布政司署
香港下亞厘畢道
本署檔號 Our Ref.:
來函檔號 Your Ref.:
Nigel Cox Esq
HKD
FCO
Jean Niger,
RESTRICTED
DIEU
015/1
нко здра
1982
CM
56
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD HONG KONG
26/86m
تھا
20 March 1992
St Mer Seaton, FED M Wye, RAD PUSD (CN) A Mori, Intriguing. 26/3
По Вилна
Да таки
The strange case of Hanson Huang
м
257in
On the 10th of this month newspapers here gave headline coverage to the arrival in Hong Kong of Mr Hanson Huang Ying, a local lawyer who was held in China for ten years for alleged spying.
Huang in fact came back to Hong Kong last month, on 13 February. He crossed the border at Lo Wu with a BDTC passport issued by the Embassy in May last year. Apparently, when he applied for this passport, the Embassy had no indication from him or anywhere else of his unusual position.
The story carried in the newspapers (largely quoting Huang himself) is that he went to Beijing in 1979 as a legal adviser and academic. In 1982 he was arrested for allegedly selling state secrets and in 1983 sentenced to 15 years for espionage; this sentence was quashed by Beijing Superior People's Court in late 1989. However, Huang was only in prison for three years, 1983 to 1985. He was then transferred to an apartment in Beijing apparently provided (with a maid) by the state. After his sentence was quashed in 1989 pending a retrial he was allowed to travel freely within China but only recently permitted to come to Hong Kong. All rather curious.
When he appeared in the newspapers last week, none of us had heard of him. The files reveal only a brief mention when the Americans approached us in 1982 in Peking, saying they were concerned about Mr Huang, "a Hong Kong-born US permanent resident" who had disappeared during a visit to China. Since then, silence.
The very mild comments which Huang has made about his experiences and the behaviour of the Chinese authorities only add to the peculiar air about this whole case. Although the newspaper articles attempted to put his return in the context of Lau Sauching's release, it doesn't really seem to fit. Huang has not at any stage sought our assistance, nor have any friends or relatives in Hong Kong ever raised the case with us. Perhaps they thought they could handle it better themselves. Looking at the results, perhaps they were right.
eva
Yours Sphen
(S E Bradley)
Deputy Political Adviser
BESTRICTE