When China jailed a Hong Kong lawyer for spying for the United States
- Hanson Huang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for passing classified information on China’s energy resources to the US, The Post reported in 1984
- A year later it reported Huang had, unusually, been paroled despite protesting his innocence, but that he could not talk to the press and must stay in Peking
“A Hongkong-born, Harvard-trained lawyer who went to Peking as a representative of a New York law firm has been sentenced to prison in China for espionage,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 22, 1984. “Mr Hanson Huang disappeared two years ago after telling his law firm, Webster & Sheffield, he had cancer and was resigning to seek treatment in Peking.
“Hongkong newspapers reported [thirty-something] Mr Huang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for passing classified information on China’s energy resources to the United States […] Because he is a Hongkong Chinese and not an American citizen, the US Government has not intervened. Although Hongkong is a British colony, China considers its residents to be Chinese nationals.”
On February 10, the Post revealed that “after numerous inquiries from friends, relatives and foreign journalists, the Government confirmed earlier this month that Huang had been tried and jailed for 15 years as a spy for an unidentified country”.
On May 22, 1985, the Post revealed that Huang had been paroled, but that he could not “talk to the press, must stay in Peking and do Government-assigned work.”
Nearly seven years later, on March 13, 1992, it reported that “in China, prisoners are not normally paroled unless they first admit their guilt. Mr Huang was paroled even though he continued to insist on his innocence.
