A Chinese court yesterday sentenced US engineer Fong Fuming, 67, to five years' jail after finding him guilty of illegally obtaining state secrets and bribing state workers.
Fong was sentenced by the Beijing People's Number One Intermediate Court two years after he was first detained. The court said he should be deported after serving his sentence.
He was detained in Beijing in February 2000 for carrying technical information while working as a consultant for American power companies. Only his time in jail since being charged in August 2000 will count towards his sentence.
Fong used to be an executive board member and manager of Hong Kong-based company Fiacra Industrial (Hong Kong) in Admiralty. Officials at the company were not available to comment yesterday.
From 1995 to 1999, he acted on behalf of foreign companies, including US firm Babcock and Wilcox, tendering for major power-construction projects. Xinhua said he illegally obtained 35 documents containing state secrets and gave US$245,000 (HK$1.9 million) in bribes to state workers.
A US Embassy spokesman said Fong was acquitted of charges of bribery and of obtaining state secrets on behalf of a foreign entity. He appears to have been found guilty of obtaining commercial secrets but not of spying.
