China court sentences American to 8 years
Source: Agencies |
July 6, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN American geologist was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday for gathering data on the Chinese oil industry.
In pronouncing Xue Feng guilty of spying and collecting state secrets, 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 PetroChina Ltd.
That information, it said, was sold to IHS Energy, the US company Xue worked for, 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.
Xue, 45, was also fined 200,000 yuan (US$30,000).
US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman attended the hearing to display Washington's interest in the case. He left without commenting and the US Embassy issued a statement calling for Xue's immediate release and deportation to the United States.
Xue was detained in November 2007.
Born in China, Xue earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago and became a US citizen, returning to his native country to work. By all accounts, including witness statements cited in the court verdict, Xue "poured his energies into his work for IHS," trying to gather information on China's oil industry, contacting former university mates in China.
Two of the three other defendants sentenced along with Xue yesterday were school mates.
Chen Mengjin and Li Dongxu, who worked for research institutes affiliated with PetroChina, were each given two-and-a-half-year sentences and fined 50,000 yuan.
The other defendant, Li Yongbo, a manager at Beijing Licheng Zhongyou Oil Technology Development Co, was sentenced to eight years and fined 200,000 yuan.
Li and Xue arranged the sale of the database - originally prepared by a Chinese company for PetroChina's parent company - to IHS for US$228,500, the court's sentencing document said.
A spokesman for IHS, based in Englewood, Colorado, declined to comment.
During Xue's closed-door trial, the court document said he defended himself, arguing that the information he gathered "is data that the oil sector in countries around the world make public."
In rejecting Xue and his lawyer's arguments that no crime had been committed, the Beijing court cited the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets as saying that the information Xue received was classified as either secret or confidential.
In pronouncing Xue Feng guilty of spying and collecting state secrets, 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 PetroChina Ltd.
That information, it said, was sold to IHS Energy, the US company Xue worked for, 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.
Xue, 45, was also fined 200,000 yuan (US$30,000).
US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman attended the hearing to display Washington's interest in the case. He left without commenting and the US Embassy issued a statement calling for Xue's immediate release and deportation to the United States.
Xue was detained in November 2007.
Born in China, Xue earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago and became a US citizen, returning to his native country to work. By all accounts, including witness statements cited in the court verdict, Xue "poured his energies into his work for IHS," trying to gather information on China's oil industry, contacting former university mates in China.
Two of the three other defendants sentenced along with Xue yesterday were school mates.
Chen Mengjin and Li Dongxu, who worked for research institutes affiliated with PetroChina, were each given two-and-a-half-year sentences and fined 50,000 yuan.
The other defendant, Li Yongbo, a manager at Beijing Licheng Zhongyou Oil Technology Development Co, was sentenced to eight years and fined 200,000 yuan.
Li and Xue arranged the sale of the database - originally prepared by a Chinese company for PetroChina's parent company - to IHS for US$228,500, the court's sentencing document said.
A spokesman for IHS, based in Englewood, Colorado, declined to comment.
During Xue's closed-door trial, the court document said he defended himself, arguing that the information he gathered "is data that the oil sector in countries around the world make public."
In rejecting Xue and his lawyer's arguments that no crime had been committed, the Beijing court cited the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets as saying that the information Xue received was classified as either secret or confidential.
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