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Washington, D.C., June 8, 2001 -- Yingli Liu, the wife of jailed Chinese scholar Li Shaomin, will be the featured guest this weekend on On the Line, a weekly foreign affairs program produced for VOA and WORLDNET Television.  Claudia Rosett, a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, also will join host Robert Reilly and Ms. Liu.

When asked what she would say to Chinese President Jiang Zemin about her husband's detention, Ms. Liu said:

"I would say to Mr. Jiang Zemin, as a human being himself -- and he is a human being and he has loved ones, he has family, he has his wife, his sons, his children, and so do we. We are human beings too.  I ask him to release my husband, send him home to unite with my family, just as he has a family, the same.  We need him."

Li Shaomin is a Chinese scholar and naturalized American citizen who teaches in the business department of the City University of Hong Kong.  He received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1988, where he specialized in demography.

Li Shaomin was detained on February 25 when he took what appeared to be a routine trip from Hong Kong to the special enterprise zone of Shenzhen just over the border.  Li has not been seen by his family since.  On May 15, he was charged with "spying" for Taiwan. 

On the Line is broadcast by VOA radio from Washington on Saturday at 2:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. and on Sunday at 6:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.   WORLDNET TV broadcasts the program on Sunday at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. and on Monday at 2:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.  On the Line is also available on the VOA Web site at http://www.ibb.gov/ontheline/. VOA's Chinese Branch also has used portions from this On the Line interview in its programming.

The Voice of America is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. Government. VOA broadcasts over 900 hours of news, informational, educational, and cultural programming every week to an audience of some 91 million worldwide. Programs are produced and broadcast in English and 52 other languages.

WORLDNET Television provides news and public affairs programs that reflect American life, and discussions on United States foreign and domestic policies on seven satellites, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, to a worldwide audience through broadcast outlets, cable systems, and direct-to-home satellite receivers.

For additional information, please contact the Office of External Affairs at (202) 619-2538 or send email to pubaff@voa.gov.