World Tibet Network News Wednesday, June 24, 1998

By Verena Dobnik

NEW YORK, June 19, 1998 (Fox News Online) - Shaugun Pan was a brilliant young engineer, a Chinese immigrant who took his American dreams with him when he returned to his homeland to start a high-tech business. The deal apparently went sour, and he's paying a price he never dreamed of nine months in a Tibetan prison; so far. On Thursday, his mother in New York went public with the case, seeking herson's release a week before President Clinton's visit to China. "A disagreement between two companies should not get someone arrested without a trial," said Linsue Pan, mother of the 33-year-old chief engineer of Pantech Global Inc., a Chicago-based company. Pantech Global, which designs and produces 3-D imaging and graphics equipment, claims Pan is being held as a pawn in a business dispute with the Beijing-based businessman, Wang Zhi.

In 1996, Wang and Pan formed the joint venture company, Pantech Tianjin Real Vision International, and set up the new company in the tax-free zone of Tianjin, a two-hour drive east of Beijing. The two businessmen soon disagreed on how much money and equipment each was to contribute, as well as training and manufacturing methods, said an American source familiar with the deal. Wang sued in Tibet, claiming his $4 million investment was stolen, while Pantech complained that equipment shipped from the United States was never paid for, said the source, who has been trying to negotiate Pan's release and spoke on condition of anonymity. D.J. Anderson, acting president of Pantech, said Pan was abducted Aug. 30 at a Beijing trade show by two men who said they were police officers. His mother said he was taken to a prison in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, where he was being held in a small room with seven other men."He was the most brilliant student I've had in my 20 years of teaching. He had energy, enthusiasm, focus,

" said Glenn Myers, who taught Pan at the University of Iowa. Pan moved to the United States from China in 1983 and received a Ph.D. from the university in 1990 in electrical and computer engineering.

Mrs. Pan has written a letter to first lady Hillary Clinton detailing the case and asking for help. In her only telephone conversation in November with her son, Mrs. Pan said he had not eaten in seven days. Anderson claimed Chinese officials broke their own laws by not informing Pan's company and family until November of the reasons for his detention and by imprisoning him outside the area of the alleged crimes. Mrs. Pan said U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing told her they could not help because her son is not yet an American citizen. Pan holds a green card and his mother, who emigrated to the United States in 1979, is a citizen.The State Department in Washington did not respond to calls for comment Thursday. Tom Cooney, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said he was not aware of the case — and noted that the Chinese government was not required to notify the embassy if non-U.S. citizens are arrested. Ta Erda, a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Office of the local governmentin Tibet, said he h

ad never heard of this case and found it unbelievable that someone arrested in Beijing could be jailed in Tibet

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