TechNotes
U.S. Investigates Professor's Arrest in China Caroline Joe
By Neil B. McGahee
T
he Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech suspended its study abroad program in China after Tech associate professor Fei-Ling Wang was detained by Chinese state security agents and charged with espionage. After visiting officials at Fudan University in southern China on July 25, Wang, who teaches in Tech's School of International Affairs and directs the study abroad program, was returning to Shanghai when he was arrested. "I was searched and put in solitary confinement for four days in a windowless room somewhere in southwest Shanghai," Wang says. "I was denied water and food at times and my sleep was routinely interrupted and deprived. "I was interrogated by six officials from the Shanghai State Security Agency but they refused to identify themselves. My interrogators threatened to put me in jail for 10 years and demanded a confession of my 'crimes against China' and my 'ties with U.S. intelligence agencies.' They tried endlessly to trick me and force me to confess that I had somehow endangered Chinese state security, that I was working for the CIA, FBI or the Defense Intelligence Agency and that Tech's exchange programs had evil purposes other than education." Wang's wife reported him missing after he failed to return to Atlanta on the planned day. She contacted U.S. diplomats, who asked Chinese officials of his whereabouts, but they refused to answer. Wang was born in China but is a naturalized U.S. citizen. "The state security police think that Chinese-Americans are 'not really Americans' so they think they can manipulate and abuse them with no fear of retribution," Wang says. "I was scared at times, fearing for my
The Chinese government charged Tech professor Fei-Ling Wang with espionage.
physical safety and even my own life, and I was very concerned about what they would do to my relatives, friends and colleagues in China." Wang thinks he was detained because of his research of hukou, the Chinese household registration system. He says his interrogators were surprisingly well informed about his research and mentioned it frequently throughout his detention. After two weeks of confinement, Wang was deported on Aug. 9 and barred from returning to China for five years by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Georgia Tech and the U.S. State Department continue to investigate the incident, while Wang has filed a formal appeal of his deportation with the Chinese government. In a letter to his peers at three Chinese universities, Wang wrote: "The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been running an eight-week-long summer program in China studying Chinese political economy since 1996. It has contributed considerably to the mutu-
al understanding and cooperation between Americans and Chinese. "Unfortunately, recent events and discoveries have forced us to painfully recognize that we do not have adequate academic freedom and personal safety in China to continue our program. It is therefore my deep regret to inform you that we have decided to suspend our summer program in China." Wang says he remains hopeful that the summer abroad program in China can be resurrected. "I believe the Chinese political leadership has the courage and wisdom to sufficiently address and correct the mistakes and abuses of the Shanghai state police," he says. "I remain hopeful because of China's epic reform and development in the past two decades and am still optimistic about the future of that great nation. "I am a proud American, a proud Chinese-American," he says. "I also love China with my heart and soul and I believe that small reactionary elements cannot stop the train of history. Freedom is ringing louder in China every day."
Fall 2004 • GEORGIA TECH
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