Stanford research associate Hua Di was imprisoned by Chinese authorities when he returned for a family funeral in January 1998. This spring Hua's conviction for leaking state secrets was overturned on an appeal. But Hua, sentenced late last year to 15 years in prison, remained in custody while the case returned to a lower court for retrial. "Basically the court agreed . . . that the evidence used to convict him was . . . unclear," said professor emeritus John Lewis, who worked closely with Hua at the Center for International Security and Cooperation.
A Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residency, Hua was a high-level missile scientist in China. He fled after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, returning only after China's Ministry of State Security assured his safety. He was charged with writing articles that revealed secrets about China's ballistic missile program -- but colleagues insist he used public sources.
Hua suffers from a rare form of breast cancer. "Several of our faculty continue to make quiet representations on Mr. Hua's behalf," says President Gerhard Casper. "In the meantime, we hope he is receiving appropriate medical attention."
