LISNews: Librarian News

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Detained librarian admits stealing secrets, China says

By Jennifer Lin
and Cynthia J. McGroarty

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
The Chinese government says a Dickinson College librarian \"confessed\" to stealing state secrets. His wife in Carlisle, Pa., says it can\'t be true.

Either way, the future of Yongyi Song, an unassuming scholar who has become an international cause celebre, hangs in the balance as his detention in China continues into its sixth month.

Story HereA Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday alleged for the first time that Song admitted to taking large batches of secret documents out of the country.

Song, 50, who planned to become an American citizen in September, was on a summer trip to China to collect material on the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. He was detained with his wife, Helen Yao, who was allowed in November to return to Dickinson, a small liberal arts school in central Pennsylvania.