U.S. 'spy' scholar hopes to resume HK job

Li's return has been criticized by pro-Beijing lawmakers who say he should not be admitted to Chinese territory following his deportation

By staff and wires

HONG KONG, China -- A U.S. scholar expelled by China for spying on behalf of Taiwan hopes to return to his teaching job at a Hong Kong university.

Li Shaomin flew to the United States last week after being convicted by a Beijing court, and his entry to Hong Kong five days later is being seen as a major test of the territory's legal autonomy from the mainland.

"I will pick up from where I left and continue to do my research and teaching right now at City University and continue to do what I do the best," Li told reporters outside the university staff quarters on Tuesday.

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"After five months in detention, I am happy to be back to a place of freedom," he said.

Job in limbo

City University authorities say Li remains on the staff list but have not yet confirmed whether he will be allowed to resume work.

"I am not willing to comment on this because I don't have a full understanding of the issue," City University president Chang Hsin-kang told The Associated Press.

City University officials say Li remains on staff, but it is unclear when or if he will resume work

Arriving at Hong Kong airport Monday afternoon on a flight from New York, Li was questioned for five hours by immigration authorities before being admitted.

Li, who was accompanied on his return by his wife Amy Liu Yingli and their eight-year-old daughter Diana, was reported to have been accompanied by two U.S. consular officials during his questioning by immigration officials.

The Hong Kong government has made little public comment on Li's return to the territory other than to say it would "not allow anybody in Hong Kong to undertake espionage activities and jeopardize the interests of Hong Kong and the state."

One country, two systems

"We will act in accordance with the law and strictly enforce the immigration ordinance," a government spokesman said, adding it was not policy to comment on individual cases.

The territory's pro-Beijing legislators had appealed to the local government not to let Li into Hong Kong and are calling for quick enactment of an anti-subversion law to make sedition against mainland China a crime.

Ma Lik, a Hong Kong delagate to China's National People's Congress, or parliament, opposed Li's return to his university.

"Should a government-subsidized institution be allowed to use public money to employ a convicted spy," Ma asked.

But other local politicians are saying the refusal of Li's return to his job would be too damaging to the territory's image.

"In this whole case what is sadly missing is the voice of the vice chancellor of the university defending Li Shaomin's rights, defending academic research," said independent legislator Margaret Ng.

Focus on Beijing

"Everybody is looking to Beijing. If Beijing allows we have our freedom. if Beijing doesn't, then nobody in Hong Kong would dare stand up to defend an academic who is convicted of espionage."

Ng and other pro-democracy legislators had voiced their concern that Hong Kong government would bar Li's entry.

"The price, political price of not allowing Li to come back would be too great, nobody would have any faith in one country two systems, it would seriously affect academic research in Hong Kong. For all these reasons it might be the right thing to let him back," says Ng.

Under the terms of the handover from British colonial rule Hong Kong has special legal status under Chinese rule in accordance with the so-called "one country-two systems" principle.

However, rights groups and pro-democracy legislators say that in the four years since the handover, Hong Kong's legal autonomy has been compromised on several occasions with the territory's leaders coming under increasing pressure from Beijing to toe the mainland line.

Martin Lee, the head of the territory's Democratic Party and the leading opposition figure in the legislature, praised what he called the "good news" of Li's arrival.

However, he said it was unclear whether Beijing had approved Li's return or if Hong Kong had done it on its own.

The latter, he said, would be "even better, provided that Beijing doesn't overturn the government's decision."

Communist adviser

Li's father, 76-year-old Li Honglin, met the scholar at the airport. Li Honglin now lives in the territory but was once a prominent liberal thinker on the mainland and an adviser to the late Chinese Communist Party reformist leader Hu Yaobang.

The elder Li was himself jailed by the Chinese authorities for 10 months after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests for sympathizing with pro-democracy students.

Li Shaomin has said he has no wish to become a figurehead for human rights groups in China and appears keen to keep a low profile following his return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.