November 2005

U.S. Ambassador Makes Plea for Shao

Clark Randt, the U.S. ambassador to China, visited Jude Shao, MBA ’93, in a Shanghai prison this summer, raising the hopes of Shao’s classmates that he may be released soon.

Shao, a naturalized American citizen who grew up in Shanghai and had a business importing medical supplies to China, was jailed in 1999 on charges of tax evasion. Classmates who have worked for his release say he was wrongly accused after refusing to pay bribes. So far he has served 7 years of a 16-year sentence that human rights activists have called excessive.

Friends in Shao’s class took up his cause at their 10th-year reunion in 2003. They have established the FreeJudeShao website; written hundreds of letters; badgered journalists for coverage; and enlisted human rights advocate John Kamm, Chinese law expert Jerome Cohen, prominent politicians on both sides of the aisle, and former Stanford provost, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James A. Kelly raised Shao’s case at the 2004 APEC summit before Ambassador Randt requested and received permission to visit the prison. After visiting Shao in June, he told Reuters News Agency that he was worried about Shao’s health, and hoped his heart ailment would give cause for medical parole. Unnamed officials of China’s Foreign Ministry told news agencies that they had “taken notice” of the ambassadors’ interest in Shao.

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