A graduate student in Beijing has accused her professor of leaking state secrets by giving her copies of exam papers after the two had sex, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
The 26-year-old Beijing Jiaotong University student, referred to by the alias A Fang, claimed she went to the dormitory room of the 51-year-old professor in December 2004 and agreed to sleep with him in exchange for questions and answers from a graduate school entrance exam, it said.
“The woman has accused the professor of leaking state secrets. Under Chinese law, some exam papers are considered state secrets,” Xinhua said, based on a report in the Beijing News.
The professor confirmed that A Fang had visited his room a few times, but denied they had slept together, the agency said.
Charges of leaking state secrets are deadly serious in China and can cover disclosure of a wide range of information, including political news, due to the government’s ambiguous definition of the term.
The maximum sentence for the crime of revealing state secrets is execution.
China last October formally arrested a New York Times researcher for leaking state secrets, believed to be news that former leader Jiang Zemin was retiring from politics.
Beijing police and university officials were investigating A Fang’s case, Xinhua said.
