The Higher People's Court of Hubei province, China, on December 23 upheld the conviction and life sentence of Peng Ming, a U.S.-based Chinese pro-democracy activist, on charges of leading a terrorist group and kidnapping.
Peng was convicted in October of setting up a terrorist training base in Myanmar, on China's southwestern border, and directing others to murder and kidnap people. He also was fined $4,000.
Peng spent 18 months in a Chinese labor camp after he was arrested in 1999 in a crackdown on dissent. Released in August 2000, he moved to the United States as a political refugee in 2001. Peng, whose home is in San Francisco, was arrested in Myanmar (Burma) in May 2004 and the Burmese authorities turned him over to China, where he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in October for organizing terrorist groups, kidnapping and possessing fake Chinese currencies. n charges of possessing fake Chinese money.
Peng leads the China Federation Foundation, founded in San Francisco in 2003. He told The Associated Press at that time that its goal was to replace communist rule with democracy -- by violence if necessary.
Two members of Peng's group were sentenced to prison in 2003 by a Chinese court on subversion and kidnapping charges: Benjamin Lan, a Taiwanese-born American, and Sun Gang, a Chinese-born New Zealander. (Source: Joe McDonald, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 23, 2005).