Chinese police detained a five-year-old American boy and prevented him from seeing his parents for 26 days without informing the US authorities, the US embassy in Beijing confirmed Wednesday.
Human Rights in China (HRIC) said five-year-old Andrew Xue and his parents, Chinese citizens Xue Donghua and Gao Zhan, were detained at Beijing airport on February 11 as they were heading to the United States after visiting family.
Gao, a sociology scholar at the American University in Washington, and her husband are US residents awaiting full citizenship while their son is a US citizen because he was born in the United States.
"They were separated and held for 26 days at an unknown location. Andrew was not allowed any contact with his parents and grandparents throughout this period," said the statement.
"Chinese officials neglected to inform the American embassy that they were holding an American citizen, as required by law," HRIC said.
"They also failed to inform their families or their employers as to their whereabouts," said the New York-based group.
HRIC said Xue was questioned intensively about two trips his wife made to Taiwan in 1995 and 1999 as part of her studies for a sociology doctorate at Syracuse University. It did not specify the doctorate subject.
It said Andrew and his father were released on March 8 and have since left the country.
Asked to comment on the report, US embassy spokesman John Berry said: "The HRIC report is consistent with our understanding of events."
Berry said the embassy could not comment on the details of the case because of US privacy laws but that under a consular agreement China should notify the US side within four days if any of its citizens were detained.
He added: "You can be sure we are monitoring compliance of this requirement very carefully and that we make our displeasure known to the Chinese government if we have determined that they have not implemented it."
A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP that Gao was still in detention, but she declined to directly confirm or deny whether the husband and son were also detained.
"She is suspected of activities undermining state security. She is detained according to our criminal law and relevant departments are investigating the case," she said.
Asked if the Chinese authorities had failed to inform the US embassy about the child's detention, the spokeswoman said: "But the parents are Chinese."
In a statement released by HRIC, Xue said he, his wife and son were detained without explanation on February 11 at Beijing airport and taken on a two-hour drive to a detention center where they were separated.
He said he had no contact with his child for 26 days and that repeated requests for Andrew to be allowed to stay with either his parents or grandparents were rejected.
Xue said he was told his son had been sent to a kindergarten and that if he wanted to see him again he should give details about his wife's visits to Taiwan in 1995 and 1999.
He said his employers in the United States, Electronic Database System, feared his family had been killed or kidnapped and that their fate only came to light after EDS contacted the US embassy in Beijing in late February.
HRIC has written to US President George W. Bush urging him to raise the issue in his meeting Thursday in Washington with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen -- BEIJING (AFP)
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