China Frees Librarian After Appeal by U.S. Lawmakers

A Pennsylvania college librarian, detained in China since August, has been released after an appeal by members of a congressional delegation just back from Beijing, officials said.

Rep. Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), a member of the delegation, said Friday that the lawmakers told Chinese President Jiang Zemin that freeing the librarian, Song Yongyi, would help repair the troubled U.S.-China relationship.

“We made the point upfront that we are for engagement” with China, Toomey said. He said the six lawmakers--four Republicans and two Democrats--told the Chinese president that all of them have supported normal trade relations with China and that all plan to vote that way again.

At the same time, he said, the delegation told Jiang that “if we are going to have the kind of constructive relationship that we want, the American public will have to see some progress” on China’s approach to human rights.

Song, a Chinese national who had planned to become a U.S. citizen last September, was arrested while doing historical research on China’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Chinese authorities accused him of trying to smuggle secret documents out of the country. His colleagues at Dickinson College said he was collecting only previously published information.

The arrest caused great concern among academic experts on China because it seemed to imply that no sort of research could be safely pursued.

Toomey said the delegation left China uncertain about how the case would turn out. But he said the Chinese Embassy informed him Friday that Song would be freed soon. Later Friday, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he had met with Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing and was told that Song had been released.

Earlier this week, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Song had confessed to taking secret documents out of the country.