Gli Stati Uniti hanno richiesto venerdì la liberazione di Xue Feng, un cittadino americano nato in Cina che è stato trattenuto nella nazione asiatica per due anni con l’accusa di aver tentato di accedere a segreti di stato, riguardanti un’industria petrolchimica cinese.

The United States called Friday for the release of Xue Feng, a China-born US citizen who has been held in the Asian nation for two years on state secrets charges.

“We encourage China to grant Dr Xue humanitarian release and immediately deport him back to the United States,” Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman for the US embassy in Beijing, told AFP.

Xue, a geologist, was detained in China in November 2007 as he prepared to fly back to the United States after trying to buy a database of information about China’s oil industry, a person familiar with the situation told AFP.

He was formally arrested in April the following year and charged with procuring state secrets for overseas entities, said the source, who refused to be named, adding Xue was being tried but no verdict had yet been announced.

Stevenson said the US embassy had been closely involved with the case — which only came to light this week — and had conducted more than 20 consular visits to Xue to monitor his welfare and deliver messages from his family.

Xue’s case was raised during US President Barack Obama‘s visit to Beijing this week, the embassy said.

US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman also talked about the case with Chinese vice-foreign minister He Yafei at the beginning of the month, according to Stevenson.

“The US government is concerned for Dr Xue’s well-being and rights to due process under Chinese law,” she said.

The case echoes that of Rio Tinto mining executive Stern Hu, an Australian citizen, who was detained along with three of his colleagues in Shanghai in July.

Hu, Rio Tinto’s lead negotiator in fraught iron ore talks with China’s steel mills, faces allegations of industrial espionage and bribery.

Mining giant Rio Tinto suspended its iron ore negotiations with China after the arrests, as diplomatic tensions soared between Canberra and Beijing.

Fonte: Yahoo news, 22 novembre 2009