Shapiro calls for release of Li GS '88

Nearly two months after Li Shaomin GS '88 was first detained by Chinese security forces, President Shapiro publicly expressed his concern for Li yesterday.

In a letter addressed to Chinese president Jiang Zemin, Shapiro expressed his "deep concern" for Li and his hope that Li's detention would be resolved " as promptly as possible."

Li, 44, a naturalized U.S. citizen who received a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton in 1988, was detained by Chinese security forces in Shenzhen, a city in southern China, on the evening of Feb. 25. Chinese officials have not yet charged Li, a professor of marketing at the City University of Hong Kong, with any crime.

At least five other scholars have been detained by Chinese security forces in the past year, according to University East Asian studies professor Perry Link. One scholar, Gao Zhan, a permanent resident of the United States and a research scholar at American University, was detained Feb. 11 and charged with spying on April 3, a crime which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

"We are trying to bring [Li's detention] to the attention of the president of China and the Chinese ambassador," said University Vice President for Public Affairs Bob Durkee '69. "Our hope is that they will look into this and it will be resolved."

In his letter, Shapiro also expressed concern for the "chilling effect" the detention of academics like Li could have on "scholarly engagement" between the United States and China.

"Princeton is one of many universities where there has been much fruitful scholarly collaboration and student exchange with China in recent years," he wrote. "These activities depend on respect for freedom of academic inquiry and the thoughtful pursuit of academic research."

Shapiro's letter is "an excellent start," said Arthur Waldron, director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, but he noted that the letter left open the possibility that Li could be charged with a crime. "[Shapiro] is not assuming anything," he said. "The test will be the follow-up."

In the past the University has helped other Princetonians who have had difficulties with foreign governments. In January, Shapiro wrote a letter to Russian officials on behalf of Joshua Handler GS, a Wilson School student whom Russian security agencies suspected of espionage.

Three Princeton faculty members — Link, Wilson School professor Lynn White and sociology professor Gilbert Rozman — were among 375 scholars who signed a separate letter to Jiang released yesterday. The letter protests China's ongoing detention of three academics — Li, Gao and Xu Zerong, who holds an associate research professorship at the Guangdong Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

The letter, which was signed by scholars from 14 countries, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong, called the detentions "a gross violation of China's criminal procedure law," and international human rights law.

The University chapter of Amnesty International also organized a petition drive, collecting 250 student, faculty and staff signatures on a petition that asks the Chinese government either to make public where Li is being detained and the charges against him or to release him unless there is clear evidence that he has committed a non-political offense, according to Amnesty International member Kate Jordan '03.

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The response from students to get involved with efforts to help Li has been generally positive, Jordan said, though many were surprised to hear of Li's detention.

"Their jaws would drop," she said. "I think probably they were shocked in part because it's someone from Princeton . . . and we don't know what he's done and no one knows where he is."