Dissident charged by China with spying
Brookline man did research, wife says
The Chinese government yesterday charged a dissident from Brookline with espionage and entering the country illegally, his wife said.
Christina Fu said her husband, Yang Jianli, was allowed to meet with his Beijing-based lawyer for the first time on July 8 after being held by authorities for 15 months without being charged with a crime.
Fu said Yang's lawyer told her that his trial, which should begin in early August, will be closed to the media and the public because it could reveal "state secrets."
"He's not a spy, so it's a false charge," Fu said in a telephone interview. "All he did was try to help his friends and relatives in China to do their research."
Fu said her husband traveled to China in April 2002 and was detained eight days later for allegedly trying to board a domestic plane in Kunming using someone else's passport. Fu said her husband's passport was expired and the Chinese government refused to renew it.
"When the lawyer told me about their meeting and how my husband looked -- normal, that really brought a lot of comfort to our family," Fu said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Sun Weide, told the Associated Press he was not aware of the indictment, but said Yang "entered China illegally."
"China is a country governed by law, and if somebody breaks the Chinese law, then he has to face the consequences," Sun said.
Jared Genser, Yang's Washington-based legal adviser, said yesterday that Yang is charged with working with a group from the Taiwan Nationalist Party to promote democracy and human rights in China.
Yang, a Chinese citizen with permanent US residency, is the president of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, a Boston-based policy institute that promotes democracy in China. He first came to the United States in 1986 to attend college and earned doctoral degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard University.
In June, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution sponsored by Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, calling for Yang's immediate release.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
