmailed into working for China during her three months of detention by secret police.

Beijing has a long record of using Chinese-American academics studying or working in the US to advance its weapons programme, dispatching them to pick up tiny, specific fragments of technology or information, which are then assembled in China.

Until yesterday, Gao's public image was that of a human rights activist, who endured 166 days in a Chinese cell on trumped up charges of spying for Taiwan, after her arrest during a 2001 visit to Beijing to see relatives.

Even more shockingly, Gao - a sociologist associated with the American University in Washington - suffered forcible separation from her husband and her son, Andrew, who was taken from her by state security agents.

Her husband was put into a Chinese jail cell, while her young son, an American citizen, was held at an undisclosed "day care facility" by secret police.

Under huge international pressure, both Mr Xue and the boy were released after 26 days, without any apology from Chinese officials, who said their treatment of the boy had been "very good".

Members of the US Congress rallied to the family's cause, granting Mr Xue citizenship and securing Gao's release on "medical probation" two days after she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage by a Beijing court.

Two weeks ago, Gao was an honoured guest at a Washington seminar on Chinese justice policy, organised by the Council on Foreign Relations.

US officials told the CNN television channel that they began investigating Gao after an American high technology firm grew suspicious about an order that she had attempted to place, using a false name, and claiming to be a member of George Mason University in Virginia.

US tech secrets leaked to China
Curt Anderson
NOVEMBER 27, 2003

A HUMAN rights activist freed from a Chinese prison after the US government intercession has pleaded guilty to illegally selling American technology with military potential to China.

Gao Zhan, who was born in China but is a US resident, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful export for selling 80 microprocessors. She also pleaded guilty to tax evasion, as did her husband, Xue Donghua.
"The technology exported in this case is tightly controlled for good reason: It can be used in sensitive military systems," said Kevin Delli-Colli, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. The US Defence Criminal Investigative Service also is involved in the case.

Gao could face up to 10 years in prison, with sentencing set for March 5. But prosecutors say she could get a more lenient sentence if she continues to cooperate with investigators trying to identify others involved in exports of sensitive goods to China. Xue, who could face up to a year in prison, also agreed to cooperate.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

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Gao gained international attention when she was arrested in China in 2001 on charges of spying for Taiwan. She and her husband and their 5-year-old son were about to return to the United States following a visit when they were seized by government agents.

Gao was jailed. Her husband, who is an American citizen, and son were detained and separated from each other for 26 days before being allowed to return to the United States without her.

Gao's release was secured in part by a phone call from US President Bush to Chinese President Jiang Zemin , which came during a time of tense US-China relations following an mid-air collision between a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.

While court documents lay out the crimes Gao admitted committing, US officials were unable to explain why China suspected her of spying against it if she had been helping the Chinese government for years before that.

According to prosecutors, from 1998 to 2001 Gao helped the Chinese government obtain more than $US1.5 million ($2.1 million) in sensitive items using a false name and a front company.

Court documents say Gao admitted to using the name "Gail Heights" to order high-tech items to be illegally shipped to China through a front company called "Technology Business Services" or "University Services" that she falsely claimed was connected to George Mason University.

US Customs officials were tipped to the scheme in 2000 by a company that had found no connection between the university and the "Gail Heights" that had placed an order for electronic parts that fall under US government export controls.

A search of Gao's home revealed contracts for similar parts with a variety of Chinese entities with ties to China's military, including China National, Incom Import & Export Co. and Nanjing Institute of Radio Technology, according to court documents.

The plea agreement involves only one of those sales, a July 12, 2000, contract with Incom for the microprocessors. The components operate at low temperatures, making them ideal for aircraft navigation, weapons fire control systems, radar and airborne battle management systems.

Believe it or not, I knew this woman. She was in a chinese cultural group my wife was a part of; I took a course in conversational Chinese from her.

She was obnoxious, and ended up filing a lawsuit against other members of the group when they declined to put either her or her husband on the group's board of directors.

She lost the lawsuit, and her family left town. The next I heard she was in Washington DC, having gotten herself into some university's PhD program.

The next thing I heard was that she had been arrested in the PRC for spying.

There's a bit more to the story than that, but I don't want to go on and on.

(steely)

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