US geologist Xue Feng was sentenced to eight years in jail on Monday on charges related to the sale of a database relating to China's oil industry.

US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, who attended the sentencing, had expressed dismay over the court's decision and vowed to continue to follow up the case with Chinese authorities, US diplomats said.

"This case was handled by China's judiciary, which judged it strictly in accordance with the law," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told journalists.

"This is an internal affair of China, China's judicial sovereignty brooks no foreign interference."

Xue, a naturalised US citizen, was detained in November 2007 on charges of attempting to acquire and sell the oil industry database, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a rights group.

At the time of his arrest, the 44-year-old Xue was working for the US energy and engineering consulting firm IHS, the group said in a statement.

Both Xue and IHS have stated that they believed that the database was a commercially available product. After Xue purchased the database, it was subsequently classified as a state secret, the statement said.

Dui Hua's Joshua Rosenzweig told AFP that one of the group's many concerns was its suspicion that "some of Xue Feng's statements to the police might have been obtained under coercion including torture".

Xue's arrest and drawn-out trial has cast a spotlight on the pitfalls of doing business in China, especially for those born in China who have been educated abroad and taken on a foreign nationality.

"Do you think we should release him without any charges and then people will say the judicial system is fair and transparent?" spokesman Qin asked journalists.

"The rights of the defendant were fully guaranteed."

earlier related report
China's biggest bank coming to Canada
Ottawa (AFP) July 6, 2010 - The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest bank by market capitalization, announced on Tuesday it was opening branches in Canada.

The bank, which bought a 70-percent stake in the Canadian subsidiary of The Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong in January, said four branches in Toronto and two in Vancouver would be converted into ICBC branches, giving it 10,000 individual and corporate clients in Canada.

In a statement, ICBC also said it was counting on the growing economic ties between Canada and China, as well as the strong Chinese diaspora in this country, to bolster its Canadian position.

In three to five years, ICBC also expects to open branches in Canada's other major cities, notably Calgary, Alberta, the nation's oil sector capital, Mingquiang Bi, president of the Canadian subsidiary, told the daily Globe and Mail.

China is currently Canada's second largest trading partner after the United States, with bilateral trade topping 34.5 billion dollars in 2008, according to ICBC.

More than 1.4 million Canadians trace their ancestry to China and some 60,000 Chinese citizens are currently studying in Canada.

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