CHINA REPORTED SET TO EXPEL AMERICAN HELD IN SPY CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000707200005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 3, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707200005-2
!-R L :.. AFFEARED THE WASHINGTON POST
ON PJG?, 3 June 1982
Set to Expel China Reported Amer
ican Held in Spy. -Gise
By Michael Weisskopf
Washington Post Foreign Service
PEKING, June 2-An American
scholar who has been held by secu-
rity police for six days on suspicion
that she was involved in stealing
Chinese "state secrets" will be re-
leased Thursday ? morning and given
48 hours to leave China, according to
U.S. Embassy sources here.
Lisa Wichser, 29, a University of
Denver 'graduate student who has
been teaching in Peking for about 18
months while collecting material for
.a doctoral thesis, had --been accused
of violating Chinese .laws "by engag-
ing in activities that are incompat-
ible with her status."
The U.S. Embassy protested Chi-.
na's handling of the case, claiming
that American officials had not been ?
notified of the arrest in a timely
fashion and had been prevented
from visiting Wichser for nearly four
days despite a consular convention
that provides for speedy access to
imprisoned Americans.
"In a case like this, all a consular,
agent can do is insist on procedural
justice," said a senior U.S. diplomat.
"It's not for us to interpret Chinese
law"
U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), who has
been in Peking on an official visit,
had pressed Chinese leaders to per-
mit regular contacts with- Wichser,
only the second known foreigner to
be detained here since the Cultural
Revolution ended in 1976. The first
was a Soviet citizen convicted of spy-
ing in 1980.
. Although Chinese authorities
never pressed formal charges against -
Wichser, they told embassy officials
that she was being held in an inves-
tigation into "the alleged theft of
state secrets," according to a U.S.
spokesman.
Chinese attendants' at-the guest '
house where Wichser had been ar-
rested Friday said they had been
told 'by undercover police that the
American woman was a spy working
for -the -Central Intelligence Agency
who.-had been under surveillance for
two months.
According to Wichsei's colleagues,
she had applied to Chinese author-
ities about two months ago to marry
.
a Chinese economist. He is said to,,
have disappeared. in recent weeks
and is believed by foreign sources to
have been arrested.
Foreign diplorhatic sources believe
Wichser was detained to - gather evi-
dence against the children..of high-
ranking Communist officials who have
leaked classified material to foreigners. '
"They're trying to squee. ze Wich-
ser to get at the cadre children," said
an Asian- diplomat with good Chin"'
ese contacts.
Secrecy is broadly defined in Chi-
na, and a "state secret'- can be al
most any government report or news
analysis that has not been .cleared
for public circulation through the-
official propaganda channels,
"The. Chinese are showing bound-
ing sensitivity to the sharing of what ;
they regard to be privileged informa-
tion with' foreigners," said-a Western
diplomat. -"The Wichser case is just
one manifestation of it. It's clear
they're getting into a very strict in-
terpretation of their loose laws on
what constitutes a state secret."
China never, intended to prosecute
Wichser,,' said the diplomat, but
hopes to use her as an example to
intimidate other foreign scholars and
journalists based in China.
Wichser, who has been held in a
Peking jail, has been allowed two
visits by U.S. officials since her ar-
rest. The embassy, notified of her
detention 36 hours later, was* pre-
vented from sending representatives
until nearly four days later.
The consular convention signed
by China and the United States last
year requires that the embassy be
notified within four days of the ar-
rest of a U.S. citizen in China and be:
allowed to send official visitors with
in two days of notification. --
A U.S. consular officer who. was
permitted to vist Wichser for 30
minutes this morning found her to
be "in relatively good spirits," ac-
cording to an embassy spokesman.
She said that she 'had been treated'
considerately,". the spokesman said.
Baker,-who said he had been given,
assurances from"Vice Minister Zhang =
Wenjin that China would live . up to ' .
the consular convention, gave no in-. .
dication at the' afternoon -meeting
with reporters in Peking -that. the
Chinese.had agreed'to-release Wich-
ser.
Baker said, he does lot-: think
.Sino~inencan .relations, which i; al-.
ready are -strained over- U.S. . arms ?
'sales ' to .:Taiwan; '.will be ' further
'brui8ed by the : Wichser case as long
As Peking adheres to the convention.
He indicated that his_ three days
of - talks with Chinese leaders were
dominated by the Taiwan arms sale
controversy.
Baker said talks with Vice Chair
man Deng Xiaoping and other Chin-
ese leaders centered on the Taiwan
Relations Act, which was passed by
Congress in 1979 to reassure Taiwan
that its security needs would be met
after Washington shifted its recog-
nition earlier that year from Taipei
to Peking.
Baker,said he told Deng that he
opposes any move to remove provi-
sions from the act requiring U.S.
help in assuring Taiwan's defense.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000707200005-2