Changsha Intermediate People's Court's Written Judgment in the Shi Tao State Secrets Trial

October 4, 2005

The following translation of the judgment in the Shi Tao state secrets trial was prepared by CECC staff based on versions provided by the Independent Chinese PEN Center and the Dui Hua Foundation (via Reporters Without Borders). The original Chinese version of the judgment, along with what is reported to be a copy of the communication to the Asia Democracy Foundation referred to therein, can be viewed by clicking "more" below.

Additional background on this case is available here.


Shi Tao Written Judgment

Hunan Province Changsha Municipality Intermediate People's Court
Criminal Written Judgment
(2005) Chang Intermediate Criminal First Preliminary Document Number 29

Public prosecutorial agency Hunan Province Changsha Municipality People's Procuratorate

Defendant Shi Tao, alias "198964," male, born July 25, 1968 in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Yanchi County, Han nationality, college graduate, unemployed, residing at Room 102, Building Number 3 West Unit, Junanli District, Taiyuan Municipality, Shanxi Province. On suspicion of the crime of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners he was detained on November 24, 2004, and placed in criminal detention the following day. He was formally arrested on December 14 of the same year. He is currently being held in the Changsha municipal detention center.

Defense attorney of record is Tong Wenzhong, a lawyer at the Tian-yee Law Group in Shanghai.

The Changsha Municipal People's Procuratorate charged the defendant Shi Tao with the crime of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners in the Changsha Procuratorate Criminal Indictment Document Number 13[2005], and filed the indictment with this court on January 31, 2005. This court constituted a bench trial in accordance with the law, and tried this case in closed court. The Changsha Municipal People's Procuratorate appointed acting prosecutor Su Shuangzhi to appear in court to support the indictment. Defendant Shi Tao and his defense attorney Tong Wenzhong and others appeared in court to participate in the litigation. The hearing has now concluded.

The Changsha Municipal Procuratorate charged that from February 11, 2004 through April 22 of that same year, the defendant Shi Tao was employed at the Hunan Province Contemporary Business News Publishing House as director of the editorial department. On April 20 of that year at five in the afternoon, following routine article review and pre-editorial meeting, deputy editors-in-chief surnamed Wang and Yang of the Hunan Province Contemporary Business News Publishing House again assembled the responsible persons in the headline news department, hotline mobile department, editorial department, etc., to participate in a specialized meeting. In this specialized meeting Wang verbally passed on a summary of the important contents of the top-secret state secret, "Notice Regarding Current Stability Work" (Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004]) of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee General Office and the State Council General Office, and stressed that this document was top-secret, and it was not permitted to take notes or disseminate it. The defendant Shi Tao, however, secretly took notes on this summary of the important contents. Between 7:00 in the afternoon of the same day and 2:00 that morning, the defendant Shi Tao in his office used his personal electronic mailbox huoyan-1989@yahoo.com.cn to transmit the notes he had secretly taken of the summary of the main contents of the aforementioned Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] to the electronic mailbox caryhung@aol.com of Hong Zhesheng, one of the planners of the "Asia Democracy Foundation" located in New York, USA, and editor-in-chief of the foreign Web site "Democracy Forum" and the electronic periodical "Democracy Newsletter," and provided "198964," as the provider's alias. At the same time, he asked Hong Zhesheng to think of a way to disseminate it as quickly as possible, but not to use Shi Tao's name. On that day the summary of the important contents of the aforementioned Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] provided by the signatory "198964" was published on "Democracy Forum," and following this was also reprinted by foreign Web sites such as "Boxun" and the "Chinese Democracy and Justice Party."

With respect to the facts of the aforementioned charges, the public prosecutorial agency has provided evidence and proof including witness testimony, a secrecy classification expert appraisal document, relevant physical evidence and written evidence, material regarding the process of the detention, photographs of the scene and of physical evidence, materials proving the identity of the defendant, the defendant's deposition and other evidence, and the Procuratorate believed that the defendant Shi Tao's behavior had violated the stipulations of Article 110 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China," and constitutes the crime of illegal providing state secrets, and filed an indictment with this court requesting judgment in accordance with the law.

Neither the defendant Shi Tao nor his defense attorney object to the criminal facts of the charges in the indictment or the characterization of this case. The defendant Shi Tao argued in his defense that "His criminal behavior of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners does not constitute an especially severe offense." His defense attorney argued in his defense that: "In light of the fact that the defendant Shi Tao's behavior did not result in any particularly severe harmful consequences with respect to the nation's security and interests, and the defendant has shown a good attitude in admitting guilt, he requests that a light punishment be imposed."

Through the trial it was determined that: In April 2001 the defendant Shi Tao made the acquaintance of Hong Zhesheng (a person from Taiwan province, China, residing in New York, USA, and one of the planners of the "Asia Democracy Foundation") who is the editor-in-chief of the foreign Web site "Democracy Forum" and the electronic periodical "Democracy Newsletter." On April 20, 2004 at approximately 5:00 in the afternoon, following a routine article review and pre-editorial meeting, deputy editors-in-chief surnamed Wang and Yang of the Hunan Province Contemporary Business News Publishing House again assembled the responsible persons in the headline news department, hotline mobile department, editorial department, etc., to participate in a meeting. Shi Tao, who was the director of the newspaper publishers' news center and editorial center, attended the meeting. In this meeting, Wang verbally passed on a summary of the important contents of the top-secret state secret of the "Notice Regarding Current Stability Work" (Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004]) of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee General Office and the State Council General Office, and stressed that this document was top-secret, and it was not permitted to take notes and it should not be disseminated. The defendant Shi Tao took notes on this summary of the important contents. Wang noticed Shi Tao taking notes and reminded Shi Tao that he was not to take notes, but Shi Tao continued to take detailed notes in a notebook. That evening at approximately 11:32 the defendant Shi Tao divulged secret information to foreign hostile elements, and used the opportunity of being on duty alone in the office to dial into the Internet, and used his personal electronic mailbox huoyan-1989@yahoo.com.cn to transmit his notes of the summary of the important contents of the aforementioned Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] to the electronic mailbox caryhung@aol.com of foreign hostile element Hong Zhesheng, and provided "198964," as the provider's alias. At the same time, he asked Hong Zhesheng to think of a way to disseminate it as quickly as possible, but not to use Shi Tao's name. On that day the summary of the important contents of the aforementioned Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] provided by the signatory "198964" was published on "Democracy Forum," and following this was also reprinted by foreign Web sites such as "Boxun" and the "Chinese Democracy and Justice Party."

Evidence supporting the aforementioned facts includes:

1. The secrecy classification expert appraisal document from the National Administration for Protection of State Secrets, verifying that the contents of the state secret materials that the defendant Shi Tao illegally provided to foreigners is fundamentally identical to the contents of the sub-headings in the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] (Classified Top Secret), and disclosed the basic contents of the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004], and should be deemed a top secret state secret;

2. Written evidence:
(1) An email which the defendant Shi Tao transmitted over the Internet on April 20, 2004 at 11:00 p.m. using his personal electronic mailbox huoyan-1989@yahoo.com.cn containing a summary of the contents of the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] to the electronic mailbox caryhung@aol.com of foreign hostile element Hong Zhesheng. The general meaning of its content was that Shi Tao wanted Hong Zhesheng to think of a way to disseminate the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] as quickly as possible, but not to use Shi Tao's name as the provider, but to use the alias "198964," and append the documents' contents.

(2) Information on the summary of the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] provided by a person with an alias "198964" published on foreign Web sites and electronic publications such as "Democracy Forum," "Boxun," and the "Chinese Democracy and Justice Party," which was downloaded from the Internet, and which has been identified by the defendant Shi Tao, and confirmed to be identical to the contents of the state secret he provided;

(3) Identification information of the hostile foreign element Hong Zhesheng downloaded from the Internet, proving that Hong Zhesheng is a person from Taiwan province, China, residing in New York, USA, is one of the establishers of the "Asia Democracy Foundation," and the editor-in-chief of the foreign Web site "Democracy Forum" and the electronic periodical "Democracy Newsletter";

3. A written record of evidence collection and a notebook as material evidence, verifying the fact that on December 6, 2004, Wang Yuan, the wife of defendant Shi Tao, provided to state security authorities Shi Tao's notebook with the summary of the contents of the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004] that she found at home, and that the defendant Shi Tao had written down in his notebook "April 20 held a meeting passing on a Central Propaganda Department document (top secret document) (Party General Office Document Number 11) Party General Office Notice Regarding the current work on stability," and appending the summary of the contents of the document. The notebook was identified by the defendant Shi Tao, and confirmed as being the notes he took;

4. Evidentiary materials Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited provided regarding user information, confirming that for IP address: 218.76.8.201, time: April 20, 2004 11:32.17 p.m. the corresponding user information is the following: user telephone number: 0731-4376362, Hunan "Contemporary Business News" Publishing House. Address: Second Floor, Building 88, Jian Xiang New Village, Kaifu District, Changsha Municipality;

5. Photographs at the scene and related physical evidence, and photographs of written evidence;

6. Physical evidence:
(1) An envelope and a check for authorship payment mailed from foreign hostile element Hong Zhesheng to defendant Shi Tao;
(2) Another notebook belonging to defendant Shi Tao, upon which is recorded the electronic mailbox number of foreign hostile element Hong Zhesheng;
(3) The notebooks of witnesses Wang and Peng Zhiguo, upon which was recorded a summary of the contents of Party General Office Document Number 11;

7. The testimony of witnesses Wang, Yang, and Peng Zhiguo, verifying that at approximately 5:00 in the afternoon on April 20, 2004, during the meeting Wang convened specifically for the responsible people in newspaper publisher's departments, Wang verbally passed on a summary of the main contents of the Party General Office Issue Document Number 11 [2004], and stressed that the document was considered a top secret document, and it was not to be disseminated. The defendant Shi Tao attended the meeting and took notes, Wang noticed that Shi Tao was taking notes, and specifically reminded Shi Tao of the fact that notes were not to be taken, and the fact that the defendant Shi Tao worked the night shift that night.

8. The testimony of witnesses Yi Sufen, He Ping, Hu Youde, and Hong Yu, verifying the fact that, if when the responsible people at the newspaper publisher passed on the document of the important spirit of the Propaganda Department of the provincial Party Central Committee, they stressed that it was not to be distributed and that it was a top secret document, that as news worker they would deem such a document to be a state secret.

9. Materials regarding the process of the detention;

10. Materials proving the identity of the defendant Shi Tao;

11. A registration form for personnel applications for the Contemporary Business News Publishing House, verifying the fact that the defendant Shi Tao was employed at the Hunan Province Contemporary Business News Publishing House from February 11, 2004 through April 22, 2004;

12. The hand written personal prosecution materials and deposition of defendant Shi Tao, indicating that he fully confesses to the fact that he intentionally committed the crime of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners.

The foregoing evidence being mutually verified by one another and is sufficient to determine the facts of this case.

This court finds that the defendant Shi Tao did intentionally illegally provide something he knew to be a top secret state secret to an organization outside the country in order to disclose secret information to foreign hostile elements, thereby endangering national security, and this constitutes an especially severe case, and his behavior constitutes the crime of illegally providing state secrets to a foreigner. Therefore, the behavior that the public prosecutorial agency accused the defendant Shi Tao of committing constitutes the crime of illegally providing state secrets to a foreigner. The defendant Shi Tao's defense is that "his criminal behavior of illegally providing state secrets does not constitute an especially severe offense." Having investigated the matter, Article 2 paragraph 1 of the Supreme People's Court's "Explanation of Certain Issues Relating to the Specific Law to be Used in Adjudicating Cases Stealing, Gathering, Purchasing, or Illegally Providing State Secrets" stipulates that stealing, gathering, purchasing, or illegally providing state secrets constitutes "especially severe circumstances," and the state secret that defendant Shi Tao's illegally supplied abroad has already been verified as a top secret state secret by the National Administration for Protection of State Secrets, and his behavior shall therefore be deemed especially severe circumstances. In light of this, this court does not accept his defense. His attorney offered the defense that "In light of the fact that the defendant Shi Tao's behavior did not result in any particularly severe harmful consequences with respect to the nation's security and interests, and that the defendant has shown a good attitude in admitting guilt, he requests that a lenient punishment be imposed." Having investigated the matter, this conforms with the facts, and therefore the court accepts the defense attorney's opinion. Therefore, in accordance with the stipulations of Articles 111, 55(1), and 56(1) of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China," we hereby decide as follows:

The defendant Shi Tao committed the crime of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners, and he is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and two years deprivation of political rights.

(The sentence shall be calculated from the date of this judgment is executed. For the detention prior to this verdict's execution, one day of the detention to be set off against one day of the sentence, that is to say from November 24, 2004 through November 23, 2014)

If the defendant does not accept this verdict, he may within 10 days after the second day after receiving this written verdict bring an appeal through this court or directly to the Hunan province Higher People's Court. Any written appeal should include one original and two copies of the appeal.

Presiding Judge Ouyang Hua
Judge Liu Zhigan
Acting Judge Xie Zhaoping

April 27, 2005
Hunan Province Changsha Municipality Intermediate People's Court (seal)

Secrtary Huang Shizhi