OT, American Computer Entrepreneur Beaten Brain Dead by our new friends in communist China

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Hesitated to post this Saturday article, but because I didn't see it picked up by the *mainscream press, and some of you computer geeks travel, I thought it would be important to pass the info on to you:

http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/leung29a.htm

Published Saturday, January 29, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News

S.J. man brutally beaten in China

High-tech entrepreneur found brain-dead in Beijing hospital

BY JANE LII Mercury News Staff Writer

A Silicon Valley entrepreneur attending a Chinese government-sponsored high-tech conference in Beijing has been found battered and brain-dead under mysterious circumstances.

Family members said Steven Leung, the chairman of Mountain View-based Scenix and the president of Santa Clara-based Emvix Communications Inc., was found unconscious with a head wound in a karaoke bar in downtown Beijing and later turned up in a hospital there on the night of Jan. 18, several hours after the conference.

Now Leung, a resident of San Jose and the father of three, clings to life through a respirator in a Hong Kong hospital. His family said it has received little information from Chinese law enforcement authorities.

``This is so horrible and we want answers to what happened,'' Leung's wife, Melody Leung, said during a telephone interview from Hong Kong, where his family has chartered a plane to bring him home Monday.

Although the Leung family said Beijing police had been notified, law enforcement authorities there would not comment on whether such a case had been brought to their attention. And citing federal privacy laws, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing also refused to discuss the case.

According to Melody Leung, who arrived in Beijing after her husband was injured, Leung had arrived in the city Jan. 13 to attend a technology conference organized by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industries on high-tech business opportunities in China, she said. The conference took place on Jan. 18. He had been excited by the business opportunities in China in the wake of China's potential entry into the World Trade Organization and was supposed to go on to Shanghai and Hong Kong, she said.

She added that Steven Leung was supposed to meet two business partners to discuss possible new ventures in China at 9:30 p.m. the evening of the conference at his hotel, the Crowne Plaza-Holiday Inn, near Tiananmen Square.

But the meeting apparently never took place. Melody Leung said the associates later told her that one had showed up late and the other overslept. But when the two men later connected around midnight and discovered that neither had heard from Leung, whom they said was usually punctual, they became concerned and notified the hotel concierge, she said.

The concierge called the police and local hospitals and tracked Steven Leung down at the intensive care unit at Xie He Hospital, Melody Leung said. Doctors there told the men Steven Leung had suffered severe head trauma, she said.

No one knows exactly how much time had lapsed between the time of the injury and when he was brought to the hospital, or who eventually called the ambulance. But doctors there said blood had hemorrhaged in his brain, causing irreversible brain damage, Melody Leung said. Despite an emergency operation, Leung was declared brain-dead, she said.

Hospital officials could not be reached for comment.

His wallet, with about $2,000 in U.S. currency, credit cards and driver's license, was intact, Melody Leung said.

Now, 11 days after the incident, the family is struggling to make sense of what happened.

While Melody Leung said Beijing police told a U.S. Embassy official that Leung was found slumped over the table of the An Ka bar and dance hall in downtown Beijing, family members and associates insist it is out of character for him to be seen in such settings.

``Steven doesn't drink and he isn't known to go to karaoke bars,'' Melody Leung said.

Leung, who immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong in the 1960s, has founded four companies. In 1988, he started Resumix, which scans risumis and matches applicants with job openings, said his brother, John Leung. The company was later sold to Ceridian, a Minneapolis-based information services company that serves the human resources, transportation and media markets. He served as Resumix's president and chief executive until 1992. In 1993, he founded another company, DocuMagix, which developed and marketed personal paper management software for PC users.

He founded Scenix, which makes chips to allow for Internet connectivity in everyday appliances, in 1996.

(Hokie--sorry if this is a repost; I don't recall having seen it here, but could be mistaken.)



-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 31, 2000

Answers

Makes you wonder if they made him an offer he couldn't refuse
Guess he wouldn't "join the gang" from the sound of it...

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasan101st@Aol.com), January 31, 2000.

Attempting to be objective, sounds like a "bar brawl" to me. What a shame.

-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), January 31, 2000.

Maybe he:

A) Had a terribly screeching nerve-grating voice, kinda like nails on a chalkboard. or...

B) Was singing "Achy Breaky Heart" or anything from Billy Ray Cyrus.

Sick, I know. I am so sorry, but I just couldnt resist! =)

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), January 31, 2000.


C) Had a hair "do" much like billy ray cyrus'

D) Forgot to tip the karaoke host

(I'm so ashamed! =P)

-- cin (cinlooo@aol.com), January 31, 2000.


Isn't that just an awful shame - when he could have just stayed in the violent crime-free U. S. of A.!!

As sad as it is, this kind of stuff happens everywhere, and probably has very little to do with nationality, as your title would infer.

-- Die Fledermaus (shadow@alliance.org), January 31, 2000.



If we had an American for a President, we could demand a thorough investigation of the incident, along with proper recompense for Steven's family; if that were not forthcoming, it could make a good pretext for denying the slimy bastards entrance into the WTO. Of course, in this day and age, mere hostile espionage against us isn't enough to resist the Chinese. But wait...maybe we could just offer the sitting king more money than the enemy. After all, we already know what he is...only the price is in dispute!

-- Ben Corson (bcorson@dmi.net), January 31, 2000.

The article was also picked up in theComputerworld Magazine.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), January 31, 2000.

Saw an article on this in the N Y Times earlier this week.

China has its share of just plain street thugs who'll do anything for money. "Did he jump or was he pushed?" is always a question, of course.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 01, 2000.


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