Chinese scholar denies being a spy

Gao Zhan and her husband, Xue Donghua, appear on CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gao Zhan, the American University sociologist and researcher who was convicted as a spy last week and then granted a medical parole by the Chinese government, defied Beijing on Monday, speaking publicly about her experience to deny she was a spy.

Gao told CNN that she was warned by Beijing not to meet with the media and not to write an article or a book about her experiences.

"I feel like I owe the American people, I owe the press, I owe the U.S. government, an explanation about what really happened," Gao said. She appeared on CNN with her husband, Xue Donghua, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen.

Gao, 39, -- a Chinese citizen and permanent resident of the United States -- was detained by China in February. During her ordeal, her husband and 5-year-old son were detained for nearly a month separately before they were released. The family had been preparing to return to the United States when they were detained.

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Gao returned to Washington on Thursday.

Gao -- who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison -- said the act for which she was accused of spying happened five or six years ago when she was collecting research material on relationships between China and Taiwan.

"I was doing just as what every other academic would do in carrying out their research," Gao said. "None of those materials that I collected were state secrets."

Xue said that China's definition of state secrets is "very broad" and "very arbitrary."

"Basically, what they told my wife is, it's up to them to define what is a state secret, it's not up to you," he said.

Xue said he worried about his wife's medical condition, noting that she has heart problems and needs medication. Gao, in turn, worried about her family.

"They told me that they have put my son in a state kindergarten, and they didn't tell anything about my husband's condition over there," she said. "I was gravely concerned about their safety."

Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent visit to China for discussions with officials there, Gao said, was a "direct reason" for her release.

The Chinese government last week also freed Qin Guangguang, a businessman and former scholar who is a Chinese citizen with U.S. residency.

He was granted a medical parole on humanitarian grounds. It was not immediately clear if Qin had left the country.

Qin, a pharmaceutical company executive in Beijing who lived in the United States from 1989 to 1994, was detained at the Beijing airport in December on suspicion of giving state secrets to an overseas intelligence agency, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Another man, Qu Wei, was convicted of providing national secrets and intelligence to Gao and Li Shaomin, another American scholar who was convicted of spying. Qu was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The Chinese released Li, a U.S. citizen, on Wednesday and he flew to the United States. CNN has confirmed that Li, a business professor who had been teaching at a Hong Kong university when he was arrested in the southern city of Shenzhen in February, returned to Hong Kong on Monday to resume teaching.