WASHINGTON (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) – The United States on Tuesday called on China to free a US geologist “immediately” and said it was “extremely concerned” by his eight-year sentence on state secrets charges.
Xue Feng, a naturalized US citizen born in China, was detained in November 2007 over the sale of a database about China’s oil industry. He was handed an eight-year sentence on Monday despite appeals by the United States.
“We remain extremely concerned about his rights to due process under Chinese law,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
“We call on China to grant Dr. Xue humanitarian release and immediately deport him back to the United States,” he said.
“The protection of US citizens overseas is our highest priority,” Toner said.
The United States has “consistently and will continue to raise his case at the highest levels,” he said.
US Ambassador Jon Huntsman attended Xue’s sentencing and earlier expressed dismay over the punishment. Toner said that US diplomats had paid close to 30 consular visits to Xue since his detention.
At the time of his arrest, Xue was working for the US energy and engineering consulting firm IHS.
Both Xue and IHS have stated that they believed that the database was a commercially available product. After Xue purchased the database, it was subsequently classified as a state secret, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a rights group.
Xue’s arrest and drawn-out trial has cast a spotlight on the pitfalls of doing business in China, especially for those born in China who have been educated abroad and taken on a foreign nationality.