On Christmas Eve, Chinese officials informed the wife of Dickinson College librarian Song Yongyi that her husband had been formally arrested and charged with “illegal provision of intelligence to foreigners.” Helen Yao, who was taken into custody with her husband last August but released in November, told reporters December 30 that she had not been informed of a trial date.
Yao told the New York Times, “They accused my husband of having secret documents, but he pointed out that everything he collected had already been published in newspapers, books, or other open sources.” The indictment could bring a sentence ranging from fines to more than 10 years in prison.
Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has retained an American attorney and a law firm in Beijing and has asked the Chinese government to allow immediate access to Song, 51, who has not seen an attorney.
U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has publicly appealed for Song’s release, and 1,300 Dickinson students and faculty members have signed a petition protesting his arrest.
Posted January 10, 2000.