UN panel rules China holds scholar illegally

Amber Mobley, Globe Correspondent

Washington -- A United Nations working group has ruled that Yang Jianli, a scholar and activist from Brookline, has been illegally detained by the Chinese government. Yang's lawyer said the ruling ''isn't worth the paper it's printed on,'' but hopes international pressure from the countries behind it will secure his freedom.

The ruling by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was announced yesterday by legal counsel Jared Genser, who appeared at a Capitol Hill news conference surrounded by Yang's family, along with US Representatives Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, Michael Capuano, Democrat of Somerville, and Christopher Cox, a California Republican.

The Chinese government needs to understand that for the United States ''to treat you like one of the greatest nations of the world, please begin to act like one,'' said Frank, who also warned of ''adverse consequences'' if Yang is not returned. Yang, a permanent legal resident of the United States, is one of Frank's constituents.

Although the UN decision can not force China to release Yang, ''it's a strong tool to shame the government into doing the right thing,'' said Genser, president of Freedom Now, a non-profit organization specializing in human-rights cases.

Representatives from five countries -- Algeria, France, Paraguay, Hungary, and Iran -- form the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the group that issued the ruling in favor of Yang's immediate release.

A plea for the fair treatment of Yang means a lot coming from Algeria and Iran -- both have histories of human-rights violations, said Jerome A. Cohen, international law professor at New York University and special legal counsel for Yang.

The UN decision is one of three legislative moves to get Yang back home with his wife and two children, all US citizens. Yang entered China with a borrowed passport in April 2002 to research recent labor protests, and was taken into custody by the government.

In addition to UN support for Yang's release, more than 40 US representatives have signed House Resolution 199 calling on the government of China to release Yang, and for President Bush to press the case.

Frank, Capuano, and Cox have signed the resolution and said yesterday that they hope the full House will approve it by late June or July.

Frank and Cox wrote a letter to Bush urging him to discuss the Yang case with Chinese President Hu Jintao during their June 1 meeting in France.

Although the State Department could not confirm or deny whether Yang's case was discussed, a spokesman said human-rights issues were raised.

After his detainment last year, Yang called his wife. He has not been heard from since and no criminal charges have been filed against him.

But last month, Chinese officials told Yang's lawyers that he was being investigated on charges of being a spy for Taiwan, allegations that Yang's legal team denies. Because no formal charges have been filed against him, Yang is not allowed to contact legal counsel.

''The maximum sentence for entering the country illegally is one year in prison. He's been there 13 months,'' said Genser.

Yang, 39, earned two doctorates -- one from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government -- while in the United States and headed the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, a Boston-based group advocating nonviolent democratization in China.

Yang left China to study in the United States in 1985, but went back to China to support students protesting in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

He was there June 4, 1989, when the tanks rolled in and the massacre began. His wife, Christina Fu, did not know if he was alive.

''And here I am 14 years later, again waiting for my husband's safe return home,'' she said before pausing to cry.

This story ran on page B4 of the Boston Globe on 6/5/2003.

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Source: "ChinaEWeekly".