A US-based scholar who has been detained in China for over a month acted as a paid spy for overseas intelligence agencies, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed yesterday.
A spokesman told a news conference there was evidence that Mrs Gao Zhan accepted missions and took money for spying activities.
Last week President Bush raised the case in a White House meeting with China's Deputy Premier, Mr Qian Qichen.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman did not name any agency or country, or offer any further details to support the spying charges. He said the information came from "relevant authorities".
Mrs Gao, her husband, Mr Xue Donghua, and five-year-old son, Andrew, were detained in Beijing on February 11th on their way back to the US after a holiday in China.
Her son had no access to his parents for more than three weeks. Mr Donghua and Andrew were released on March 8th and went back to the US.
Previously, China has said that Mrs Gao, a fellow at the American University in Washington, had damaged state security and had "openly confessed her crimes".
The Foreign Ministry spokesman yesterday dismissed US protests over the treatment of Mrs Gao's son, a US citizen.
"The US protest is without foundation, and China refused to accept it," he said.
Mrs Gao's husband insists the boy was forcibly detained after he and his wife were blindfolded and taken away to separate locations. However, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Andrew Xue was put into a Beijing kindergarten with the consent of his parents.
He said they had proceeded from a humanitarian point of view and put him in the care of the kindergarten in Beijing.
"The kindergarten took good care of him, and Andrew lived just as any other child in that kindergarten."