China Frees a California Man Imprisoned for 8 Years

Chinese authorities have released one of the longest-serving American prisoners in China, a La Canada man who spent more than eight years behind bars, largely unknown to the public even though his name topped the list of citizens whose release the U.S. government sought.

David Chow, 54, was freed Sept. 19 and put on a flight to Los Angeles the next day. He had an emotional reunion at LAX on Sept. 20 with his wife, two sons and members of his church.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Chow said, “What I want to tell other people is, China is not ready yet for people to go there and do business, not until they become more civilized, until they respect human rights.”

Chow’s release came a month before Chinese President Jiang Zemin is to visit President Bush at his Texas ranch, and observers said other high-profile prisoners might be freed before the Oct. 25 summit.

Arrested in 1994 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of attempted fraud, Chow was all but forgotten in the Chinese penal system, deprived of due process and abused in detention, he claims.

In the last year, there have been several highly publicized cases of ethnic Chinese citizens or residents of the U.S. charged with espionage and other serious crimes. After strong objections from Washington, Beijing has released most of those detainees.

U.S. officials initially viewed Chow’s case as an economic matter, not a human rights issue, and he spent six years in prison before high-ranking Clinton and Bush administration officials began negotiating for his release. Also in contrast to other cases, Chow’s family refrained from publicizing his plight until after his release.

“In terms of arbitrary detention and denial of due process, David Chow’s case is one of the most serious I’ve seen,” said John Kamm, head of the Duihua Foundation, a San Francisco-based human rights organization. Kamm, who worked on Chow’s case for many years, said he was encouraged by the implications of the release.

“I hope that this experience can be put to good use in other cases of parole involving Americans,” he said.

Chow’s wife, Emily, said the strain of trying to raise their two sons and maintain her career has been tremendous. The boys have grown into adolescence without their father’s care. David Chow’s father died in a Los Angeles-area hospital this spring without any knowledge of his son’s imprisonment.

Chow’s case illustrates how foreign passports can offer scant protection for ethnic Chinese caught up in the local politics of business disputes in China.

Chinese officials “are always telling the whole world that they abide by the law. This is a joke,” Chow said. “Just look at my case.”

Chow had been working in the import-export business, traveling between Los Angeles and Hong Kong. His troubles began when officials and bankers from the northeastern city of Harbin contacted him through mainland Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong. They asked him to help them secure a billion-dollar loan from foreign banks to build roads and stadiums for the 1996 Asian Winter Games. Chow said that when Beijing authorities alleged improprieties in the loan deal, the local officials tried to pin the blame on him, accusing him of forging letters of credit.

The loan application was never completed, and no financial losses were incurred.

Authorities detained Chow for questioning on April 14, 1994, and formally arrested him May 27. He was held for two years before going to trial, far longer than the six-month limit for pretrial detention specified by Chinese law.

Chow was held in Harbin, known for its frigid winters. The Chinese Ministry of Justice said Chow suffers from hypertension, coronary arterial disease, angina, cerebral arteriosclerosis and kidney stones.

Chow said the ordeal left him “stressed and depressed and confused. I have nightmares sometimes.” His family members said their strong faith helped them through the experience.

U.S. officials had argued that Chow was eligible under Chinese law for medical parole. Chinese officials offered no explanation for his release. However, when Chow looked at his release papers Thursday, he found that the arrest date had been changed from 1994 to 1987, implying that he had served his entire sentence.

Chow said authorities abused him while he was in detention.

“They hit me and threatened me and asked me to say what they wanted me to say, but I had to tell the truth, and that’s why they don’t like me,” he said, adding that he never made any confession.

Chow also said that U.S. diplomats asked him whether he would agree to admit guilt if Chinese authorities would expel him from China after sentencing.

“I answered: ‘No, I’m innocent. Why should I accept any of the charges?’ ” Chow recalled.

A 15-year sentence is harsh for an economic crime and longer than those of Chinese citizens convicted of major political crimes. During Chow’s detention, his family watched cases of other detainees with ties to the U.S. receive publicity in the media.

“My heart aches every time I see a Chinese prisoner released on medical parole and flown to the United States, and I think of my husband, the father of my children, who is denied the same treatment,” Emily Chow wrote to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in January.

The family agonized over whether to publicize the case.

“Because David’s elderly parents do not know of his imprisonment [I fear it would kill them], and out of concern for my own sons’ health and well-being, I have refrained from going to the press,” Emily Chow wrote in the letter, which was posted on the Web site of the First Baptist Church of La Crescenta, www.fbclc.org.

One friend with connections in China told the family that Harbin authorities made thinly veiled threats to kill David if the family made a wrong move.

“I am greatly torn about what to do,” the letter to Powell said. “It seems that only when a hue and cry is raised in the press will the Chinese government behave in a civilized fashion toward American citizens.”

Despite the lack of publicity, diplomatic activity on Chow’s case gathered momentum. In Washington, Powell raised the case with Qian Qichen, a Chinese vice premier and senior foreign policy official, in March 2001, just days before the collision of an American spy plane and a Chinese jet disrupted Sino-U.S. relations. Powell raised the case with officials again in August. In Beijing in April, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) hand-delivered to Jiang a letter calling for Chow’s release.

In recent years, U.S. diplomats had traveled to Harbin to visit Chow in prison every six to eight weeks. Earlier this year, church and family members visited him in prison and reported that his spirits had begun to pick up.