Stanford Report, May 14, 2003

Business School alumni campaign to free classmate from Chinese prison

BY JANERT ZICH

Stanford's MBA Class of 1993 had a special mission at its 10th-year reunion. Some 75 members of the class attended a workshop May 3 where they discussed how to free their classmate and friend, a naturalized American citizen named Jude Shao, from the Shanghai prison where he is serving a 16-year sentence.

Leading the discussion was guest speaker John Kamm, a human rights activist whose San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation has helped free more than 250 prisoners in China -- most of them Chinese citizens jailed for their political or religious beliefs, but others, like Shao, Americans convicted of business-related offenses.

"I spent most of my career in China as a businessman," Kamm told the group. "Now I'm a civil rights activist, but I still consider myself a businessman. I'm in something called the 'extractive' industry, and what we're going to talk about today is what's involved in extracting Jude Shao from this situation."

Shortly after graduation from Stanford, Shao and 16 investors established an American company, China Business Ventures (CBV), to export medical equipment to China. Most of the investors were Business School classmates, and many of them were at the reunion. Aside from a disagreement with a Chinese company that CBV threatened with litigation, business was going well when, in 1997, the company's Shanghai subsidiary was surprised by a "special tax audit" and had its accounting records confiscated. In April 1998, Shao was returning from CBV's San Francisco office when he was detained by police at the Shanghai airport. He was arrested, charged with two tax crimes, found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Kamm, formerly a regional vice president of Occidental Chemical Corp. and president of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, recently took on his case.

"Jude is one of 50 or 60 American citizens in prison in China," Kamm said. "Probably the majority of them are in jail for what we would call economic crimes." Kamm was instrumental in returning one of these Americans, David Chow, to his home in Los Angeles last September.

"I'm often asked why American businesses should care about human rights in China. I used to say David Chow. Now I say Jude Shao. The same arbitrary abuses of power that are used to silence dissent can also be used for other purposes. And you're seeing one of those being played out here.

"Virtually all the economic prisoners I know of are ethnic Chinese," Kamm said. "Typically what happens is these fellows get involved in business disputes, which I understand is also the case with Jude Shao. Often these companies have relations with local police forces, and sometimes the threat of detention is used to bring about the resolution of the case."

There are three ways to win release of a prisoner in China. The first is legal, and Shao has exhausted his legal resources. He was tried and found guilty, and lost two appeals. Word came a few days before the reunion that the People's Supreme Court had turned down his petition for a new trial based on new evidence.

The second is to get the sentence reduced. This always involves an acknowledgment of guilt, and Shao is adamantly opposed to that. "You know," said Kamm, "you've got a problem here, and the problem is Jude. My impression of Jude is this guy is one of those rare people who have principle. He really doesn't think he did anything wrong."

The third possibility is parole: for medical reasons, for good behavior, or for special circumstances. There are limits on the first two -- for example, they can't go into effect until a prisoner has served half his term, and Shao has three years to go to reach the halfway mark.

But, said Kamm, "under Chinese law, such as it is, time limits on parole can be waived when there are special circumstances, which the law defines as matters related to China's foreign affairs, foreign economic relations, defense. In other words, if a case is politically important to the Chinese government, they let people go.

"So what do you do? You've got to make Jude Shao's case a matter of political importance to the Chinese people. It's that simple.

"Every time a delegation comes, you sit down with the head of the delegation and talk about Jude Shao. You get your government officials. You get the media. It becomes something on the radar screen of U.S.-China relations. And then one day some big shot's going to go there or some big shot from there is going to come here, and the two governments are going to discuss something called 'deliverables.' You want Jude Shao to be a 'deliverable.'"

The Free Jude Shao Campaign already has begun its work. Shao's classmates Chuck Hoover and Caroline Pappajohn arranged the workshop, where they distributed copious packets of material about the case to friends and press. They already had recruited the endorsements of several members of Congress. Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Mike Honda and Anna Eshoo were first to write to the Chinese government on Shao's behalf. They also wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Lofgren sent a member of her staff to the reunion. Print, radio and television journalists also were present, and in the days that followed, an Associated Press report of the meeting was printed in newspapers across the United States and also in the English-language daily Taipei Times.

At the reunion, class members planned a website devoted to Shao. They vowed to bombard their senators and representatives with material about the case, exhort every contact in the State Department and make sure that no visiting delegation of Chinese officials leaves the United States without hearing of Shao. The investors in the now-defunct company even discussed suing the Chinese government for putting CBV out of business. That, they reasoned, would surely attract official attention.

If class members entertained any doubts about the immediacy of the crisis, they were dispelled by Garry Ohmert, one of Shao's three cellmates for the past two years. Ohmert was released in February on a medical parole and had traveled from Colorado to attend Shao's reunion.

"Jude started suffering severe bouts of depression after his father died," Ohmert said. The death wasn't unexpected. Shao knew he was about to see his father for the last time, and he wanted his father's last sight of him to be in civilian clothes. "Jude had to fight for over an hour to win that right," Ohmert said, "even though he was handcuffed and escorted by six officers.

"Jude also has backaches. But he rises every day, puts a fireproof smile on his face, and never shows the depression he is suffering from. It's not until after lights out he lets down that facade." And no matter what he suffers, Ohmert said, Shao will never confess to a crime he did not commit in order to reduce his sentence. "Jude is prepared to do every minute, every second of his time until some other way is found for him."

The one person who wasn't there to talk about Shao was Shao himself. But his photograph, taken in happier times, was projected at the front of the room. With it was a message dated April 21 that had been relayed to the class by his sister, who visits him monthly. It said:

Dear classmates,

Thank you for your support. With your help, I believe this unfortunate incident will come to an end soon. Justice will prevail and I shall return vindicated. Have a great reunion and fun. I miss you all.

Jude Shao