CHINA: U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman said he was disappointed by 8 year sentence China handed down to U.S. geologist accused of stealing state secrets

Record ID: 402311

  • Title: CHINA: U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman said he was disappointed by 8 year sentence China handed down to U.S. geologist accused of stealing state secrets
  • Date: 7th July 2010
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (JULY 6, 2010) (REUTERS) UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO CHINA JON HUNTSMAN SEATED, TALKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO CHINA JON HUNTSMAN SAYING: "I think, to say the least I was very disappointed. I think all involved were disappointed with the outcome. We will work hard for his immediate release, we will see understandi
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ZCD4FH1WFMFV2TK68UJCNF3D
  • Story Text: The U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, said he was disappointed by the eight-year sentence China handed down to a U.S. geologist accused of stealing state secrets.
    Xue Feng, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen born in China, was detained late in 2007 after negotiating the sale of an oil industry database to his employer at the time, Colorado-based consultancy IHS Energy, now known as IHS Inc.
    Speaking in an interview in Beijing, Huntsman said that the prosecutor's case appeared "flimsy" and "opaque" and that the U.S. would work towards obtaining his release.
    "I think, to say the least, I was very disappointed. I think all involved were disappointed with the outcome. We will work hard for his immediate release, we will seek understanding by the Chinese based on humanitarian grounds, based on health grounds to see if we can't get him released immediately and sent home," he said.
    China's notoriously vague state secrets laws received international attention last year when Australian citizen Stern Hu and three colleagues working for mining giant Rio Tinto were detained for allegedly stealing state secrets during the course of tense iron ore negotiations. They were later convicted of receiving kickbacks and stealing commercial secrets.
    Beijing says the sentencing is its own affair and that other countries have no right to interfere.
    Huntsman said that the U.S. and China seemed to be co-operating successfully over the aftermath of the March sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, which Seoul blames on North Korea.
    The Security Council has been discussing a possible rebuke of North Korea but China, Pyongyang's only major ally, has been reluctant to allow any direct criticism that might provoke retaliation by its impoverished communist neighbor but Huntsman said the negotiations were progressing.
    "And, of course, it all comes down to language and, from what I can see, we are getting very, very close in terms of all parties coming around a language that would work. Once this is done, I don't want to give you any kind of end point here, it's still being worked out, I think it will be another example of good, close co-ordination between the United States and China," he said.
    Western council members have dismissed the idea of conducting another investigation, saying a South Korean-led inquiry with international participation yielded a persuasive case against Pyongyang, which Seoul says sank the ship.
    That inquiry concluded a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan corvette on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang has denied responsibility and said the results of the South Korean investigation were incorrect.
    Meanwhile the U.S. is watching the movement of China's yuan, as, more than two weeks into its depegging, the PBOC has given indications that it is trying to keep the yuan's value basically stable against the basket by balancing gains and losses of the Chinese currency against the dollar and non-dollar currencies.
    For the U.S. the implementation was the key factor, Huntsman said. "Well, I think time will tell and the Secretary of the Treasury has said, along with others, this is all about implementation. The decision has been made as they made a decision several years ago where we saw it appreciate some 19 to 20 percent over the course of two or three years. The process has started and now its all in implementation."
    Western critics and U.S. lawmakers criticised the yuan's peg to the dollar which they said kept the yuan artificially low to China's trade advantage.
    Beijing's move to manage the yuan against a basket of currencies of its trading partners is thus seen by many as a win-win situation, although it may not satisfy some U.S. critics who claim the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent.
    Huntsman has strong personal ties to China and speaks fluent Mandarin. He was the Republican governor of Utah before accepting the ambassadorship, and also worked as a U.S. trade official.
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