Permanent U.S. resident reportedly has cancer

PALO ALTO, California (CNN) -- A Stanford University scholar suffering from a rare form of cancer has been imprisoned in China for the past 10 months, university officials confirmed Thursday.

Hua Di, a Chinese missile expert with permanent U.S. residency status, was arrested in Beijing on January 6, just one week after arriving on his first trip back to China since fleeing from the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Stanford officials said Hua was charged with leaking state secrets -- a potentially serious espionage charge apparently based on his published work about China's ballistic missile program.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman James Foley said the United States is "seeking further information" about Hua's arrest. He said officials at the U.S. embassy have discussed the matter with Chinese officials.

University unable to free scholar

After months of fruitless, behind-the-scenes work lobbying quietly for Hua's release, the university decided to take its case public this week after news of the arrest began leaking out in Chinese-language media.

Stanford Provost Condoleezza Rice issued a statement expressing confidence that Hua would be cleared of any spying charges.

"Source materials (cited in Hua's works) ... all were either provided by approved Chinese authorities or already available through the Stanford University library," Rice said. "Stanford values Hua Di as a colleague and a scholar, and we hope for his immediate release."

The San Jose Mercury News reported that Hua, 62, suffers from a rare form of male breast cancer and was to have started chemotherapy upon returning from what he planned to be a short trip home for a family memorial service. His health has deteriorated during his months in prison, the newspaper quoted a source close to his family as saying.

Hua, who won a state prize in 1978 for his redesign of the rocket guidance system that launched China's first satellite, had been a research chief at an economic development institute in China before leaving for the United States in 1989.

China issued an arrest warrant for him that year after he signed a document, along with three other research officials, denouncing the political crackdown that preceded the bloodshed around Tiananmen Square.

Later, China reportedly charged him in absentia in connection with an article he wrote about Chinese missile technology that appeared in a Harvard University journal.

A permanent U.S. resident, Hua had been scheduled to receive his U.S. citizenship in July, the Mercury News said. But he took the chance of returning to China before getting the passport in order to attend the memorial service.

The newspaper said that despite his political problems, Hua had managed to keep relatively close ties with certain elements in the Chinese military and that he had taken the precaution of meeting with Chinese security officials in Hong Kong prior to his trip for assurances of safe passage.

But he was arrested within days of his December 31, 1997, arrival and formally charged in February, the newspaper said.

Reuters contributed to this report.