Court sends Chinese woman accused of conspiring against US to jail

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Chinese woman was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in federal prison for seeking to buy military equipment used to gauge the power of nuclear explosions for export to China. Qing Li, nine weeks pregnant, pleaded with a judge to spare her prison time. She said she deeply regretted her crime of conspiring against the United States. "If I go to jail, I really don't know how to handle any complicated situation," she said, reading from a lengthy text. She said she had been too "naive and trusting." US District Judge Jeffrey Miller said he sought to provide a deterrent to others, though he was convinced that Li, a first-time offender who earned a master's in business administration while living in Connecticut, would stay out of trouble. His sentence was less than the 33 months sought by prosecutors.