Text of report by Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on 16 December

[Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy report: "Well-Known Chinese Missile Expert Hua Di Prevented From Returning to United States"]

(16 Dec 2009) - This Centre has learned that Hua Di, a well-known Chinese expert on rockets and missiles who was arrested after he returned to China from the United States on 6 January 1998 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for the crime of "divulging state secrets," was imprisoned the whole time in Shanghai's Tilan Bridge Prison. Since he was released in January 1998 [as published] he has always wanted to return to the United States to reunite with his son, but the Chinese government will not allow him to leave the country.

According to what Hua Di's younger sister Wu Sanbao told this Centre, since Hua Di's release from prison the authorities will not let him go to the United States. She says Hua Di is currently in Beijing for medical treatment, and is researching the theory of relativity. This Centre assumes that the authorities are preventing Hua Di from leaving the country because of concern that he will talk about things concerning core secrets of Chinese missiles. Hua Di participated in the design of the new rockets and missiles in the most recent 1 October parade.

Seventy-five year old Hua Di graduated from the Engines Department of Moscow Aviation Institute in 1960. After that he was in China participating in the design of rockets and missiles. After 4 June 1989 he announced that he was leaving the Party and remaining in the United States under political asylum. He was then a researcher at Stanford University's Centre for National Security and Arms Control [as published], and he cooperated with John Lewis in writing "China's Ballistic Missile Programmes: Technologies, Strategies, Goals." Authorities considered the work to have "divulged state secrets," and sentenced Hua Di to 10 years in prison.

Hua Di probably still has in the United States undisclosed core information about the DF-41 which was in the 1 October parade, and other intercontinental ballistic missiles [ Hua Di ying gai zai Mei Guo mei you tou lu chu "10 yue 1 ri" yue bing DF 41 deng zhou ji dao dan he xin zi liao you bao liu ], so authorities are preventing him from leaving the country to stop him from divulging information which he did not divulge before.

Source: Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong, in Chinese 16 Dec 09

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