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Published on Friday, May 24, 2002 A Harvard Medical School (HMS) researcher searching for
answers about her husband’s detention by Chinese authorities was herself held
and then sent back to the U.S, as she tried to enter China Wednesday. Christina X. Fu had
hoped to see her husband Yang Jianli, a recent Harvard doctoral graduate and
Chinese dissident, who has been held by the Chinese government since April
26. Yang was detained 10
days after entering China on a borrowed passport—a charge which usually
carries a sentence of five days’ detention and a $12 fine according to the
Associated Press. Yang is president of
the Boston-based Foundation for China in the 21st Century, and according to
his wife, is on a Chinese government blacklist of 49 dissidents Chinese
citizens who cannot return to their homeland. Fu said she had not
heard from Yang since the day after his arrest. A State Department
official said the Chinese government has not responded to a request for
information on the charges facing Yang. Fu, a statistician in
the health care policy department at HMS, said she has also enlisted Harvard’s
help in lobbying for her husband’s release. During a visit to China
last week, University President Lawrence H. Summers met with top Chinese
officials, including President Jiang Zemin. Prior to Summers’
visit, Fu met with Harvard’s Senior Director of Federal and State Relations
Kevin Casey and asked that Summers intervene on her husband’s behalf. An administration
official confirmed that Summers was aware and concerned about Yang’s
detention. And another source
familiar with details of the trip said that Summers raised the issue with
both Chinese and American officials while in China. A University
spokesperson declined to comment. Fu said that State
Department officials have told her that the outlook for her husband’s case
would improve if Harvard and former Treasury Secretary Summers intervened. Yang, 38, was visiting
China for the first time since the pro-democracy protests of 1989, Fu said.
In 1989, Yang, a Chinese citizen, had brought money to protesters and
witnessed the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Fu said. She added that Yang has
since been banned from China. After being forced out
of China, Yang became very active in pro-democracy dissident organizations in
the United States, chairing the U.S. branch of the Federation for
Pro-Democracy in China, Fu said. But several years ago,
Yang quit many of these organizations to focus his attention on his newly
established Foundation for China, which his wife described as more
research-based than political. “China sees this
organization as radically anti-government, but it’s not,” Fu said. Chinese authorities
questioned Yang’s friends and co-workers about his activities when these
acquaintances visited China, she said. At the same time that
he ran the Foundation, Yang was also working towards a doctorate, studying
mathematical approaches to politics with Ramsey Professor of Political
Economy Richard J. Zeckhauser ’62. Zeckhauser called Yang
an outstanding student with a “sparkling” personality. “He was doing so much
[with the Foundation] at the same time as he was doing this interesting
research,” Zeckhauser said. “It was amazing.” Fu said she tried to
convince her husband not to return to China, arguing that it was too
dangerous. “He said that he would
be quiet, and that no one would know who he was,” Fu said. Through the
Foundation, Yang was studying changes in China’s political climate, Fu said,
and just wanted to see these changes “on the ground.” For over a week, Yang
toured cities in northeast China and called Fu daily to check-in. “He told me that if he
didn’t call for 48 hours, it meant he was in trouble,” Fu said. On April 26, Fu
received an anonymous call saying that her husband he been detained. For her part, when Fu
tried to enter the country on Wednesday, she was stopped by Chinese
immigration officials who said she posed a threat to the country. She was
sent back to the U.S. via Vancouver and arrived in Boston late Wednesday. —Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu. -------------------------- |
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