DALLAS — Chinese authorities have held a Texas businesswoman in custody for six months on allegations that she’s a spy who stole state secrets, the woman’s husband said Tuesday.
Phan Phan-Gillis, 55, was part of a trade delegation when she was detained at a border checkpoint in March.
Now her husband, Jeff Gillis, is asking President Barack Obama and the State Department to arrange her release. He denies the accusations against her.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said Phan-Gillis is being investigated on suspicion of threatening China’s national security.
Although she has not been charged, she was formally arrested over the weekend and moved to a more secure detention facility in the southern city of Nanning, according to her husband, who said the arrest allows Chinese authorities to continue their espionage investigation.
His wife has been visited six times by American consular officers since her March 20 arrest, according to the State Department, which said it was closely monitoring the case.
Phan-Gillis, known as Sandy to family and friends, is a Vietnamese-American of Chinese descent who has lived in Houston for about 30 years.
Gillis, who until now has not publicly discussed his wife’s situation, decided to announce her arrest this week because Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting the U.S. Gillis said he hoped the timing of the publicity would pressure Beijing and Washington to act.
“If nothing else, at least convey to the Chinese about the idiocy of arresting an American citizen on these politicized charges of spying and stealing state secrets,” he said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the woman was healthy, but Gillis said his wife suffers from high blood pressure and other complications and has been hospitalized twice during her incarceration.
Chinese law allows authorities to detain a suspect for up to six months during an investigation, Gillis said. After that period, the government has a month to issue charges or present its case in court, although it can seek extensions.
Houston Mayor Pro Tem Ed Gonzalez said he and Phan-Gillis were part of a five-member delegation that spent a week in China in March, speaking with Chinese entrepreneurs interested in pursuing business opportunities in the Houston area.
Phan-Gillis was a business consultant who traveled regularly to China and who also served as president of the Houston Shenzhen Sister City Organization, according to Gonzalez and Gillis.
The mayor said members of the delegation were surprised when Phan-Gillis did not meet them after the group had passed through security at the border checkpoint. She later contacted the delegation to say she was attending to a “personal matter.”
“It’s just so bizarre,” Gonzalez said. “There was nothing out of the ordinary for a business development trip.”
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