U.S. and Hong Kong (2001)

State Department Noon Briefing, March 30, 2001

Following is the State Department transcript:

(begin transcript)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Daily Press Briefing
Friday, March 30, 2001
1:50 P.M.

BRIEFER: Richard Boucher, Spokesman

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

Q: Can I move on to China? Do you have anything to say about this Hong Kong-based American professor who is in detention?

MR. BOUCHER: There is not much I can say because of privacy considerations, but I can give you a general statement that there is a case of an American in custody in China that we have been working on since late February. I would note that in this case, in accordance with our bilateral consular convention, the Chinese Government notified us of the detention within four days, as required.

We are working with the family, we are in close touch with the family in this case. We have had a consular visit, and we would expect another consular visit to occur within the next week. Our consular agreement with China provides for such visits to occur at least once a month.

Q: Is there anything more you can do for us?

MR. BOUCHER: Her? Are you changing the name?

Q: I might have been changing -- I'm talking about --

MR. BOUCHER: I think you're changing the case.

Q: Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: But there is nothing more I can say about the first case that I was asked about that I can't even confirm the identity of the individual because of Privacy Act considerations, but the case that I was just describing in general terms, we have been working closely with the family, we will be seeing the person again soon.

Q: Okay. But I wanted to ask about Ms. Gao then, now that she --

Q: Well, can we stay on this one and then go to --

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, let's stay on this one.

Q: Have you asked for more consular visits and have been denied more than the one per month?

MR. BOUCHER: As I said, we expect a second visit to occur within the next week. That is what we are looking at.

Q: -- during the visit of (inaudible)?

MR. BOUCHER: I have to double-check on that. We talked about some specific cases during the course of those visits and discussions, and I frankly don't know if this might have been one of them.

Q: Do you know where he is being held?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not able to say. We do, because we visited him, but I can't say.

Q: When you've been talking -- when we've been asking questions about this woman over the last few days, and you've been talking about how the general issue of consular access has been raised with the Chinese, were you including this case as well? And is there a reason why you decided not to mention the fact that, look, there are actually two cases now, not just -- I mean, I know the woman is not an American citizen, but --

MR. BOUCHER: There are a number of Americans in jail in China on various places, various charges, some of them criminal, et cetera. There are something like 20 Americans now in prison for various crimes in China, and obviously every time an American gets arrested, we expect the Chinese to meet the obligations of the consular convention.

There is no particular connection between these cases, not that we are aware of, and what I would say is in the case of Ms. Gao, the issue was a minor, an American citizen, the child, who was held in what we view as detention for a long period without consular notification. In this case that I just described to you but didn't talk about specifics of, we did get consular notice within the required time period.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

Q: Can I go back to China? Gao Zhan's husband was granted his citizenship this morning. Does it help the US Government in any way, to negotiate with China?

MR. BOUCHER: I mean, first of all, on his gaining citizenship, we are always pleased, we are always happy to see new US citizens, and we congratulate him on his swearing-in, if you want to start with that, point number one.

At the same time, we will continue to press for the release of his wife. His wife is in custody in China and, as you know, we have called for her immediate release, and we will continue to press that. That was raised during the high-level visits and discussions last week. We have raised it through our Embassy, and we raised it once again on the 29th, which was yesterday, in Washington with the Chinese Embassy here.

So her detention continues to be a human rights concern of the United States. We don't see any reason for her to be detained, and we look for her to be immediately released.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 2:30 p.m.)

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