Deportation trials began Jan. 23 for former School of International Service scholar-in-residence Gao Zhan, who is serving a sentence for spying for the Chinese government.
In 2003, she admitted to selling over $500,000 worth of military-grade microprocessors to a Chinese government agency. The deportation trial, which was closed to the public at Gao's request, will determine whether she is a national security risk and should be deported to China.
"Sending me back to China means torture and death," Gao said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. She said her lawyers pressured her into pleading guilty in 2003.
The Justice Department, along with the judge and prosecutors from her 2003 trial, oppose her deportation because she cooperated during trial. However, the Department of Homeland Security, which usually defers to the Justice Department, says that her presence in the United States will compromise national security.
Alan Kraut, a history professor in the College of Arts and Sciences who specializes in immigration issues, said he doubts she would be a national security risk.
"The humane thing is to allow her to stay," Kraut said. "It seems to me that as someone convicted of espionage, she doesn't have a leg to stand on."
If the court decides that Gao is not a national security risk, she has a trial for asylum in the United States set for next month.
Gao, a Chinese citizen, moved to the United States after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. During the fall 2000 semester, she came to AU as a scholar-in-residence at the Center for Asian Studies. Scholars-in-residence, while associated with AU, are not on the university's payroll.
Gao researched the role of women in China, specifically the role older women play in Chinese society, according to SIS Dean Louis Goodman. While she was in China over the holiday break, Chinese officials arrested her in February 2001 on charges of spying for Taiwan.
"At the time, a lot of Chinese scholars were detained," Goodman said. "We tried to support her because she was on our faculty. We argued that her human rights were being violated."
AU students were very active in protesting her imprisonment, he said. Former AU president Ben Ladner and Goodman were vocal in their support for Gao.
As soon as AU faculty found out that Gao was imprisoned, they contacted the State Department and a week later, former Secretary of State Colin Powell went on the record in support of Gao, Goodman said. Through the efforts of Powell and President George W. Bush, Gao's 10-year Chinese sentence was commuted and China allowed Gao to return to the U.S. in August 2001.
As soon as Gao returned, Ladner extended her application to be a scholar-in-residence at SIS for a year, according to Goodman. Upon returning to AU, she became an active human rights advocate and wrote several op-ed pieces on human rights.
The AU community, according to Goodman, expected the United States to extend citizenship to Gao upon her return and was puzzled when nothing came of it after a couple of months. The government charged Gao with spying for the Chinese government and revealed that she had been under investigation since 2000, even after she was freed from Chinese prison with the help of the U.S.
"I never imagined that she was an agent," Goodman said. "It was a shock."
Gao lost her position at SIS when she was charged with espionage, said professor Quansheng Zhao, director of the Center for Asian Studies.
Gao pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain to a lesser charge of export violations that took place before her imprisonment in China. She was sentenced to seven months in prison, which she has served at Hampton Roads Prison in Virginia.
"I think that any case of espionage diminishes trust once it is revealed," Goodman said. "It's not good to have spies out there. It's not good for U.S.-Chinese relations, and it's unfortunate that American University had someone involved in criminal activity."
Still, Goodman said, he is proud of the work he and the AU community did to free Gao from prison in China.
