China Asks U.S. Defense Envoy to Leave Country

In the latest sign of tension over the activities of American military officials in China, the State Department disclosed Tuesday that a U.S. defense attache in Beijing was detained for 19 hours of questioning last week and has been asked to leave the country.

Col. Bradley Gerdes, the assistant U.S. Air Force attache in Beijing, was stopped Thursday as he was traveling, apparently with official permission, in southern China’s Guangdong province. According to the State Department, Chinese officials held Gerdes overnight and subjected him to prolonged interrogation without notifying the U.S. Embassy.

Gerdes was traveling with a Japanese defense attache, who was also detained, a Clinton administration source confirmed Tuesday night. Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported today that the Japanese military official is also being asked to leave China.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the United States “vigorously protested the detention, the interrogation, the treatment and the requested recall of Mr. Gerdes.”

Burns suggested that China’s conduct violated the Vienna Convention, which establishes international rules for the treatment of diplomats. A defense attache has diplomatic status.

The incident marked the second time in less than six months that an American military official has been detained while traveling in China.

Over the summer, Chinese authorities stopped two U.S. defense attaches from Hong Kong as they were traveling in southeastern China. They were accused of spying on military installations and were expelled from the country.

Chinese officials in Washington could provide no comment or other information about the Gerdes case.

Burns would not say what reasons Beijing gave for asking that Gerdes be recalled from his job in Beijing, and it was therefore not clear Tuesday night whether Chinese officials have formally accused him of espionage activity.

An administration source, however, later said China has accused Gerdes and the Japanese attache of illegally entering a Chinese air base. The U.S. source said Gerdes has insisted that he did not realize he had strayed onto the Chinese facility.

Asked whether Gerdes had been engaged in intelligence activity, Burns said: “I wouldn’t describe it in any way like that. I would describe it as routine official business.”

He said he did not know whether Gerdes was traveling in uniform.

The two attaches expelled from China over the summer were traveling in civilian clothes, riding bicycles and carrying video and still cameras in their backpacks at the time they were detained.

The United States is permitted under existing diplomatic agreements to assign attaches to collect defense information in China. In exchange, China stations defense attaches in this country. The attaches are permitted to travel, but only with official permission--which the State Department said Gerdes had obtained.

Jonathan Pollack, a specialist on Chinese defense issues at the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, said the latest episode indicates that China’s internal security apparatus is eager to show how vigilant it is by cracking down on activities of U.S. defense attaches.

“There are things which, in the past, the internal security organs were prepared to work out or let pass without notice,” Pollack said. “That no longer seems to be the case. Some portions of the internal security apparatus seem to think it is useful for their policy needs to be ‘exposing’ attaches in the conduct of their work.”

At the same time, Pollack said, “I would also assume that our [American] level of activity in these areas is probably up and, if we have more people there, it’s going to increase the risks.”

The State Department did not say whether it would go along with China’s official request to recall Gerdes from the country.

If it refuses to do so, Chinese authorities will almost certainly expel him.

Any expulsion could prompt U.S. officials to retaliate by expelling a Chinese defense attache from the United States.