Posted on 12/31/2003 5:55:52 PM PST by blam
Beijing bursts balloon plot
Reuters in Beijing
Thursday January 1, 2004
The Guardian (UK)
An American and a New Zealander were jailed in Beijing yesterday on charges of plotting to explode balloons by remote control above Tiananmen Square and scatter pro-democracy leaflets. The New Zealander, Sun Gang, 44, who was born in China, was sentenced to five years and the American, Lan Yupeng, born in Taiwan, to three-and-a-half-years, the Xinhua news agency said.
Both were fined unspecified amounts and ordered to be deported, it added, but did not say whether this would be immediately or after serving their sentences.
The two used false names to rent a Beijing flat where the police found leaflets, a hacksaw and an "airship", it said, adding that they had colluded with an overseas organisation.
They had also plotted to kidnap an employee of an unnamed company in Hunan province for ransom. A Chinese national, Lin Yandong, 42, was jailed for 18 months for involvement in the kidnapping plot.
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