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College celebrates librarian's return after Chinese jail ordeal


From NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>
Date 16 Feb 2000 14:22:02

Feb. 16, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-33-71B{076}

By United Methodist News Service

Officials at United Methodist-related Dickinson College are celebrating the
release of a faculty member who was detained in China for several months.

Yongyi Song, the librarian at the Carlisle, Pa., college and an
American-based Chinese scholar, was released Jan. 28, after spending about
six months in Chinese prisons. He had been arrested on Christmas Eve on
charges of "the purchase and illegal provision of intelligence to foreign
people." Before his arrest, the Shanghai native had been held under
investigation for four months in a Chinese prison.

Song, 50, an author and researcher on the Cultural Revolution, was to become
an American citizen last September upon his planned return from China, where
he was visiting relatives and doing Dickinson-funded research. "Song was
collecting 30-year-old-newspapers in preparation for a new book on the
Cultural Revolution," according to a Dickinson College news release. 

He and his wife, Helen Yao, were detained in Beijing on Aug. 7 for possible
violations of Chinese law on classified documents.  

^From the time of their detention, college officials and others, along with
the U.S. State Department and members of the Pennsylvania congressional
delegation, appealed to the Chinese government for their release. Yao was
released Nov. 16 and returned home to Carlisle, with the hope that Song
would be home for Christmas. However, he was formally charged on Christmas
Eve of illegally acquiring and sharing information.

The college initiated two petition drives, one online and the other in
newspapers. Scholars from around the world signed on, some out of concern
that their ability to do research in China would be hampered if Song's case
were allowed to stand. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., played a key role in
the release efforts, and college Professor Jerome Cohen provided pro bono
support in the college's legal work for Song.

On Jan. 28, the college was notified that the People's Republic of China
released Song. In an official statement from the Chinese Embassy,
authorities said they had treated the case "with leniency according to law
and decided not to pursue his criminal responsibility."

In a press release, college President William G. Durden thanked Specter,
Cohen and college officials "for their tireless efforts and dedication
throughout this ordeal." He also expressed appreciation to the college
family, the community and the world that supported Song through letters and
petitions to the Chinese government. 

"In vigorously defending our colleague Yongyi, we have also defended the
intellectual standard of academic freedom, upon which this college was
founded more than two centuries ago," he said.

The librarian is believed to be the first Chinese citizen accused of selling
state secrets who has been released from prison.

In a Feb. 11 letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Song
thanked the college and the many people who supported him and worked for his
release.

"I had never thought that six months after the day they detained me, I would
be back in the land of the free writing you this letter in the comfort of my
home instead of a Chinese jail cell," Song wrote. "My ordeal is over, but I
don't take my freedom for granted. The Chinese government has in recent
months arrested and convicted so many people. Most of them are still
languishing behind bars, serving their long sentences for their different
political beliefs."

He also thanked Specter in particular because "his tireless efforts to
defend human rights and the dignity of academic freedom made a huge
difference in my case." He expressed gratefulness to the college because
"they spared no efforts to seek my freedom."

"In short, I am a blessed man in more ways than one, and my family is a
blessed family because those loving and caring people in Pennsylvania didn't
want to see injustice go unchecked. My wife, daughter and I are forever
indebted to you all."

Song wrote that he would return his supporters' kindness through
"unwavering" study of the Cultural Revolution. He wants to make people aware
of this aspect of Chinese history and "about the atrocious destruction of
the Chinese culture, economy, people and heritage in the hands of Mao
Tse-tung and his followers."

Dickinson College held a celebration of Song's return on Feb. 2. He is
scheduled to take the oath to become a U.S. citizen during the opening
ceremony of the college's Feb. 20-23 Public Affairs Symposium. The
symposium, dedicated to Song, is a four-day experience of speakers and
panelists exploring the theme "Human Rights 2000: Grasping the Global
Challenge." 
# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://www.umc.org/umns


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