China Detains Correspondent of N.Y. Times

Chinese authorities have detained the Peking bureau chief of the New York Times and accused him of entering an area of China closed to foreigners, the State Department said Thursday.

According to department officials, the reporter, John F. Burns, was stopped at the Peking airport as he was about to leave the country Thursday morning and has been held pending the outcome of an investigation by China’s Public Security Bureau.

Chinese officials told U.S. officials that Burns is not technically under arrest, but is being detained for having entered a forbidden area while traveling recently in Shaanxi province in north-central China.

“We are taking this case very seriously,” the State Department said in a written statement. The department said that officials of the U.S. Embassy in Peking have spoken with Burns and that the State Department has registered its concern to the Chinese Embassy in Washington. Burns is a British citizen.

Apartment Search Reported

The New York Times said it was told by a U.S. Embassy official that Burns, now in a Peking detention center, is also being investigated on suspicion of “gathering intelligence information and espionage.” It said 10 Chinese security officials with video cameras searched Burns’ apartment in Peking.

New York Times Executive Editor A. M. Rosenthal said Thursday that Burns’ trip into the Chinese countryside “was purely journalistic. He has our total confidence, and I am sure all this will be straightened out.” Both Rosenthal and Foreign Editor Warren Hoge are planning to leave for Peking today to see Burns and meet with Chinese officials.

More than 200 Chinese cities and counties have been opened to travel by foreigners, and journalists, diplomats, businessmen and tourists may visit these areas without permits. However, foreigners must apply to the police for permission to travel outside these areas.

Traveled by Motorcycle

According to the New York Times, Burns traveled across north-central China by motorcycle in the first week of July, along with an American lawyer named Edward McNally and a Chinese friend named Zhang Daxing, who had recently returned to China from study in the United States.

While traveling from Xian in Shaanxi province to Chongqing in Sichuan province, they were detained for two days by local public-security officials, who said the three men had not been authorized to travel freely by road.