China convicts American professor of spying

A Chinese court has convicted an American business professor of spying, and ordered that he be expelled.

The official Xinhua News Agency reports that Li Shaomin, who was detained on February 26, was convicted in the Beijing Intermediate People's Court. It did not say whether Li had already been sent out of China.

Xinhua said the court had a "large amount of confirmed evidence" that Li spied for rival Taiwan, endangering Chinese national security.

Chinese officials said in advance of the court hearing that Li had confessed, although his wife denied he was involved in espionage.

Li, an American citizen who teaches at the City University of Hong Kong, is one of five Chinese-born intellectuals with US ties who have been detained over the past year and accused of spying for Taiwan. He is the first to go on trial.

The US Congress passed a resolution last month demanding his release. China specialists in Hong Kong issued a similar plea in May, saying the case made researchers uneasy about travelling to the mainland.

The announcement of Li's conviction came less than 24 hours after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics - a contrast that highlights the communist government's conflicting feelings about closer ties to the outside world.

Security was tight at the Beijing courthouse for the trial. Reporters were barred, and the announcement by Xinhua was the first confirmation that the proceedings had taken place.

A US Embassy spokesman says Li is still in China, but it isn't known when or to where he will be deported. "This has been a matter of great concern to many people in the United States and one we have raised at high levels with the Chinese government."

Other detainees include Gao Zhan, a sociologist at American University in Washington, who was picked up on February 11 during a family visit to China.

Her husband says academic contacts with Taiwan might have attracted the attention of Beijing, but he insists she wasn't involved in espionage.