U.S. travel warning 'irresponsible': China

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By Staff and wire reports

BEIJING, China -- China is protesting a U.S. State Department travel warning to Americans of ethnic Chinese origin, calling it "irresponsible," even as it detained another U.S. citizen.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the U.S. government "fabricated the so-called 'risks' in an attempt to instigate [bad feelings] between Chinese Americans and China," the official Xinhua News Agency said.

"This [warning] is very wrong and highly irresponsible. China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this," state media quoted Zhang Qiyue as saying.

"China demands the United States correct this mistake immediately, and take measures to eliminate the negative impact brought by this warning."

The State Department advisory was issued on Thursday and warns members of the ethnic American group that they risk being detained in China if they have been involved in dissident activities, or published writings critical of the Chinese government.

It also warned of risks to those who have traveled to Taiwan, which China regards as a rebel province, or had contact with Taiwan media organizations.

Academics detained as spies

China's protest comes amid reports that another U.S. citizen was picked up by the Ministry of State Security.

The U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou says New York-based writer Wu Jianming was picked up in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on April 8.

A U.S. consular officer visited Wu in nearby Guangzhou a week later.

"They've informed us that Mr. Wu is being investigated for alleged espionage activities against China on behalf of Taiwan," a consulate spokesman told CNN.

On February 25, police in Shenzhen picked up U.S. citizen Li Shaomin, a business professor from the City University in Hong Kong.

Gao Zhan, a U.S. greencard holder, was detained in February

Early this month, Chinese police formally charged Gao Zhan, a sociologist with the American University at Washington, D.C., after detaining her in February.

Gao, a U.S. permanent resident, was arrested in Beijing after a family visit. Her five-year-old son and husband were detained separately for nearly a month before they were allowed to return to the U.S..

Another U.S. green card holder, Qin Guangguang, who works for a U.S. medical group, was detained in Beijing in December on suspicion of leaking state secrets.

The U.S. State Department said that U.S. Embassy officials brought up the four cases at a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, as they have done repeatedly with similar cases.

"We've made clear that we would like to see all these people released and able to return home," department spokesman Richard Boucher told a briefing on Thursday.

Victims of a witch hunt

"China is using these people as hostages. Whenever Sino-U.S. relations get tense, they arrest U.S. citizens, it's like killing a chicken to scare off monkeys," said Frank Lu of the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

His group believes Wu and his fellow detained academics are also victims of Beijing's hunt for those who may have been behind the publication of a controversial book.

"Tiananmen Papers" is believed to be an account of how Beijing crushed the country's fledgeling pro-democracy movement in 1989.

It's allegedly based on thousands of secret communist party documents that were smuggled out of China and brought to the United States.

The Center said Wu had written a similar book, which exposes how China's leaders decided to crack down on the movement.

Wu was a lecturer at the Central Party Academy and a journalist in Shenzhen before migrating to the United States, says Lu of the Information Center.

"I think Beijing is probing how party documents have been leaked, and Wu's organization is being investigated as one of the major sources," Lu told CNN.

Liu Qing, chairman of New York-based Human Rights in China, said the detentions might also have been the result of a tightening of security in the wake of the publication of Tiananmen Papers.

Liu told CNN that Beijing was annoyed that documents had been leaked and had subsequently scolded security departments.

The reprimand in turn, triggered the crackdown on overseas academics including Gao Zhan, who is seen to be pro-Beijing.

"They (police) use the academics as punching bags," said Liu. "Even if they are not directly related to the book."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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U.S. State Department
U.S. State Dept Travel Warning
Xinhua News Agency
Human Rights in China

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