The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Sandy Phan-Gillis was “suspected of engaging in activities that have harmed China’s national security”, without giving any more details about the allegations, NBC News reported.
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The delegation – which included Houston’s Mayor Pro-Tem Ed Gonzalez and his chief of staff – was traveling from Zhuhai to Macau on March 19 when Phan-Gillis was detained at a checkpoint.
Sandy Phan-Gillis, from Texas, has been detained for about six months, according to a statement from her family that was released online this week. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, on the other hand, says that Phan-Gillis is in good health and cooperating with Chinese officials, and has been allowed to speak several times with U.S. consular officers.
Phan-Gillis is a Vietnamese-American of Chinese descent.
“I get a call back from someone at the consulate saying ‘we know where your wife is”. There are speculations that her transfer to a detention center could mean that the Chinese government is finally ready to level charges against her.
Ms. Phan-Gillis’ spouse, Jeff Gillis, said he got the news on Sunday, two days before Mr. Xi was to land in Seattle.
According to the SaveSandy website bio, Phan-Gillis braved an arduous journey as a teenager to emigrate from Vietnam, where she was born to Chinese parents, to Malaysia, and eventually the United States, where she launched a career and sponsored her family’s immigration. The US State Department said in a statement today that it is “closely monitoring the case”. The Journal noted in a previous story that she “ran her own business consultancy and had interests in project management and financing”.
He added that “it was unusual , but she’s been there [China] hundreds of times”, so he thought little of it. Information can also be labelled a state secret retroactively.
‘Sandy is not a spy or a thief, ‘ her husband Jeff Gillis said, according to the statement.
Since then, consular officials have been able to visit Mrs Phan-Gillis periodically, to check up on her health, which her husband says is poor, and to pass on messages.
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A Houston man is desperate to help his wife who’s being held in a Chinese jail. The authorities released the wife on bail in February, but the husband was formally detained on criminal charges.
