Man says wife who was arrested in Gongbei interrogated daily 

This undated photo provided by Jeff Gillis shows Gillis, right, and his wife, Phan Phan-Gillis

An American businesswoman arrested in China based on claims that she spied and stole state secrets is being held in solitary confinement and has been interrogated at least once a day, her husband said. Phan Phan-Gillis, 55, the head of the Houston Shenzhen Sister City Association was taken into custody in March when trying to enter Macau together with other members of a trade delegation visiting China.
The alleged spy’s husband, Jeff Gillis, said his wife met with an American consulate official on Wednesday. Her health has stabilized after suffering from ailments since she was detained in Gongbei, he said.
Gillis explained that his wife is allowed to obtain lawyers to monitor her health and relay messages to her family, but the lawyers are not permitted to discuss the accusations against her. She has not been charged, and Chinese authorities have not specified the nature of the allegations against her. Gillis said her lawyers in China had been informed of the broad nature of her accusations. “The only way she’s going to get released is if President Barack Obama takes an active interest in her case,” Gillis explained.
Phan-Gillis was detained for months before being formally arrested last weekend and transferred to a more secure detention facility in the southern city of Nanning.
She said in comments relayed to her husband that her case is a political one, not criminal, and requests that he “lobby for an exchange of political prisoners” in order to secure her release.
Gillis said there’s no indication that any sort of prisoner exchange would be considered but noted there are many Chinese in the U.S. that the Chinese government wants to see returned in order to prosecute them for stealing state money or other crimes.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has accused Phan-Gillis with threatening China’s national security. Attempts to contact a Chinese Embassy official in Washington, D.C., for further explanation, were unsuccessful.
U.S. Congressman. Al Green, whose district includes the Houston area, revealed on Wednesday that the U.S. State Department has indicated that Phan-Gillis’ incarceration will be discussed during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit this week to the U.S.
“Her circumstance is one that will be discussed at a high level while we have the president of China here,” Green noted.
He said Gillis showed “restraint” in not speaking publicly about his wife’s detention for six months. Gillis says her formal arrest last weekend prompted him to speak out.
“I have to conclude that this is a big mistake that can be corrected with her being released,” Green said. Phan-Gillis is the latest in a string of foreigners who have been held in China this year for alleged economic or security-related crimes.
A group of 11 foreigners were detained for a week in July and later deported for having organized or joined terrorist groups. Chinese police say the group — comprising five South Africans, three British and one Indian — admitted to watching videos advocating terrorism.
A British private investigator and his Chinese-born American wife were released in June after two years in prison for allegedly illegally obtaining and selling the private information of Chinese citizens.
And in February a Canadian man with ties to a Christian group that provided humanitarian aid to North Korea was detained on suspicion of stealing state secrets. The case strained ties between Canada and China.
Phan-Gillis, known as Sandy to family and friends, is a Vietnamese-American of Chinese descent who has lived in Houston for about 30 years.
She works as a business consultant and traveled regularly to China, while also serving as president of the Houston Shenzhen Sister City Organization. She often worked as an intermediary in ventures between U.S. and Chinese businesses.
Houston Mayor Pro Tem Ed Gonzalez said on Tuesday that he was a member of the trade delegation in March that was surprised when Phan-Gillis did not meet them after the group passed through a border security checkpoint in Macau, across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong. She later contacted the delegation to say she was attending to a “personal matter.”
MDT/Agencies