Xue Feng, an American geologist, detained and tortured by China's state security agents over an oil industry database was jailed for eight years Monday July 5. Xue was also fined 200,000 yuan ($30,000).
The U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, witnessed the sentencing in a show of high-level U.S. government concern about the case. Afterward, the U.S. Embassy released a statement saying it was dismayed and urged China to grant Xue "humanitarian release and immediately deport him."
Born in China and trained at the University of Chicago, Xue ran afoul of the authorities for arranging the sale of a detailed commercial database on China's oil industry to IHS Energy, the energy consulting firm he worked for that is now known as IHS Inc. and based in Colorado.
Sentenced along with Xue were three Chinese nationals convicted of being accomplices. Li Yongbo, a manager at Beijing Licheng Zhongyou Oil Technology Development Co., was sentenced to six years and fined 200,000 yuan ($30,000) while Chen Mengjin and Li Dongxu, who worked for research institutes affiliated with state-owned PetroChina Co. were each given two-and-a-half-year sentences and fined 50,000 yuan ($7,500). (Source: Charles Hutzler, AP, Jul 5, 2010).