GSB grad held in Chinese jail

By Andrew Hendel
Contributing Writer
Tuesday, May 6, 2003
Stanford Daily

During his 10th reunion, Jude Shao, who graduated from the Graduate School of Business in 1993, was in prison in Shanghai — but his absence did not go unnoticed. At the Business School reunion on Saturday, Shao was the subject of a discussion panel featuring John Kamm, founder and director of the Dui Hua Foundation, which has successfully intervened on behalf of about 250 political prisoners in China.

After graduation, Shao created China Business Ventures, which exported American medical equipment to China. In 1997, tax auditors confiscated CBV's books, claimed that CBV underpaid its taxes and offered Shao the opportunity to post a $60,000 bond.

Shao refused to pay what he interpreted as a bribe.

"I told him to get lost," he wrote a classmate five years later, according to a Stanford Business article. "I had set up the company's policy not to bribe any government officials in China. I am a Stanford MBA. I wasn't interested in unethical business practice."

Although he was carrying an American passport, Shao was detained when he went to Shanghai in April 1998 and held incommunicado for 26 months.

Shao said that he got to meet with his attorney only 10 days before his trial in Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court on June 16-18, 1999. According to the Free Jude Shao campaign, the evidence against him consisted of a fabricated confession.

In March 2000, the court returned a guilty verdict, sentencing Shao to Shanghai's Qing Pu Prison where foreign nationals are held and where Shao is today.

Chuck Hoover and Caroline Pappajohn, former classmates of Shao, organized the panel to educate interested Stanford alumni of Shao's situation and explain how Shao was abused by the Chinese justice system.

"Shao had no meaningful defense because he was not allowed to review the evidence before the trial, and he was not able to meet with an attorney," Hoover said.

Kamm, the human rights specialist who is working to free Shao, explained that Shao is one of about 50 to 60 American citizens in prison in China. Like Shao, a majority of those American citizens are in prison for economic crimes and are ethnic Chinese.

"You don't hear about a Bill Cunningham or a Dick Smith being arrested in China," Kamm said.

Kamm listed the ways to get Shao out of jail. Shao can file an unlimited number of petitions, but Kamm said that in his experience a petition has never been granted. According to Kamm, the Chinese government has never admitted that it made a mistake in its lower courts.

However, overturning the lower court's decision is not the only way to get Shao out of prison. In other cases, the Chinese government has granted sentence reductions of two to three years. With multiple sentence reductions, Shao could leave prison.

According to Kamm, parole is Shao's last get out of jail card. In China, there are three kinds of parole — medical, good behavior and special circumstances.

In order for Shao to be released, Kamm said that the Chinese government has to want to let Shao go and that people can write letters to their elected representatives to pressure the Chinese government into releasing Shao.

Although Shao's release could be a long time in coming, Kamm said that people should not be discouraged.

"The art of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice," Kamm said.