China still is holding Jude Shao

Mercury News Editorial
DISSIDENT IS FREED, BUT U.S. CITIZEN ISN'T
March 5, 2004

Chinese dissident Wang Youcai, who helped organize the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, arrived in San Francisco on Thursday after Chinese officials granted him an unexpected medical release from his 11-year prison sentence. That's good news.

But let's not forget Jude Shao, an American citizen and a Stanford MBA, who has been waiting to be released from a Shanghai prison for 5 1/2 years.

In 1998, Chinese officials audited Shao's company, which was based in San Francisco and Shanghai. His company sold used medical devices from the United States to provincial Chinese hospitals. Chinese officials asked for what amounted to a $60,000 bribe, or ``a tax audit bond,'' according to Shao. And when he refused to pay, he was summarily sentenced to 16 years in prison for tax evasion.

Public outrage and publicity in the United States prompted the Beijing Supreme Court to agree to hear Shao's case. That's a good start. But San Francisco-based Consul General Wang Yunxiang needs to keep the pressure on until Chinese officials give Shao the freedom he deserves.