<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 5.50.4207.2601" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>AFP Tuesday June 11, 11:56 AM China expels Canadian journalist for illegal video recordings China has expelled a Chinese-Canadian journalist for illegally recording video tapes in the country's restive northeast, officials and reporters said. Jiang Xueqin, a freelance reporter who has written several articles about the problems facing China, was deported on Wednesday after being held for two days by Chinese authorities, embassy spokeswoman Jennifer May said. He was detained in Daqing, a large oil city in the middle of China's crumbling rustbelt, although the exact reason for his detention was unclear. "We were advised about his detention, and before we got an answer on why he was detained, we were told he had been sent out of the country," May said. Local police contacted by AFP said Jiang was detained for illegally recording video tapes. "He made illegal video recordings and violated the law," said a spokeswoman from Daqing police, who said her surnamed was Hua. Jiang, a Chinese-born Canadian citizen, has previously written for publications including the the Nation, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Christian Science Monitor and the Far Eastern Economic Review. According to the Nation's website, Jiang is writing on a book that will address the problems faced by China's farmers and workers in the era of globalization. The town of Daqing, where Jiang was detained, was once a shining example of the country's state-planned industry, but has now turned into a symbol of the plight of China's toiling masses. Earlier this year up to 50,000 workers demonstrated in the city in one of the biggest labor actions to hit China in recent years. Several Canadians have been deported from China in recent months, all of them for staging protests in support of the outlawed Falungong spiritual movement. -------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 Financial Times Information All rights reserved Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire Copyright 2002 BBC Monitoring/BBC BBC Monitoring International Reports June 11, 2002 HEADLINE: CANADIAN JOURNALIST DEPORTED FROM CHINA (Business Post supplement) on 11 June Chinese-Canadian freelance journalist Jiang Xueqin was sent home after two days in detention last week for reporting on labour unrest in the mainland's northeast, Jiang's friends and colleagues said. The Canadian embassy confirmed one of its citizens was ordered home on Wednesday 5 June , two days after being detained in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, where as many as 50,000 oilfield workers have protested against layoffs and a lack of benefits. Workers are demanding welfare benefits they said were promised as part of compensation for job losses. The protests are continuing sporadically. Embassy spokeswoman Jennifer May said police did not give the embassy a reason for sending the citizen home but that he was not charged with a crime. Jiang was apparently covering labour unrest for the Public Broadcasting Service, a television network partly funded by the US government, friends said. One said he had a camera on him when he was detained and that he was initially accused of spying. Foreign journalists risk arrest when covering sensitive subjects, such as the protests in Daqing and in Liaoyang, and freelancers - often without journalist permits - may be ordered to leave. A woman who answered Jiang's mobile phone in Beijing said he was not hurt during the detention and that he had returned to Canada. She said she did not know whether he planned to return to China or could legally do so. Having returned to Toronto, Jiang refused to give details about his detention: "I cannot talk about my experience right now but plan to at a future date." Jiang, who was born in Guangdong Province and emigrated to Canada, had lived in Beijing for about two years working as a freelancer shortly after graduating from Harvard University. His articles appeared in the US-based Chronicle of Higher Education, the Christian Science Monitor and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He also previously worked for the defunct Asiaweek magazine and had said he was in Beijing to research a book. Ms May said no other citizen had been sent away in her two years of working at the embassy. The Chinese government had not contacted the embassy since Jiang was sent home, she said. "From our point of view, it's over and done with," she said. Source: South China Morning Post (Business Post supplement), Hong Kong, in English 11 Jun 02 ---------------------------------------------------- Articles by Jiang Xueqin in the Christian Science Monitor: <A href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0122/p16s01-lepr.html">http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0122/p16s01-lepr.html</A> <A href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1016/p16s1-lekt.html">http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1016/p16s1-lekt.html</A> ---------------------------------------------- Articles by or mentioning Jiang Xueqin in the Far Eastern Economic Review: [accessible on the web to FEER subscribers]   1. CHINA -- February 07, 2002 Stealing the Land : Through a mixture of ambiguous laws, inept monitoring and greed, local officials are grabbing land from the people who farm it. The result is growing fury in the countryside   2. CULTURE -- October 25, 2001 A Place to Think : In a country where the state still retains tight controls on many forms of expression, China's theatres are luring audiences by tackling social issues that most other media won't ...   3. CHINA -- September 06, 2001 Fighting To Organize : Outrage at the sight of former managers looting assets at state-owned factories is providing a breeding ground for organized labour in China. A worried Beijing is battling its ...      6. CHINA: HEALTHCARE -- December 21, 2000 Consuming Problem: Tuberculosis is rampaging through China, claiming 250,000 lives a year. But despite the scale of the problem, there's little political will to do anything about it   7. CHINA: HEALTHCARE -- December 21, 2000 INTO THE 21ST CENTURY ... ALMOST: Yangniao village may be missing out on basic healthcare, but officials are keen to help it out in other ways.   8. CHINA -- October 12, 2000 Grey Into Gold: An ageing population is creating opportunities for retirement homes, but old prejudices linger </DIV> <DIV> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jiang Xueqin was also a guest on the NPR program On Point in February. If you have some time to spare, it's worth listening to. Jiang's comments are quite interesting. He comes on about 10 minutes into the program, and comes on again several times until the end of the program about 35 minutes after that. <A href="http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/oneunionstation/2002/02/spc_0220b.rm">http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/oneunionstation/2002/02/spc_0220b.rm</A> </DIV></BODY></HTML>