Apr 28, 2007 8:51 am US/Eastern
Brookline Man Released From Chinese Prison
BEIJING (WBZ) ―
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The U.S. government had appealed to Beijing to free Yang Jianli, 43, who was detained in 2002 while traveling around China meeting with activists and laid-off workers.
CBS
A Harvard scholar and Brookline resident has been released after serving a five-year prison term on charges of spying for rival Taiwan and entering China illegally, his lawyer said Saturday.
The U.S. government had appealed to Beijing to free Yang Jianli, 43, who was detained in 2002 while traveling around China meeting with activists and laid-off workers.
Yang was released Friday and planned to visit his father's grave in eastern China before returning to the United States, said his lawyer, Mo Shaoping.
He said Yang could not talk to reporters because he was officially deprived of political rights for another year.
Yang was on a U.S. government list of people imprisoned in China for political reasons and was cited regularly in speeches by the American ambassador to Beijing, Clark T. Randt. A group of 40 U.S. senators wrote to China's legislature in 2004 saying he had been tortured. His family said he suffered a stroke in prison.
Chinese authorities rejected the appeals, saying Yang was healthy and being treated in line with Chinese law.
Yang became eligible for parole in late 2004 but served his full prison term. Mo said that twice last year authorities suggested releasing Yang on parole, possibly for "diplomatic or political reasons," but did not follow through.
Yang is a Chinese citizen who has lived in the United States since 1986. His family lives in Brookline, Mass.
Yang founded the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, which advocates political change in China. Communist authorities view such groups as threats to their monopoly on power.
The espionage charges appear to stem from four $100 grants given to student researchers. Chinese prosecutors alleged the grants were funded by someone in Taiwan's government. The island split with China in 1949 and the two spy actively on each other.
Yang's family denied the spying accusations but acknowledged he was traveling in China with a friend's identity card, which made his entry into the country illegal.
They said Yang was forced to do so because he was banned from China after participating in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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