Chinese-American engineer receives five-year sentence

BEIJING -- This time there was no immediate deportation, no Northwest flight to Detroit, no goodwill gesture to massage fragile China-U.S. relations. On Thursday, after the guilty verdict, the defendant was sent straight back to a Chinese jail.

Fong Fuming, a naturalized U.S. citizen and former Chinese power official, was handed a five-year prison sentence for obtaining state secrets and giving bribes -- a case that, unlike many others involving American citizens or residents, hinged not upon political accusations but upon business practices.

Fong, 67, of West Orange, N.J., will be deported after serving his sentence, which will be adjusted for the time he has already spent in detention, said a spokesman with the U.S. Embassy. An American diplomat was present at the sentencing.

The U.S. government had protested the case, focusing its objections on the conditions of Fong's detention and saying authorities violated international standards by holding him for months without indicting him. Relatives say Fong has health problems including chest pain.

China's official news agency confirmed the sentence by Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. From 1995-1999, it said, Fong obtained 35 documents containing state secrets and gave state workers $245,000 in bribes to help foreign investors bid on Chinese power projects.

Fong was acquitted of "individual bribery and obtaining a large number of state secrets on behalf of a foreign entity," the U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Fong had been dealt with fairly based on evidence against him. "China is a nation of laws, and we deal with such situations according to law," she said.

In New Jersey, Fong's family made a statement saying relatives were "profoundly disappointed" by the verdict but still hoped he would be granted medical parole.

"It's not really ended yet," the family said. "Things can happen during this time."

In recent years, a number of ethnically Chinese American citizens and U.S. residents have been tried, convicted of espionage and deported via a Beijing-Detroit flight -- part of Beijing's efforts to both satisfy hard-liners and assuage Washington.

Fong's case was a bit different, though.

Unlike the trials of U.S. resident Gao Zhan and American citizen Li Shaomin, both scholars charged with spying for Taiwan, Fong was accused of what amounted to industrial espionage and bribery.

Fong's sentencing also came amid Chinese irritation at the United States over what Zhang characterized as "a series of erroneous acts," including allowing Taiwan's defense minister to attend a conference in Florida.

China has a broad definition of what constitutes state secrets. At least one woman, an ethnic Uighur activist, has been accused of trafficking in secrets simply by mailing official newspapers overseas.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat who is Fong's congressman, decried the verdict and called for Fong's immediate release.

"The court acquitted Mr. Fong of one charge and greatly reduced the other, seemingly admitting the terrible error we have been highlighting all along," Pascrell said. "Holding Mr. Fong these last two years has been both unlawful and inhumane. It's time for Mr. Fong to be sent home to his family."

Fong, who advised foreign firms on power projects in China and elsewhere in Asia, denied bribing anyone and contended he was the victim of a corrupt Chinese power official, according to his U.S. lawyer, Jerome A. Cohen.

Fong was detained Feb. 28, 2000, Cohen said. China's Foreign Ministry, however, gave the detention date as Aug. 28, 2000.

Cohen said the discrepancy stemmed from Chinese officials' decision to hold Fong for the first six months under "supervised residence," a form of house arrest that authorities apparently do not consider detention.

Fong went on trial Oct. 22, after the weekend President Bush visited China for an economic summit. Another hearing was held Nov. 26. Lawyers gave the court evidence meant to show that Fong was really a victim of official misconduct, according to Cohen.