China drops charges against N.Y. Times researcher

By Philip P. Pan, Washington Post  |  March 18, 2006

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities dropped charges yesterday against a New York
Times researcher accused of leaking state secrets, a surprise decision that
could lead to his release from prison 18 months after his arrest.

The action also might ease criticism of China's human rights record during
President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to the United States.

The researcher, Zhao Yan, 44, a Chinese journalist who worked in the newspaper's
Beijing bureau, could be freed from a detention center operated by the Ministry
of State Security as early as Monday, said his lawyer, Mo Shaopin, who said he
received a formal court notice withdrawing the charges.

The move amounts to a rare admission of error by the Chinese government in a
criminal prosecution involving national security, and it almost certainly
required Hu's approval, because he initiated the investigation that led to
Zhao's arrest and had been issuing instructions to the officials running it,
according to people familiar with the probe.

State security agents detained Zhao in September 2004 after the Times published
an article accurately predicting the retirement of China's former
president. Zhao's detention without trial on vague state secrets charges
provoked strong criticism by human rights groups, and US officials pressed for
his release during President Bush's last two meetings with Hu.

Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, said: ''The apparent end of Zhao
Yan's ordeal is thrilling news for all of his colleagues. We are grateful to the
many people outside the paper who spoke up on his behalf."

''The notion that Zhao Yan's work for the Times constituted anything but dogged
journalism has seemed ridiculous from the outset," he added.

China often releases political prisoners as a gesture of goodwill ahead of
high-level meetings with foreign leaders, and the Bush administration had put
Zhao's name on a short list of prisoners it hoped to see released before Hu's
trip to Washington next month.