Scholar’s Trial in China to Start Ahead of Powell Visit

A U.S.-based scholar accused by China of espionage will go on trial next week--just days before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell arrives in Beijing for a visit aimed at improving relations.

Bai Xuebiao, a lawyer for sociologist Gao Zhan, said Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court scheduled the trial to begin Tuesday. The timing suggested that China did not want Gao’s case to cloud Powell’s visit, his first as secretary of State.

“I head to China confident that we can build a more stable, more constructive relationship with the Chinese,” Powell said in Washington, adding that he will raise concerns about weapons proliferation, human rights and religious issues.

China’s detention of Gao and others with U.S. connections has added to tensions between Beijing and Washington. The trial will come one day after Clark “Sandy” Randt, the incoming U.S. ambassador to China, takes up his post Monday.

Gao, who works at American University in Washington, was detained Feb. 11 at Beijing’s airport during a family trip to China.

Her detention caused a diplomatic uproar because Chinese authorities also temporarily held her 5-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, without notifying the U.S. Embassy as required by treaty.

If convicted of espionage, Gao could face between three years and life imprisonment.

But Bai said he was heartened by a court’s decision last Saturday to deport rather than jail another scholar, Li Shaomin, convicted of spying in a case linked to Gao’s.

“It will have an effect,” Bai said. “These two cases are connected. The handling of Li Shaomin reflected how seriously the court regarded the case. It wasn’t extremely serious.”

Gao will be tried by the same court. But Li is a U.S. citizen while Gao is Chinese. That makes it unclear whether the court could order her expulsion too.