China tries U.S.-based Falun Gong member for spying

November 24, 2000
Web posted at: 7:21 AM HKT (2321 GMT)

BEIJING (AP) -- A U.S. resident arrested in China on spying charges after she helped publicize the government's crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement was tried Thursday under a veil of secrecy.

Teng Chunyan, using the pseudonym Hannah Li, tipped off foreign reporters to Falun Gong protests and helped arrange interviews with members of the banned group. She was charged with passing intelligence to foreign organizations, diplomats and a Falun Gong spokeswoman said.

Teng, a Chinese citizen who is a U.S. permanent resident, could face 10 years in prison if convicted -- or more if the information she allegedly passed is deemed highly important.

After a three-hour trial, Beijing's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court recessed without issuing a verdict, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Teng was represented by two lawyers but her family members were barred, the Hong Kong-based group said.

An official with the prosecutor's office who identified himself as Mr. Zhao confirmed Teng's trial on spying charges, although court officials denied any knowledge of the case. Police outside the courthouse ordered foreign reporters away without explanation.

The officials' reticence is typical for cases involving alleged state secrets, a concept intentionally left vague in partly unpublished laws. The campaign against Falun Gong is a sensitive political issue in China, where communist leaders and police are embarrassed by their inability to quash the popular meditation movement.

Teng joined Falun Gong last year in New Jersey, and her acupuncture clinic in New York became an informal clubhouse for the group, said Gail Rachlin, a Falun Gong spokeswoman in New York. Teng went to Beijing in February and, as Hannah Li, helped publicize the crackdown, contacting foreign journalists on and off for several months.

A July 27 indictment later passed on to Teng's family accused her of causing "serious damage" to China, Rachlin said. Specifically, it charged her with sneaking foreign reporters into a psychiatric hospital in suburban Beijing where Falun Gong followers were detained, which Rachlin said was true.

A copy of a second purported indictment, provided by the Hong Kong-based Information Center, gave a different version. It said an accomplice with the surname Xu used a digital camera from Teng to photograph Falun Gong followers at a deprogramming center in March. Teng then allegedly gave the photos to foreign media.

The indictment, dated September 13, also accused Teng of taking reporters to interview Falun Gong members in southwestern Beijing on February 7. It said police detained her May 13 and formally charged her two months later.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it had no information on Teng. U.S. law does not require U.S. diplomats to provide legal assistance to residency holders.

Falun Gong drew millions of adherents in the 1990s with its mix of slow-motion exercise and ideas culled from Taoism, Buddhism and those of Li Hongzhi, the group's founder, who now lives in the United States.

Worried that the group's size and organizational prowess could challenge the Communist Party's monopoly on power, China banned the group in July 1999, branding it a cult. An unrelenting smear campaign in state-controlled media has accused Falun Gong of causing at least 1,500 deaths.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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