Bail set for Chinese businessman on charges of export violations

By RACHEL KONRAD
AP Business Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) A federal judge insisted that the friends and family of a Chinese businessman accused of shipping missile technology to China provide $250,000 in cash and property to secure his release, citing the severity of the charges against him and his flight risk.

In addition, Qing Chang Jiang, jailed since early January, must remain in Santa Clara County, wear an electronic monitoring device, surrender his passport, and submit to searches of his body, home and car at any time for any reason, the judge ruled Thursday.

Prosecutors say Jiang, 51, president and sole U.S. employee of EHI Group USA Inc./Araj Electronics, last year shipped three microwave amplifiers to the Hebei Far-East Harris Company in Shijianzhuang, China, without a license.

Hebei shares an address with the 54th Research Institute, a Chinese military agency. Most exports to the agency are outlawed. The U.S. government says it poses an ``unacceptable risk of diversion to developing weapons of mass destruction.''

Microwave amplifiers are used by telecommunications companies to improve long-distance calls. But they may also be used to boost the accuracy of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Jiang pleaded innocent last week to violating export code but faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Because of the charges' severity and flight risk, Chief Magistrate Judge Patricia V. Trumbull of the United States District Court in Northern California rejected an unsecured personal bail bond of $20,000 from Jiang's 21-year-old son, Yi Jiang. She also rejected unsecured personal bonds up to $250,000 each from two of Jiang's friends.

``I need more than just signatures,'' Trumbull said, insisting on cash or property that the federal government could immediately seize if Jiang leaves the country. ``I need his friends or family to really lose something significant if he doesn't come to the hearings.''

The case has intensified concerns about foreign espionage in Silicon Valley. Jiang is at least the fourth Chinese native indicted since October on charges involving the shipment of equipment or trade secrets to China from the nerve center of the U.S. technology industry.

Trumbull said immigration agents would review Jiang's L1 visa, which allows him to operate a business. The visa, which the Immigration and Naturalization Service may revoke, expires in October 2004.

Trumbull also required Jiang, who began his business in 1995, to seek and obtain work outside the export industry. If Jiang wants to complete outstanding sales contracts, the judge said, someone else must finalize the deals.

The terms of release disappointed both sides.

Jiang's public defender, Lupe Martinez, said prosecutors are exaggerating the danger posed by Jiang, who came to the United States in 1990 to study business management at Fresno State University and received a scholarship in 1993 at San Jose State University.

Jiang, whose oldest son has a full scholarship for an engineering doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University, is not a flight risk and does not require onerous release conditions, Martinez insisted. He said $250,000 in cash or property may violate the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which says a defendant must be released on personal recognizance or an unsecured personal bond unless he ``endangers the safety of any other person or the community.''

``We should not be tempted because 'national security' is thrown out as a mantra that this case is different,'' Martinez said as an interpreter translated the words into Mandarin for Jiang. ``He has maintained employment and has deep ties to the community here.''

Assistant U.S. attorney Gary Fry said Jiang, whose wife and younger son live permanently in China, is a flight risk and jeopardizes national security. He argued that Jiang should be incarcerated until trial in the spring.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)