Beijing yesterday warned that spies conducting commercial espionage would not be saved by US citizenship and called for better protection of the country's economic intelligence.
The Global Times, published by the People's Daily, launched a bitter attack on Fong Fuming, the American sentenced by a Beijing court last week to five years in prison followed by expulsion for illegally obtaining state secrets and paying bribes totalling US$245,000 (HK$1.9 million) to senior officials.
'From the case of [accused Hong Kong spy] Li Shaomin to that of Fong Fuming, there has been a common thread in spying cases in recent years - most of the criminals were Americans of Chinese descent,' it said.
'Although they are descendants of China, they did dirty business, helped villains do evil, harmed the security of the motherland and are despised by Chinese the world over.
'The case of Fong shows that foreign organisations are not only spying on China's political and military intelligence, but are trying to steal economic intelligence. Many leading officials who decided on the bidding for national projects were brought down by money. As China's economy develops and becomes increasingly internationalised, the protection of economic intelligence is becoming an important issue. The state will pay close attention to this and everyone must increase their vigilance.'
Fong, 67, who was working for a US power company when he was detained in February 2000, denied the charges. His lawyers say his conviction might enable the ailing engineer to seek medical parole like scholars such as Dr Li, who teaches at Hong Kong's City University. Dr Li was convicted last July in Beijing for spying - a charge he had denied.
