China Says Police Falsely Seized Student at Berkeley

The government charged today that police wrongfully arrested and beat up a Chinese student thought to be a peeping Tom at the University of California’s Berkeley campus. A Foreign Ministry spokesman called the alleged incident a “willful infringement of human rights.”

Ministry spokesman Li Zhaoxing told a weekly news briefing that the Chinese Embassy in Washington and consulate-general in San Francisco have made “solemn representations . . . protesting against this illegal act by the U.S. side and demanding a rescission of the prosecution and an apology and compensation to the person concerned.”

U.S. sources said Li Xizhi, a physics student at Berkeley, was arrested mistakenly on suspicion of being a peeping Tom and later released. But the ministry spokesman said the student since has been charged with resisting arrest.

The Chinese spokesman said Li Xizhi “was arrested and beaten up without reason by the U.S. police” on Nov. 18.

“This is a grave incident which constitutes a violation of freedom and safety of Chinese nationals in the United States and a willful infringement of human rights,” Li said.

“We solemnly ask the U.S. side to work out a proper settlement as soon as possible,” he said.

There are 15,000 Chinese students in America.

There was no immediate explanation for the unusually strong language used by Peking. However, the statement follows the Nov. 26 indictment of Chinese-American Larry Lu-tai Chin on charges that he spied for China for more than 30 years. Peking has denied any connections with Chin, a retired CIA analyst.

Li also attacked an amendment passed Monday by the Senate adding conditions to the Chinese-U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement signed last July.