Peking expels U.S. teacher

Press, 5 June 1982, Page 9

Peking expels U.S. teacher

NZPA-Reuter Peking An American teacher, Lisa Wiehser, detained for six days by the Chinese police for allegedly stealing Stale secrets, said after her release yesterday that she would continue to be a friend of China’s.

Miss Wiehser, looking tired and nervous, read a statement to reporters before gathering her belongings from the room in the hotel where she had been living for the past two years.

) She was released earlier after being ordered to leave China within 48 hours.

An American spokesman, Mark Crocker, . asked whether the United States Embassy considered her innocent of stealing the documents, said: "Yes. We’re not certain what she’s supposed to be, guilty of.” He also said the United States stood by its earlier statement that China had broken a Sino-United States consular agreement regarding certain aspects of the case.

China has denied doing so, and has accused the United States of distorting the facts and making'an unwarranted charge) i ; ( .' A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement issued as Miss Wiehser, aged 29, was freed, said she had “made a confession of the crime she committed and pleaded for leniency.” . : <

“A number of such documents were seized in her rooms,” the report said.

Miss Wichser, who bad been teaching English in Peking since 1980 while working on a doctoral thesis on agricultural economics, was arrested last Friday in her hotel.

; { Friends -said the police had had her called to the lobby on the pretext that there was ' an urgent! telegram for her. then bundled her away in handcuffs after a brief ■'struggle. '

The manner of her arrest and detention stirred a dispute between Chinese and United States embassy officials. Informed sources said that the embassy was not notified of Miss Wichser’s arrest until Saturday, and no access to her was allowed until Monday.

The row over Miss Wichser’s detention blew up at a time when Sino-United States relations are sour over continuing American arms sales to Taiwan, but there was no indication that her arrest was linked to the dispute.

In China almost any information that has not been officially published can be regarded as a State secret and to divulge it is a serious crime.

Diplomatic sources said that Miss Wichser might have obtained some documents during research for her doctorate which came into that category. Friends also speculated that she might have irritated the authorities by her recent application to marry a Chinese.

Miss W’ichser had been dating Yi Xiogong, aged 27, a student of economic history at a Peking institute, the sources said. They were discreet in their meeting but sometimes were seen together at dancing parties, the sources said.

Both had sought- permission to marry. Approval was given to her, but not yet to him, the sources said.

Chinese authorities are suspicious of marriage between Chinese and foreigners but such marriages are not illegal. Such couples, frequently tell of facing suspicion and discrimination and the Chinese partner 'frequently is urged, byhis peers and authorities to stay away from his or her foreign friend. - -