Chinese court sentences US geologist

July 6, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

BEIJING

An American geologist held by Chinese state security agents who stubbed lit cigarettes on his arms was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday for gathering data on China’s oil industry — a case that highlights the government’s use of vague secrets laws to restrict business information.

In pronouncing Xue Feng guilty of spying and collecting state secrets, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said his actions “endangered our country’s national security.”

Its verdict said Xue received documents on geological conditions of onshore oil wells and a database that gave the coordinates of more than 30,000 oil and gas wells belonging to China National Petroleum Corporation and listed subsidiary Petro- China Ltd. That information, it said, was sold to IHS Energy, the U.S. consultancy Xue worked for and is now known as IHS Inc.

The sentence of eight years is close to the recommended legal limit of 10 years for all but extremely serious violations. Though Xue, now 45 and known as a meticulous, driven researcher, showed no emotion when the court announced the verdict, it stunned his lawyer and his sister, his only family member allowed in the courtroom.

“I can’t describe how I feel. It’s definitely unacceptable,” Xue’s wife, Nan Kang, said by telephone, sobbing, from their home in a Houston, Texas, suburb where she lives with their two children.

U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman attended the hearing to display Washington’s interest in the case. He left without commenting, and the U.S. Embassy issued a statement calling for Xue’s immediate release and deportation to the United States.

Xue’s sentence punctuates a case that has dragged on for more than 21/2 years and is likely to alarm foreign businesses unsure when normal business activities elsewhere might conflict with China’s vague state security laws.

Chinese officials have wide authority to classify information as state secrets. Draft regulations released by the government in April said business secrets of major state companies qualify as state secrets.

Agents from China’s internal security agency detained Xue in November 2007. During the early days of his detention, they stubbed lit cigarettes into his arms and hit him on the head with an ashtray. His case first became public when The Associated Press reported on it last November.

Born in China, Xue earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago and became a U.S. citizen, returning to his native country to work. Xue poured his energies into his work for IHS, trying to gather information on China’s oil industry, contacting former schoolmates.

Two of the three other defendants sentenced along with Xue on Monday were schoolmates. Chen Mengjin and Li Dongxu, who worked for research institutes affilated with PetroChina were each given 21/2-year sentences and fined $7,500. The other defendant, Li Yongbo, a manager at Beijing Licheng Zhongyou Oil Technology Development Co., was sentenced to eight years and fined $30,000. Xue was also fined $30,000.