China jails American for five years

Fong was arrested in February 2000

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A Chinese court has sentenced American engineer Fong Fuming to five years in prison for bribery and obtaining state secrets, a U.S. Embassy spokesman told CNN.

Fong has already served two years of the sentence.

The U.S. Embassy, in a statement made after the verdict Thursday, said Fong had been convicted of illegally obtaining state secrets and of bribery on behalf of a company.

However he was acquitted of individual bribery and of obtaining state secrets for a "foreign entity".

That charge would have been more serious, as it implies spying for a foreign country.

Fong will be deported after he finishes serving the remaining three years of his sentence, according to the statement, which did not detail where he would be deported.

'Secret documents'

CNN NewsPass VIDEO A Chinese court found a U.S. engineer guilty of illegally obtaining state secrets and sentenced him to five years in jail. CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver reports. Play video    CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

Beijing's top intermediate court found Fong guilty of obtaining 35 "secret documents" on behalf of an unnamed foreign company, in an effort to win a bid in China's power industry, according to China's official news agency.

The verdict also said Fong paid out bribes to Chinese officials in an effort to obtain the bid, the news agency reported.

Fong's U.S. lawyer, Jerome Cohen, has said in earlier interviews that the firm concerned is an American power company.

Fong was advising foreign companies how to invest in power projects in China, and has denied charges of bribery.

According to Cohen, Fong has claimed the Chinese power official who allegedly gave him the documents was in fact trying to extort money from Fong.

Several businessmen of Chinese descent have landed in detention as a result of murky business disputes.

Fong's lawyer has been outspoken about the case, in part because the Chinese defense lawyer is under pressure not to speak to journalists.

"It wasn't a question of legitimate state secrets. They don't want embarrassing coverage. So it's very convenient for the courts to say 'state secret', therefore opaqueness, and no reporters," Cohen said recently about the secretive process of the trial.

State secrets

Cohen added that in earlier trials, neither Fong's defense nor the court were able to independently verify if the evidence against Fong actually constituted state secrets.

"They expect the court to convict somebody of obtaining state secrets. This is never-never land," said Cohen of the case several weeks before the final verdict was reached.

It was not immediately clear if Fong's defense planned an appeal of the verdict.

Fong was detained on February 28, 2000 on charges of obtaining secret documents from a Chinese state power official as well as offering bribes.

He was among several U.S. citizens and permanent residents charged over the course of the last few years for obtaining or revealing state secrets.

Critics of China's legal system point out that state secrets charges are leveled broadly to include as many charges and scenarios as possible, and that the incidence of a guilty verdict by a Chinese court is extremely high.

The United States government has issued repeated protests to the Chinese government over the handling of Fong's case, saying the courts violated international standards by holding him for months without indicting him.

Fong has been a citizen of the United States since 1994 -- his wife and two children are also American citizens.