Tue, 12 Dec 2000

BEIJING (AP) - A U.S. resident who helped publicize China's harsh crackdown on the Falun Gong meditation [group] has been sentenced to three years in prison for spying by a Beijing court, a U.S. diplomat said Tuesday.

Teng Chunyan, a [group] member and Chinese citizen who is a U.S. permanent resident, was convicted of disclosing national security information to foreigners, the diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Teng was sentenced Tuesday and her father confirmed the sentence to an official at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the diplomat said. Neither Teng nor her husband, a U.S. citizen whom the diplomat would not identify, have signed waivers allowing the release of personal information about them, he said.

Prosecutors and officials at Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court did not respond to telephone queries. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue would not confirm the sentence but said, ''The relevant parts of the Chinese government are handling the case according to law.''

A New York acupuncturist who joined Falun Gong in New Jersey last year, Teng entered China in early 2000 to gather information on the ban against Falun Gong.

Using the pseudonym Hannah Li, Teng tipped off foreign reporters in China about [group] members' protests against the ban on the group and arranged interviews with them.

A purported copy of her indictment, released by a Hong Kong-based rights group, specifically accused Teng of giving a digital camera to an accomplice, who then sneaked into a center outside Beijing where Falun Gong members were being held. Teng then allegedly gave foreign news media the film.

Detained in May, Teng was indicted two months later and tried during a Nov. 23 hearing. Only her lawyers were allowed at the hearing.

The secrecy that shrouded her case is typical in trials involving the vague and partly unpublished laws against spying. The 16-month-old crackdown against Falun Gong is among China's most sensitive political issues.

Teng faced up to 10 years in prison. Her relatively light sentence followed protests by the U.S. government. A State Department spokesman last week called Teng's case ''deeply disturbing.''

The U.S. Embassy raised her case with the Chinese government several times, hoping she would be allowed to return to the United States, the diplomat said. He said the embassy would continue to lobby China on her behalf.

...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue03.htm