US President Barack Obama sent China a failed personal appeal to free American geologist Xue Feng. Despite a personal plea from US president Barack Obama, a court in China sentenced American geologist Xue Feng to eight years in prison and a US$30,000 fine for trafficking state secrets and buying an advanced commercial database that, according to China, contains confidential information about the country's oil industry. The sentence was carried out even though both Xue, 45, and his employer, the engineering consultancy IHS , have stated that during the time of purchase, the database was in the public domain . Also, San Francisco-based non-profit Dui Hua Foundation has said that China declared the database a state secret only after Xue had purchased it.
US President Barack Obama sent China a failed personal appeal to free American geologist Xue Feng. Despite a personal plea from US president Barack Obama, a court in China sentenced American geologist to eight years in prison and a US$30,000 fine for trafficking state secrets and buying an advanced commercial database that, according to China, contains confidential information about the country's oil industry. The sentence was carried out even though both Xue, 45, and his employer, the engineering consultancy , have stated that during the time of purchase, the database was in the . Also, -based non-profit has said that China declared the database a state secret only after Xue had purchased it.
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Xue Feng
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IHS
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public domain
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San Francisco-based
-based
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Dui Hua Foundation