Scholar may pose challenge to HK

Li Shaomin and his wife both teach in Hong Kong City University

HONG KONG, China -- American professor Li Shaomin, convicted in China of spying for Taiwan, says he'd like to return to Hong Kong and continue teaching.

The Hong Kong government and the university he teaches in have been carefully avoiding any hints of how they would handle Li if he tries to go back.

But critics said if officials bar Li from returning to the Chinese territory he now views as his home, they could be compromising Hong Kong's autonomy.

Li indicated Thursday he wants to return to the former British colony, which retains considerable autonomy despite being a part of China.

"I think I will be a professor, just to pick up where I left, doing my research and teaching," Li said in the United States, where he was flown this week after China deported him following the espionage conviction.

Hong Kong security bureau officials have said only that Li, as a foreign national, would be dealt with according to existing policy and procedures.

City University officials said they would take the Hong Kong government's lead on Li.

Entitled to come back

Pro-democracy lawmakers and human rights activists said Friday they saw no reason why the government should not let Li return.

"He's fully entitled to come back here," said Paul Harris, a lawyer and spokesman of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor.

"This is a different jurisdiction. He hasn't been convicted of any offense in Hong Kong. There's no reason why he should not be able to return to his job."

"If there were any move to prevent him remaining here, that would be a sign, really, of interference with Hong Kong's autonomy," Harris said.

Lawmaker Martin Lee, who as head of the Democratic Party is a prominent Hong Kong politician, said some pro-democracy activists were permitted to come back to Hong Kong after serving their prison terms in China.

University seeks advice

Lee sharply criticized the vice chancellor of the City University, Chang Hsin-kang, for appealing to the government for advice as to whether Li should keep his job.

"I think they're silly," Lee said. "If he can't even make decisions on behalf of the university along with the school council and so on, then he should not be there."

The University told CNN after Li's conviction that he is still a member of the school.

After his release from five months in custody, Li, 44, praised the U.S. government for mounting pressure on China to free him and other U.S.-linked scholars, but he has declined to give details of his arrest, imprisonment and trial.

He said he has endured great psychological pressure in jail.

Li obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University in 1988 and became an American citizen in 1995. He had been living in Hong Kong until the Chinese authorities arrested him in the neighboring city of Shenzhen on February 25.

The central government accused him of damaging Chinese national security and claimed it had a "large amount of confirmed evidence" that he spied for Taiwan.

Reuters contributed to this report.