This comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States
Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States, an American has been arrested on charges of spying.
The woman, Phan Phan-Gillis—who also goes by the name Sandy Phan-Gillis—has been detained in China for about six months. Phan-Gillis’ husband, Jeff Gillis, learned of his wife’s formal arrest on Sunday, and on Monday he decided to go public, denying Phan-Gillis’s involvement in spying activities. Phan-Gillis had been participating in a business delegation from Houston, where she is based.
“It is the most stupid politics in the world to arrest a U.S. citizen the week that Xi Jinping is coming to the United States for a state visit on political charges of spying,” Gillis told the New York Times. “I really don’t want to be disruptive. I don’t want to ruin anybody’s party. I just want to get my wife back.”
Phan-Gillis’s fellow travelers have maintained that the trip was routine. “There was nothing out of the ordinary,” Ed Gonzalez, Houston’s mayor pro-tem Ed Gonzalez told the Houston Chronicle. Lawyers representing Phan-Gillis in China have not commented on the case.
Xi arrives in Seattle on Tuesday and will be visiting Washington, D.C. later this week.
This comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States
Ahead of President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States, an American has been arrested on charges of spying.
The woman, Phan Phan-Gillis—who also goes by the name Sandy Phan-Gillis—has been detained in China for about six months. Phan-Gillis’ husband, Jeff Gillis, learned of his wife’s formal arrest on Sunday, and on Monday he decided to go public, denying Phan-Gillis’s involvement in spying activities. Phan-Gillis had been participating in a business delegation from Houston, where she is based.
“It is the most stupid politics in the world to arrest a U.S. citizen the week that Xi Jinping is coming to the United States for a state visit on political charges of spying,” Gillis told the New York Times. “I really don’t want to be disruptive. I don’t want to ruin anybody’s party. I just want to get my wife back.”
Phan-Gillis’s fellow travelers have maintained that the trip was routine. “There was nothing out of the ordinary,” Ed Gonzalez, Houston’s mayor pro-tem Ed Gonzalez told the Houston Chronicle. Lawyers representing Phan-Gillis in China have not commented on the case.
Xi arrives in Seattle on Tuesday and will be visiting Washington, D.C. later this week.
